Flip This Wholesaler

Hi Strangers!

Remember me?

I thought today would be a good day to come out of hibernation, being that it is my THREE year Bloggiversary and all..

Three years- can you believe it?

Seems like just yesterday that I sat down to write my first post on my original blog over at Flippinghomes.com.  Actually, I take that back. It seems more like 3 lifetimes ago, but you know what I mean.

So, I spent the ENTIRE day baking a delicious Bloggiversary cybercake for all of us to enjoy.  It’s dark chocolate with black raspberry filling and a cream cheese frosting……

Mmmmmmm…. looks delish, doesn’t it?

Go ahead and help yourselves- there’s plenty to go around…

So, anywho, in case you were wondering what the hell I’ve been up to (clearly not blogging), the truth is…. I’ve been in somewhat of a funk lately.

Also, I’ve been suffering from writer’s block, as well as a mild to moderate case of REI burn-out.

And also, my lower back has been kicking like Chuck Norris for about two weeks now, and last but not least, I think I’m coming down with the flu or something. (Mom, if you’re reading this, I just made all of that up for dramatic effect, so stop worrying).

So yeah, I’ve not been very productive in the real estate/blogging departments lately.

I expect this funk to last approximately 0-2 more days, and then I will be back in the swing of things, dammit.

I considered keeping the details of this little rut to myself, but I figured if you guys are on the internets and in the real estate arena, you already have enough people blowing smoke up your ass on a daily basis, so I thought I’d do something a little different and tell it like it is.

Zing.

On a lighter note, I start my orientation to become a volunteer at the Humane Society this Saturday, which I am really looking forward to.  I’m going to be an animal companion, which basically consists of taking the dogs outside to give them exercise. I’m also going to see if Jim will qualify for the Pet-a-Pet program.   Perhaps I’m biased, but I think he would make the perfect therapy dog….

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now, guys.

If you don’t see another post from me by the weekend…..send help.  Just kidding.

Later Alligators!

P.S.
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me these last 3 years- you guys are the best, and I truly appreciate all of your support. For real.

P.P.S.
Don’t forget to wipe the cake crumbs off your chin.

P.P.P.S.
There are still a few copies of my Flip This REO! eBook left in cyberspace. Click here to grab yours now!

5/4/09

Hope everyone had a great weekend…

I spent mine plotting my revenge on a scumbag investor/wholesaler who just screwed me on a deal. It’s kind of a long story, but I’ll give you the condensed version….

About a month ago, this douche bag investor (I’ll just refer to him as DB from this point forward), called me up and told me about a deal he was about to get under contract. He knows that I do a lot of business in this neighborhood and wanted to see if I might have a buyer. If so, we would partner on the deal- split the deposit, and then split the profits. So, I go out to look at the house, and it’s a no-brainer at the price he said he was going to be getting it at (34k). I could sell this deal with my eyes closed. Which I did. Had the deal sold within a few hours for a 10k profit.

So, DB calls me up the next day and tells me to hold off on getting the contract signed with the buyer because he doesn’t know what the closing date is going to be yet. He tells me that it’s probably going to be a couple of weeks before we get the addenda back from the bank because they just got bought out by another bank and things are moving really slow. This has actually happened to me a few times before, so I didn’t think anything of it. I also checked the address in the mls just to make sure it was pending, and it was.

Since then, I’ve probably talked to DB 30 or 40 times, I’ve gone out to lunch with him, signed up 2 more deals (that he’s buying from me), and he keeps telling me that we should be getting the addenda back any day now. As a matter of fact, he called me on Wednesday of last week to tell me not to worry about this deal, and that he would be getting the addenda soon.

So, Friday night I went out to happy hour with another wholesaler friend and I almost fell off my chair when these words popped out of his mouth, “Hey, congratulations on finally getting Pine closed- I saw in the mls that it sold this week……..”

Even though this guy is a world class scumbag, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt, and instead of calling him up yelling and screaming right then and there, I decided to wait until the next day to get to the bottom of the situation.

I checked the mls the next morning, and sure enough, the house had sold on the 29th of April for 29k!

So, I sent DB a text (he didn’t answer his phone) that said, “hey, is everything still OK with Pine- it says it was sold in the mls..”

Crickets.

No response. That was Saturday, and he still hasn’t responded.

I ended up driving out to the house Saturday afternoon, and sure enough, there was a For Rent sign in the front yard, which I called, and found out that DB sold it to someone else.

Nice, huh?

He’s a worthless piece of trash, and as much as I want to call him up and tell him what a scumbag loser he is, I have to bite my tongue because I have 2 other deals going with him, and I’m afraid he will just bail on them if I go off on him like I want to. Bastard.

There’s also a lot more to the story that I can’t get into right now, but trust me when I tell you the shit is about to hit the fan here in Tampa.

So, ANYWAY, that’s how my weekend went. Good times..

On a lighter note….. I accomplished one of my goals that I set last week on Accountability Monday- I got the FAQ section written for the new website. The other goal I set was to get another deal locked up, which I did not do, but I’m pretty close on one and should find out today if it’s a go.

My goal for this week is to hire someone to beat the ever-loving shit out of DB.

Any takers?

Just kidding. Kind of.

This week my goal(s) are:

(1) Run 3.5 miles Monday-Friday.

(2) Make 25 offers

(3) Get another deal signed up

How did you guys/gals do?

Let’s hear your goals for the week…..

4/7/2009

I don’t want to jinx myself or anything, but holy shit are things looking up.

I’m not gonna lie- I’ve been getting a little discouraged lately with the amount of offers I’ve made (over 100), and the amount of deals I’ve contracted (0).

Towards the end of last year, I was getting roughly 1 in 20 offers accepted, so you can imagine my frustration in making more than 100 offers to no avail. I haven’t even been getting any counters lately, because there are almost always multiple offers on each property (even the shit holes), and it almost always goes to highest and best, and I always lose when it goes to highest and best.

Luckily for me, I’ve experienced several dry spells in my short wholesaling career, and I have come to learn that just beyond every dry spell lies a big fat river of opportunity…. I now know that if I can push myself through the frustration, and the lack of anything good happening, and if I keep working my ass off, eventually I will be rewarded for my efforts. That may sound like a cheesy cliche, but I’m telling you, it’s true. It happens every single time, and this time is no exception.

Like I said, I don’t want to jinx myself, but it looks like I’m about to get two deals locked up tomorrow- one of them is a JV deal with another wholesaler friend of mine (Murphy), and the other is a deal that I am getting before it hits the mls, and let me tell you it is a SWEET freaking deal – a 3/1, 1500 sf bungalow that needs very little work, in a good part of town, and I am getting it for 32k! If I can get this one sold tomorrow (which I’m pretty sure I can), there will be lots and lots more where this one came from.

I kind of just hit the REO mother load. For real.

So, yeah, it was a good day today.

3/30/09

Man, it’s tough going out there right now.

Every single offer I put in either goes to highest and best, or, there is already an accepted offer on the property.

I’m now giving both sides of the commission to the listing agent, so we’ll see what sort of effect that has, if any.

Right now I’ve got 5 of my buyers calling me every other day asking if I have any deals. It’s pretty frustrating having buyers lined up and not having any deals to sell to them.

I talked to Steve last week about this shift in my market, and he told me to just keep making offers. So that’s what I’m doing. Making lots and lots o’ offers.

On a lighter note, one of the deals I was working with Lee closed on Friday. So, that’s good news. Except now I have nothing under contract, and it’s been awhile since I’ve not had any deals in the pipeline. Me no likey not having deals in the hopper.

OK, gotta run- my pizza is burning…

2/18/2009

* My Mom called me today, frantic, because of the housing bill that is probably going to throw a monkey wrench the size of the Sears Tower into my current wholesaling strategy.

* I pretended like I wasn’t concerned.

* I am concerned. A lot.

* I am not going to worry about this anymore until I get back from Costa Rica, because there is no point in doing so.

* I am working on a non-REO deal with another wholesaler (Murphy) that may net me 20k-ish.

* I have no less than one million things to get done before I leave Sunday.

* Watson Title called today to ask why the deal that was supposed to close on Friday, is not closed. I find this hilarious. I still don’t know if it’s closed, and I really don’t care.

* I want to hunt down the person who sings that “Poker Face” song and punch her in the face.

* I probably have had a little too much to drink tonight.