Flip This Wholesaler

Well, I’ll be darned if it hasn’t been an entire week since I’ve written a blog post.  Sorry about that.

So, what the heck have I been up to?

Working my ass off, for the most part.  Also running my ass off.  I think I’m probably in the best shape right now that I’ve been in since I don’t even know when.  8th grade, maybe.  So, I’m pretty happy about that.

Oh, also, I’m being stalked by the Census Bureau.  Holy crap man, those people mean BUSINESS.

They came knocking on my door yesterday, which scared the living shiitake out of me since no one ever comes knocking on my door.  The building I live in is like Fort Knox, or what I imagine Fort Knox to be like, anyway….. you have to get through 3 layers of security to even get in the elevators, and then once you get on the elevator you have to have a special code to get onto each floor.  So anyway, when I got a knock on my door I automatically assumed it was a Ninja coming to assassinate me.  Who else could it be?  Although now that I think about it, I bet Ninjas don’t even bother to knock.

As it turns out, it was Jim from the Census Bureau who asked if he could come on in and conduct a 5-8 minute interview with me.  I politely declined because I don’t usually let strange men into my home even if they come under the guise of Census Bureaudom. He told me they would call me back today and conduct the interview over the phone, but instead they have been calling me every 5-10 minutes since he left my doorstep.  Seriously.

I guess that will learn me to throw my census papers in my “I’ll get to it later when I have some spare time” pile.

Which looks like this in case you were wondering….

Side view:

Did you ever imagine me to be so organized?

So other than getting harassed by the Census Mafia, and running my ass off, I’ve also been hitting the MLS and making lots of offers.  I took a break for a long while there, and was just working deals with my wholesaling buddies, but now I’m back in MLS-offer-making-mode.

I’ve got one short sale that I think I’m going to get accepted this week.  That’s what the listing agent told me anyway.  It’s listed in the 60s, but the agent said if I made an offer of 40k she could make it happen.  You’d be surprised at the info you can get from some of the agents if you just ask.

I’m also working on another JV deal with Murphy that I think one of my hood buyers is going to take.  It’s a cheap piece of crap, which is this guy’s specialty, so I’m waiting to hear back from him on that.  I’m actually headed back out to that property as soon as I’m finished writing this post to see if I can rescue the kitty that the previous scumbag owners left outside when they moved out.

Anybody in the market for a kitty?  She’s orange with white stripes and fleas.  Any takers?

So, that’s about all I’ve got for now folks!

Later alligators!

P.S.

I forgot to mention that I’m doing a free Q&A training call with Drew Downs this Saturday, May 8th at Noon EST!

If you missed the webinar we did last week, or if you have questions about wholesaling short sales or REOs, or how to find cash buyers in your market, or how to locate the hot zip codes in your city, or if you got Drew’s course and need clarification on any topics, this will be your chance to pick his brain and get your questions answered!  I already have my list of questions ready to go….

To register for the event this Saturday, click here!

See ya there!

P.P.S.

Don’t  forget to stop by here Monday @ 8pm, to discuss this month’s Book Club selection: Influence, by Robert Cialdini.  My good friend Shae Bynes (who is much better at writing book reviews than I am), will be guest posting, so make sure to stop by and throw in your 2 cents.  Or however many cents you’d like to throw in.

P.P.P.S.

Speaking of Shae Bynes, if you guys haven’t been over to her blog lately, she just announced that she’s taking the leap and LEAVING THE RAT RACE once and for all!

Congratulations, Shae!

Happy Monday everybody!

I’ve got all kinds of exciting things to talk about today.

Well, actually just two.  But still…

First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, I volunteered at the Pet Adoption Expo on Saturday, and I found a home for the dog I was partnered up with!

The dog’s name was Niblet (which is a stupid name, IMO, but his new owner is going to change it). He was a hound mix with giant paws and big floppy ears.  Really sweet dog.  I would have taken pictures of him, but you’ll be shocked to hear that my camera is broken.  It just up and stopped working for no apparent reason.  Stupid technology.

So anyway, I was’t playing around when it came to finding this little guy a new home, and I proceeded to set up shop right in front of the door where 12.5 million people had to go through to get to the outside where the Humane Society was set up.  I pretty much just sat in front of the door with Niblet, so people almost had to trip over us if they wanted to get outside.  Hehe.

After an hour or so, this lady came right up to Niblet and started bawling her eyes out.  After she calmed down a little bit, she explained to me that her hound mix that she had had (had had?) for 14 years passed away last month.  She was so upset.  She came to the Expo just to look around because she missed her dog so much, but let me tell you guys, it was love at first sight when she and Niblet laid eyes on each other.

It took about 2 seconds for her to make up her mind that she was bringing Niblet home with her right then and there!

Great Success!

In other, non-dog-related news, I’m going to be hosting a webinar this coming Wednesday (April 28th), from 8pm-10pm, with Drew Downs.

I had been following Drew on Facebook for the last few months, and he seemed to be kicking some serious ass in the Tampa market, so I decided to listen in on a webinar he did a few weeks ago.

Needless to say, I was very impressed with what he is doing (wholesaling short sales off of the MLS to cash buyers), so I got his course the next day and immediately started implementing the strategies I learned.  These are strategies that I have not seen anyone else using, or if they are, they aren’t talking about it.

Long story short, I approached him at my buddy Nathan’s B-Day party a few weeks ago, told him I thought his course rocked, and asked if he’d be interested in doing a webinar for you guys.

Obviously, he said yes.

To get in on the webinar this Wednesday and find out how he is able to control more than 100 listed properties (and how he didn’t have to put any earnest money deposits down to control them) * click here to register!*

Everyone is welcome to register for the webinar, except for people who live in the Tampa Bay area. We’ve already got enough competition in this market- no need to create more.

Hehe. Just kidding.

Hope to see you all there Wednesday night!

*Click here to register for the webinar!*

Have a great week everybody!

P.S.
I just posted this quote on my Facebook page, but in case you don’t do Facebook, I’m reposting here for you.  It’s a good one….

P.P.S.
I hope no one reading this blog post has a dog named Niblet.  If so, I meant no offense.  The name just didn’t fit the dog.

P.P.P.S.
In case you didn’t read the comments of my last post, Tim pointed out that the guy who I thought was Jack Nicholson in the Lowenbreau commercial was actually the sergeant from the show CHiPs (Robert Pine).

I was way off.

I have absolutely no idea how I got the jingle from those old Löwenbräu commercials in my head, but I’ve been humming it for the last 2 hours.

Do you remember those cheesy commercials?

Do they still make Löwenbräu, even?

I just did a search on YouTube and found one (a commercial, not a Löwenbräu) so you all can enjoy the jingle right along with me.

Here you go….

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oUBaCyXWNk[/youtube]

Awesome.

That guy who orders “The biggest steak you’ve got and a bottle of Löwenbräu” kinda reminds me of Jack Nicholson circa The Shining, except a little less disheveled.  And also a little less evil.

See the resemblance?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUzFmupz38s[/youtube]

I heart The Shining.

Alright, so enough with the beer commercials and horror flicks- let’s talk about my deal that fell apart this week, shall we?

So yeah, the short sale deal that I sold to NFB went up in flames Tuesday because the approval letter from the bank expired the day after we signed the contract, which was not supposed to be a big deal, but then the BPO also expired a few days later.  To make a long story short, my buyer (who I told could close on the property in 2-3 days), was not happy to hear that he was going to have to wait until a new BPO was done and a new acceptance letter was issued.  Can’t say I blame him.

He ended up getting kind of sketched out about the whole deal, and cancelled the contract.

So that was awesome.

Another one bites the dust. Woohoo!

In other news, I’ve got 2 other deals in the hopper, but have decided that it’s in my best interest to not write about them on this here blog (until they are officially under contract, anyway) because doing so seems to be a big fat jinx as of late.

I’m sure it’s all just a coincidence, but you can never be too careful, ya know?

And that’s all I’ve got for now, folks.

Have a great weekend!

P.S.
If you live in the Tampa Bay area and are looking for a new pet, you need to get your behind over to the Pet Adoption Expo that’s being held at the Florida State Fairgrounds tomorrow from 10-4.   I’ll be there all day with the Humane Society, so if you decide to go, make sure to stop by and say hello!

P.P.S
Just wanted to remind you guys that for some unknown reason (WordPress sucks) the apostrophes do not work in my blog titles, and that I know there should be an apostrophe between the “e” and the “s” in the word “heres”.

In case you were wondering.

P.P.P.S.
I wrote a new article for the BiggerPockets blog this week about the cheapest and easiest way to find buyers for your wholesale deals. You can click here to check it out.

P.P.P.P.S.
How many P.S.’s are too many?
Four?
Five?
(also, should there be an apostrophe in P.S.’s?)

P.P.P.P.P.S.
Let it be Löwenbräu.

So, the deal that I was working on with my wholesaler buddy that was supposed to close last month sometime, finally closed today.  Which is good news.  I always cringe when my phone rings on the day of a closing because I’m half expecting the morons at the bank’s title company (or the morons at the bank) to screw something up and delay things even more.  I am officially jaded when it comes to dealing with bank owned properties.  And for good reason.  Thankfully, though, the closing went off without a hitch this time, and I got paid.  Getting paid is always nice.

In other news, I just got another JV deal wrapped up today that might be closing TOMORROW (if you can believe that).  If not tomorrow, it will get done early next week.  This one is actually a short sale that has already been approved that was brought to me by another wholesaler. Coincidentally, the other wholesaler is Drew Downs, whose course I just got a few weeks ago after listening to a webinar he did about wholesaling short sales off of the MLS.  He’s basically killing it right now, and is using an approach that I have not seen anyone else take when it comes to pursuing short sales on the MLS.  And now he is training his competition (me).  Bwahahahahahaha…

So anyway, I contacted him after reading through his material and asked him to let me know next time he got a deal because I have the most kick ass buyers list at the moment.  He sent me a text Tuesday night with info about a deal that had just fallen out of contract, and I was there the next morning at 9am with my new favorite buyer who is looking for houses in that neighborhood. My new favorite buyer (NFB from here on out), took about 30 minutes to make up his mind and commit to the property, and he dropped off an escrow check this afternoon for the entire purchase amount.  Cause that’s just how he rolls.

The best part about all of this (aside from the fact that I’m going to be making 3k in 3 days for doing next to nothing), is that I also called my Cheap Bastard Buyer (CBB) about this same property and he didn’t get back to me about it until a few hours later, and when he did get back to me, he spent 10 minutes telling me what a “piece of shit” (spoken in a very, very, thick Southern drawl) the house is, and naming every single repair that needs to be done to it.

We go through this same routine EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I send him a new property, no matter how good of a deal it is, or how good of condition it is in.  It’s the most annoying negotiating tactic EVER, and even more annoying that he thinks I don’t know what he’s doing.  This ain’t my first rodeo, pal.

So anyway, I let him go on for a few minutes just for fun, and then I told him sorry the house is already gone and by the way, I sold it for full price.  Because it’s a smokin deal.  You cheap bastard.

Hehe.

So yeah, I still don’t really understand how all the paperwork is going to go down with this deal, but as far as I know we’re doing a double closing.  Although Drew said you can sometimes assign short sales (news to me), so we might end up rewriting the contracts and doing it that way. My buyer doesn’t really care how the closing is set up as long as he gets the house with clear title, so if we have to go back and redo the paperwork, it’s not going to be a big issue.

Anyhoodle, I’ll let you know how it all shakes out.  This is new territory for me, so it should be an interesting learning experience.

And thus concludes the longest blog post on the face of the planet.

Later Alligators!

P.S.
My girl Shae, just set up a new fan page on Facebook for her delicious (and nutritious), coffee line. It has magical healing powers because it is made with magical mushrooms. For real. Head on over and fan her up- and check it out for yourself!

P.P.S.
I posted a new article on the BiggerPockets blog earlier today- check it out when you have a second and let me know what you think.

P.P.P.S.
Does anyone else despise WordPress as much as I do?
I want to kick it in the face right now.