Flip This Wholesaler

Steph -

I feel your pain. I have three properties about to sell, one I just put on the market, and one I'm waiting to close on.

I'm out of houses to work on, and have been searching for the past week for a couple new properties to put under contract -- but can't find anything! Everything is either very overpriced (the starting listing price is always high) or going to highest-and-best, with people overbidding (in my opinion).

Hopefully April will bring a new wave of REOs, and we can both get rolling again.

Good luck...and love the blog!


J Scott

Yeah, I don't know what the heck is going on, but things have definitely changed in the last few months..

The number of lis pendens filed in my county has been holding steady, so I'm not sure what is happening to all of these houses.

It's a mystery.

Good luck to you too, and nice job with your blog. :)

Always the selling in bulk bits to some I bet.

I have others I'm putting offers in on this week...but I'm also pushing HARD to get the one I have under agreement sold!

Attorney is sending the P&A back tomorrow; hopefully that'll buy me some more time if the bank stalls a bit. Otherwise, closing would be next Friday; lots of interest/showings from just a handful of signs and Craigslist, supposedly some callbacks forthcoming this week. Still got time! *crossing fingers*

Good luck getting it sold. Let us know how it turns out.

Steph

I'm in CA and the market is changing here as well. REO are selling for list price and above. It wasn't like this a few months ago. Sigh...

one thing that i noticed since the begining of january is all real estate agent found a new way to get more commission by not summiting any offers and telling everybody to summit your best and final offer to get you to add more,here in IL every agent has started doing that, every time i summit an offer they hold it till 5-10 offers come in and they make everybody sign a aditional paper stating that is the best and final offer!, i think they found a way to screw with wholesalers for their own benefit(commission)!!

It's the same situation here, but I don't think the agents are screwing around. There are so many people going after the same stuff, so when something good hits the market, everyone has their offer in right away.

Steph...

Do you think that it's other wholesalers that are taking business from you or are the investors just buying like crazy now?

Hey "anonymous" up there... what your accusing the agents of doing is illegal and they will lose their license for that. Plus the listing agents on these REOs aren't making much commission anyway, so taking that big of a risk for a small small pay day is not worth it. Oh, and you might have better luck if you suBmit your offer, not summit. :)

Hi Jared,

I think it's a combination of more investors buying, more homeowners buying, more wholesalers going after REOs, and a decrease in inventory.

Good times.

Hey Steph I know what you're talking about I'm here in Sunny (Hot) Tampa, FL and I have seen the hot ones go pending same day they hit MLS. Keep on making offers is all I can say.

Its the same in Indy... Its been like this for about 4 months. I've just tried to be more agressive, and to get in front of REO realtors. While I do believe there is more competition I sometimes stop and ask myself how a property sits for 250 days and then when I offer there are 14 other people bidding at the same time... Maybe thats just the way it happens???

The only thing I will add is now that you understand that your market is changing-its time to change with it. You may have to re evalutate the way you make offers. At least that is what I had to do, and that is why I offer on everything-Even when it first hits the market (I've picked up and sold several properties this way). And they were not killer deals but 2k or 3k here and there pays the bills.

Glad your back!!

There are definitely some shady agents around here, but I think it is mostly that there are a ton more people offering, and much less to choose from.

I have also been offering on anything and everything, and am now giving away both sides of the commission, so I think that will help.

We'll see how it goes.

Take care,
Steph

Steph, If you moved to a new area and you didnt know any investors and there were no signs of any. What would you do to find buyers. and other investors in your area.

Steph!

I got an Idea.. How about you and your buyers, get with me and my sellers.. and we have a str8 up money party! :)

Around here, sooo many listings going for dirt cheap.. but not enough buyers! lol i guess that's why they are going for so cheap :-x

I tried the MLS thing BTW, there are a few cash buyers, but they don't "need me" as they are basically making offers on the MLS just like me arg.. i guess they are smart O_o

Anyway! Dude, it would be a fiesta for sure! lol

Dennis

Anonymous-

I would research the recent sales and look for the investor sales (the lowest comps). Then I would find out who is buying what, and how much they are paying. Then I would hunt those buyers down and start finding deals for them.

You can also drive through neighborhoods and call "for rent" signs and ask the landlords if they are looking for more rentals, and, if so, what price do they want to buy at.

Dennis-

That sounds like a fantastic idea-
Nothing beats a good ol' fashioned money party! :)

hey steph, i am on my way to my first rei club meeting today, i wanted to know if you ever found a cash buyer there that you actually sold and reo to? thanks!...

Anon-

No, but I have made connections at rei meetings that have led me to cash buyers.

You can never do enough networking, so I would suggest going to as many meetings as you can just to get out there and start meeting people.

Steph

Welcome to my world -- My local market has been like this for years! In the bigger picture though:

The banks are holding onto their REO's because they're not sure what's going to happen with the Feds plan to buy their "toxic" assets, etc... The plan will either fall through and you'll see a flood of REO's in the months ahead, or the Feds will buy them all up, and be deciding what to do with them for awhile after that.

-Carl

If that's the case, I hope their plan falls through. :)

Or we'll just be making offers to the government instead of banks...:)

That would be crazy if the gov't bought all those toxic assets! I think there's just a lot of hype right now with REOs, I'm hearing a lot of people getting into them. I've also heard a lot of people going after short sales and preforeclosures. Though, I think it's just a phase - it only takes one buyer to back out of a deal and making the listing agent unhappy. Or, I've heard of people getting an REO who don't have an exit strategy then ending up in a mess...I'm sure they'll end up coming back to you sooner or later ;)

It's all collusion and price-fixing among the companies who hold REO (lenders, FHA, Fannie/Freddie). They have such a shipload of shadow inventory already on their books that they're not even foreclosing anymore and when they do, they're holding back on most of the listings.

And then when you add in the RE brokers cherry-picking the best deals, and the vultures making bulk deals ... well you didn't think the powers that be were going to let us regular folk get all the bargains, did you!?

I'd like to know: What makes submitting one offer illegal, if that is what the seller wants? I see that a lot in (California) MLS and if it's truly against the rules, I will report them.

What do you mean by "what makes submitting one offer illegal"?

I'm confused.