Flip This Wholesaler

Wow, what a day it’s been!

The lady I talked to last night about buying her house told me several times that she needed a really fast close (like next week).

I was supposed to go see it @ 1pm today.

The phone rang at 8:30 this morning, and I almost didn’t answer it because I was sick and was still sleeping.

I answered anyway, and it was the seller telling me she wouldn’t sign any contract unless I could close by Tuesday of next week.

She said she would be willing to lower her price if I could close by then.

I offered 80k, and she said no, then offered 90k. She said she could do 100k.

So I told her I would make a few calls and get right back to her.

I called one of the investors who has been helping me out  and gave him the details.

He told me to go for it, but to try to get it cheaper.

He said he would put the word out to his cash buyers right away.

So I called the seller back and told her I could close Weds. maybe Tuesday.

She said she would take 90k if I could close Tuesday. I told her I could manage that (I figured if I couldn’t find a buyer by the end of the day, I would buy this with my Dad who has cash).

Right after I hung up with her, I get a call from an investor who I have become good friends with (she is just starting out with wholesaling as well), asking me if I have been talking to a lady selling a house in Tarpon Springs (that’s where the property is).

Turns out my friend had spoken with the lady last night, and already has a cash buyer. She was on the other line with the lady when I called her back this morning.

We ended up deciding to work the deal together (we have another property that we’re doing the same thing with). We figured between the two of us, we could find a cash buyer and split the assignment.

So, we both drive out separately to look at the property, and I end up getting the contract for 90k.

While I’m at the house, I get a call from Lee saying he has a cash buyer who can close tomorrow for 100k.

Meanwhile, the other buyer my friend had lined up is on his way out to look at the property (he lived an hour away), so we decided to wait for him to see the property and see if he would offer higher.

He calls us back and says he will pay $112k.

At this point we are both ecstatic. We tell him to meet us at Starbucks to sign the assignment, show us proof of funds, and give us a deposit.

Now he tells us he is going to be using hard money and doesn’t want to give us a large deposit (we asked for 6 grand).

After a few more phone calls, we decide that it would be best to go with the investor who I spoke to earlier. I ended up meeting his partner an hour later and getting the assignment for 10k. He brought me a bank statement from today showing he had the funds, and is putting a 1k deposit at the title company. We are set to close on Tuesday.

I am still a little bit in shock that I actually found a deal, got in under contract, and found a buyer all within 24 hours. It is kind of surreal. If this deal closes on Tues., and the Nightmare Deal closes on Weds, I will have made 15k within 8 days!!!

I also wanted to add that the lady who I bought the house from today went down a list of investors from various sources (newspaper, flyer, signs, etc), and called all of them. I was one of only two (my friend who I am splitting the assignment with is the 2nd), who actually called back promptly and went over to make an offer.

This was a REALLY GOOD deal, and I know that if I didn’t answer the phone this morning, I would have lost out on it. Whoever coined the phrase “you can’t steal in slow motion” was right on the money (no pun intended).

Another point I wanted to make was that if you find a good deal, you will have absolutely NO PROBLEM finding a buyer!! I know I had heard this a million times before, and never really believed it, but it is true. Once the word got out today about this deal, everyone and their Grandmother wanted in on it. I’m not kidding. We found a cash buyer and had a 10k assignment within 6 hours of getting this under contract.

Even if these deals were to go south, I still will be grateful for the experience and confidence I have gained in working them through. Every deal I do, I learn something else and gain a little more confidence in myself.

My last two days of work are this coming Saturday and Sunday. It really hasn’t sunk in yet. I have been either waiting tables or bartending since I moved to Florida in 1994. Almost 13 years of waiting on people.

Sunday will be one of the happiest days of my life.

I never heard from the buyer who looked at the house on Saturday. I’m glad I just have an option on this one because I don’t think it’s a good enough deal and don’t think I’m going to find a buyer. Also, it is a subject-to deal, and I don’t really feel good about assigning it to someone I don’t know.

I didn’t get much done today. I am starting to panic about finding the next deal. Also worrying about what would happen if the two deals I have under contract don’t work out. I will basically be Screwed (with a capital S). Just one of those days, I guess, where I start to doubt myself. I had a long crappy weekend at work. Had to break down and ask a friend for a short term loan to get me through the month. Have been dreading doing it and now feel like a big fat loser. Just need to regroup and forge ahead. Going to get up extra early tomorrow and get as much accomplished as I can.

My day started off with a phone call from the investor that is buying my latest deal, asking for my fax number so he could fax over the assignment. It was nice to get that squared away first thing.

I made some phone calls and sent some emails to sellers.

Around 1:30, I got an email from the buyer who I assigned a deal to a few weeks ago (the one that had to re-sign the contract). He said he just got back in town and his mortgage broker hadn’t yet received the new contract (we signed last Weds.)

The realtor was supposed to fax it over once she got the seller’s signature. I called the title company and they said they hadn’t received it either. After leaving several messages with the realtor, and getting no response, I figured that the realtor had either (1) forgot to fax the contracts in or (2) went around me and sold the deal to another investor- or was buying it herself.

After about 4 hours went by, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I had to go to the investor meeting @ 7pm to try to find a buyer for the latest deal I’m working on (the subject-to deal with the California investor).

I really wanted to stay home and cry, but I had to go. I called the realtor 2 more times on the way to the meeting just to see if maybe she would answer. No such luck.

While I was sitting at the meeting trying to imagine how fun it was going to be telling the seller that their deal had been yanked out from under them, my phone rang. It was the realtor calling to say she had recently faxed the contract to the mortgage broker and the title co.

She said she was sure she had already sent them, maybe the fax got screwed up or something.

riiiiiiight.

My guess is the contract was sitting in the back of her car under a bag of Fritos until about right after she got my first voicemail. Whatever the case, the title co and mortgage broker SHOULD have the contracts now.

On a lighter note, there seemed to be some genuine interest on the deal I presented at the meeting tonight. I am expecting to get a few phone calls about it tomorrow.

Trying to get back into the swing of things after the holiday. I had plans of putting out bandit signs the night after Thanksgiving, but it never happened. My Thanksgiving turned out to be a complete nightmare and I spent the next day unwinding. Thinking about putting them out this week, but not sure if it is worth the time and effort.

I got 3 calls today from my advertising. Made offers on all of them, but the sellers were looking for more money. 2 of them I will follow up with in a few weeks, the other guy was a complete jerk and not willing to budge on his price. Maybe I will call him in a few weeks just for fun.

While speaking with another investor today (emailing, actually), I learned that it may be very difficult for the guy I’m assigning my contract to to get conventional financing. I don’t know how I missed this very important detail in all of the reading and studying I’ve done over the years. Luckily I still have over a month until the closing, so I will do what I have to do to get it closed. I met an experienced investor a few years back who is also a mortgage broker, so I am going to try and get in touch with him tomorrow to see if he knows of any lenders who will finance an assignment deal. I also have a few other investors who may be able to help me out.

I have always read that this business is a business of problem solving, and now I am beginning to see why. It seems like there is always some sort of glitch that has to be figured out. I guess that’s why most of the sheeple out there never succeed at it. It certainly isn’t easy (at least in the beginning).

I had someone look at my townhouse today (for the 3rd time). She’s a college student (I live very close to USF), and her Dad wants to buy her a place instead of having her rent somewhere. I really thought they were going to put an offer in today, but haven’t heard anything. Keeping my fingers crossed.

A have 30 postcards to send out tomorrw. Also going to call on some ads from the Sunday paper.

Well, today turned out to be a great day. I showed the house before I met w/ the realtor, and ended up getting a full price offer ($113k contract price + 5k assignment). I met w/ the realtor to sign the new contract, then went home and faxed the assignment over to the title company. What a relief. It’s nice to know that all my hard work is finally starting to pay off.

I got two calls today. The first was from a postcard I sent out. The seller has a new house that he’s trying to get rid of. There’s only about 20k in equity. The other was from an investor I met a few weeks ago when I went to look at his house for sale. He was supposed to close on a house today, but his financing fell through at the last minute. Probably a blessing in disguise for him, because the numbers were not good at all. His estimated ARV was about 30k too high. He may have been using comps from the beginning of the year.

Friday night I’m putting out bandit signs with another investor. We are going to target the areas near the malls since this weekend will be a busy shopping weekend. I hate putting signs out, but it will be a lot easier if I have someone with me. In the past, I’ve always done it solo, and it prettty much sucks. I hope to get some calls from those next week. The month is almost over, and I would really like to get something under contract so I have some cash coming in next month. This last weekend I gave my notice at work (I’m going to finish the year out), so I really have to hustle from here on out. My buyers list is growing by the day, which I think will make it a lot easier and less stressful next time around.