Flip This Wholesaler

7/2/09

Sooooo....I got a deal under contract and sold yesterday! This is a different deal than the Hooker House I wrote about last time, which I am going to pass on.

I'm pretty sure this was the fastest I've ever sold a deal. And it was all done via text.

Here's how it went down....

2:32 pm- Phone call from listing agent of a property I offered on this past Monday. It went to highest and best, and I offered 21k (10k over list). She said there were 20 offers on the property, and they had it narrowed down to 3, one of which was mine. She told me if I verbally agreed to their new terms, she could get my offer pushed through. They wanted 10% in escrow instead of the 1k I offered, and everything else was the same. I agreed to the new terms.

Oh, and she also wanted to verify that I was giving her both sides of the commission, including the 3k bonus to the selling agent. I'm sure this had nothing to do with me getting the offer accepted.

5:07 pm- Email from listing agent telling me they are taking my offer, and that I need to sign bank's addendum and return it within 48 hours, along with earnest deposit.

5:50 pm- After going to look at the house one more time, sent the following text message to my favorite buyer: "Hey Favorite Buyer, I just got a house you are going to like. 123 Main Street. 1200 sf frame, carport, fireplace, comes with extra lot. Nice street. Lock box 8590. Asking 29k."

6:35 pm- Text from Favorite Buyer: "20k."

6:36pm- Text to Favorite Buyer: "27k."

6:36 pm- Text from FB: "24k."

6:38 pm- Text to FB: "26k. Work with me here."

6:39 pm- Text from FB: "OK. 26k."

6:39 pm- Text to FB: "Cool. It's scheduled to close on the 24th. That OK?"

6:40 pm- Text from FB: "OK."

6:42 pm- Text to FB: "If you're around this weekend, we can meet to sign everything. Just let me know when."

6:46 pm- Text from FB: "OK, no problem."

And there you have it.

I probably could have found a buyer for more than 26k, but I'm always one to take the quick nickel, especially if it is from one of my solid buyers. This will be the 4th house I've sold to this guy this year, and the 6th since last summer.

Just to give you a little insight as to how important it is to make clean offers when you're bidding on a hot REO property..... the agent told me there was an offer of 30k on the table, but they wanted a 7 day inspection period. My offer was 9k less, but had zero contingencies.

It also helps to bribe the agent by giving them both sides of the commission. Especially when there is a 3k bonus being offered..

OK, Gotta run..

Have a safe and fun-filled 4th of July!



P.S.
I just added Patrick and Trevor's Private Money Blueprint to my list of recommended courses. If you have time this weekend, check out the free videos- there's several hours of quality content for your viewing pleasure...

6/17/09

Well, I wasn't able to save the deal, and it is now officially dead. I'm pretty sure that DB was just waiting for my time to run out, and I bet he'll have an offer in on it today. With a little luck, maybe he'll buy the property and the rest of the roof will cave in on his head. Just kidding. Kind of.

I got a counter back yesterday afternoon from one of the houses I offered on yesterday morning. This is shocking, as it usually takes them five years (give or take a year), to get a response from the bank. The bank countered @ 13k and I am trying to get it @ 10k. The house is in the hood, but it's not in horrible shape, and I have a few guys who like this area, so I'm going to send both of them by today to see if they'll bite. One of these guys bought a house from me on the same street last year for 27k. It needed a lot less work, though, and had 1 extra bedroom. We'll see.

I've been trying to make at least 3 offers/day every day, but there really isn't that much to choose from right now, so I'm continuing to work deals with a few of my wholesaler friends. I usually get at least one call/day from other wholesalers asking if I want to JV on deals with them. This is a good thing for me, especially when there isn't much available on the mls...

Anyhoodle, that's about all I've got for now. I've been a busy little bee working on stuff for the new blog (which should be ready to go by mid-July)...

Gotta run- I'm off to the gym. No excuses for me today..



P.S.
I found this video on the Zen Habits blog, which is my new favorite blog. Lots and lots of good stuff over there..

4/18/09

Things are pretty good in Steph Land right now.

So good, that I'm afraid I'm going to get hit by a bus or something next time I leave my house.

I ended up getting two more deals locked up over the last couple of days, which brings my grand total to FIVE...2 of the deals I'm working with Murphy, 2 of them with Lee, and one of them with the guy who gets deals before they hit the mls. And I still have almost 2 weeks before the end of the month to rack up a few more.

On top of that, I have about 10 cash buyers actively looking for deals, and from what I understand, the second wave of REOs is on it's way. I've talked to a few of the agents around town, and they all seem to agree that Tampa is going to get pummeled with inventory in the very near future.

It's like a perfect storm for an REO wholesaler, and let me tell you, I am ready to do some damage.

Have a great weekend, Blogosphere!

P.S.
For those who have been asking for recommendations on REO wholesaling courses, your wait is just about over. My buddy Lee is about to release a course that is going to knock your socks off! Stay tuned...


P.P.S.
This picture has no relevance to the post. I just think it's funny.

P.P.P.S.
My good friend (and accountability partner), Jerry, recently started a blog. Go check it out when you get a second.

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...

3/5/09

It's going to be a good month.

I got another deal signed with Lee on Tuesday. It will be a small payday, but I have roughly 1 hour of work (went to look at the house, and then made one phone call) into the deal, so I'll take the money and run.

I've been keeping up with my crazy low offers. I'm looking for a grand slam here in the very near future. My plan is to JV on deals with a few of my wholesaler friends for the smaller profits, and only take on my own deals if the spread is huge. I learned my lesson on the house I lost money on.... No more skinny deals for me.

Joelle from Moxie Design Studios finally contacted me this week and is ready to start working on my new site, so I've been busy getting all of my ideas together and trying to get a better idea of how I want it to look. I'm really excited to give this blog a face lift.

I'm on a mission this week to find a few new buyers, so I'm heading out today to harass some landlords and do some investigative work. I've got a nice, healthy list of the recent cash sales from the mls, and will be paying a visit to some of these investors today. :)

And that's all I've got for now...

Adiós amigos!

2/4/2009

Well, I took my Dad to the airport this morning, and now I am ready to get back to work. I haven't made a single offer in NINE DAYS, and I am starting to go through withdrawal. I'm not kidding.

I don't think I mentioned it in my last post, but I closed my first deal of '09 last week. I have another one closing today that I am working with my wholesaler friend, Lee, and then there is the duplex that should have closed last week... they are waiting on a payoff on some sort of lien, or something like that, so who knows when that one will close. Oh, and then there is the deal I'm going to lose money on, which I don't really want to talk about right now. Except to say that it would be really nice if the title company (Watson, who SUCKS) was not ready to close on the 10th, so I could cancel my contract and get my deposit back. That would be awesome, but I'm sure this will be the one time in a million that they are actually ready to close on schedule. Bastards.

Since I don't have any other deals of my own to sell right now, I called my buddy Lee (the one I am closing the deal with today), to see what he has available. I don't think there is a wholesaler in Tampa who does more volume than him, so I always go to him when I don't have any of my own deals to sell. I'll be marketing the living hell out of a few of his deals over the next couple of days, which will get my phone ringing again, and get me back into the swing of things, and hopefully make me some easy cashola.

Over and Out!

P.S.
If you went to Denny's yesterday for their free breakfast and didn't tip your server, you are an asshole.

2/1/2009

I'm taking a little break from work while my Dad is in town, so I don't have a whole lot to talk about real estate wise. Well, except for the fact that I am probably going to lose money on that deal I told you I sold to my Ace in the Hole buyer. He called me at 7 am the morning after he told me he would buy it for 20k, and said he went back to look at it again, and there was more work needed than he initially thought, and that he was sorry, but he wasn't interested. (This is not a good way to start a day off, btw). So, I called the other buyers who were interested a few weeks ago, and both of them passed. Long story short, I ended up getting Ace in the Hole Buyer to take it for 16k (that's what my contract is for), but I am going to have to pay closing costs, so I'm going to lose around $800-$1000. This is not good, but it is better than losing 2k (that's what my earnest deposit is with the bank). This is my first time ever losing money on a deal, and hopefully it will be the last... I did get an offer today for 20k from a hard money buyer, so I am going to see if I can buy Ace out of his contract with me. I'd say there's about a 50/50 chance of that happening. We'll see.

OK, I gotta run- I'm up watching the Australian Open final- it started at 3:30am... Thanks Jason!

P.S.
Can someone send me some information about Than Merrill's product launch? I didn't receive any emails about it this last week.

P.P.S
Sarcasm alert.

1/27/2009

Well, I finally sold the house I got for 16k! I was starting to panic a little bit, as I am used to already having my deals sold by the time everything is signed with the bank. I ended up getting 20k for it from my sans ID buyer (I'll refer to him as SIB from this point forward). I could have just sold this to him 2 weeks ago, but I wanted to flush out some new buyers (which I did), so I decided to market the hell out of it for awhile before I resorted to the ace in the hole.

It looks like 2 of the 4 deals I'm working are going to close this week. One tomorrow, and the other Thursday or Friday. There is a third that is supposed to close Friday, but it doesn't look like the bank's title company is going to have everything ready. Then the one I just sold to SIB is scheduled for Feb 10th.

Now it's time to get some more under contract.... I went and looked at 10 houses yesterday, and by the time I got back home to write up offers, 4 of them were already pending. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like I have a heck of a lot more competition all of a sudden. I went to make an offer on a property last week that had just been listed, and the listing agent told me he already had FIFTEEN offers on it. Crazy. There's still plenty enough to go around, and to be honest, I kind of like it. Nothing beats a little healthy competition, although, I could do without the assholes who steal keys out of lockboxes so no one else can go inside. Man, that pisses me off. Dirty-pool-playin mother fu*k*#s.

Well, that's all I've got for now. My Dad is flying in today at 3pm for a week long visit... I think were going to head out to Clearwater beach for some cold beer and She-Crab soup at Frenchy's. Yummmm.

Go make some offers, y'all!

P.S.
I'm listening to Nate's coaching call with Steve right now. Good stuff.

P.P.S
Does anybody know if it's possible to watch the Australian Open matches online (free or not, doesn't matter)? I don't have cable and I don't want to miss the rest of the matches.

1/10/2009

Would you guys believe me if I told you I got another offer accepted on Friday?

How 'bout two?

Well, that's what happened, and I ended up selling one of them in less than 30 minutes!

I don't know what the hell is going on, but it seems to me that the banks are finally waking up and smelling the sweet, putrid scent of looming disaster. I'm not kidding- it's like a free for all over here!

One of the houses was listed for 43.9k (which is already a pretty decent price, but not quite good enough). Anyway, I offered 30k on it right before the end of the year, and the bank only came down to 42k. I told the realtor 31.5 was the best I could do, and told her to call me back if they decide to drop the price. Well, she called me Friday morning and said, "You're not going to believe this, but the bank is willing to take your offer of 31.5k.... are you still interested?'' Hehehe.

The second deal, I am splitting with another wholesaler friend of mine. He called me early Friday and told me he had some inside info on a duplex that was about to have a drastic price reduction. He knows I have buyers in this area, so he asked if I wanted to joint venture on the deal, which, of course, I did... This deal was an absolute no-brainer, and I knew I could sell it to sans-ID buyer in a heartbeat, which I did. We ended up getting the duplex (it's concrete block, with 2, 2/1 units), for $21, 500! Even in the hood, this is a smokin' deal! We sold it for 29.5k, and everyone is happy. That's what I call easy money!!

So, now I have two houses to get rid of.

I still haven't sold the one that California Guy was supposed to buy, but I have an emergency back-up plan just in case.... One of my wholesaler friends has a buyer who will take it for 1k over what I have it under contract for. I will make almost nothing if I have to sell to him, but it is better than having to close on it myself, or worse yet- backing out of the deal. I haven't even really tried that hard to sell it, so I'm not too worried about it. Yet.

I put out 40 handwritten signs today (which was a huge pain in my ass), marketing the house that I just got under contract Friday. Tomorrow I will put out 40 more in the neighborhood where the house is that CG was supposed to buy.

The only calls I've had so far from the 40 I put out today were from people who, either: (A) couldn't speak English, or (B) Just got finished reading a Carelton Sheets course. That's the way it goes, though.... Sometimes you have to go through 50 annoying calls before you get to a gem...

Have a great rest of the weekend, y'all. Go make some offers!!

P.S.
I was having technical blog difficulties earlier. Sorry to those who were locked out.

P.P.S.
Me and the guy who are working the duplex deal are convinced that we are cursed when trying to do deals together- we've worked on about 5 deals over the last year and a half, and they have all crashed and burned for one reason or another. So, we decided that if this one actually closes, we are bringing a bottle of bubbly to the closing table to celebrate! Hehe.

P.P.P.S
No offense to any Carelton Sheets grads. That's how I got started, too. Seriously.

1/8/2009

Well, guess what I FINALLY got Tuesday.......

One of these:



If you'll recall, the computer I was using prior to this, I bought on Craigslist for $350. It worked like a champ for awhile, but then it started to have problems, and then I spilled a glass of wine all over it, and thought it would be a good idea to dry the USB ports out with a hair dryer. As it turns out, using a hair dryer on a computer is not a good idea, and things just went downhill after that incident. Towards the end, every time I would shut the computer off (or it would shut itself off for no apparent reason), I would lose EVERYTHING. All of my bookmarks, and settings, and pictures. Everything. Good times. Also, the keyboard stopped working, so I had to plug my keyboard from my old PC into one of the USB ports, and then set the keyboard on top of the laptop. This wasn't too bad, except for the fact that there was only 1 extra USB port, so when I wanted to print something, I had to reach around to the back, unplug the keyboard, and plug the printer in. When you are writing offers all day, this can get really, really annoying. Especially for someone with zero patience (Me).

So, anywho, Circuit City had the pink Vaio on sale, and now I gots me a new computer. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, it! End of story.

On to real estate...

I got my first deal of '09 under contract on Tuesday!! This is the one that I had been offering on for 6 months, that I just offered on again a few weeks ago at 8k below list and I didn't even get a counter. It was just re-listed with another agent, so I made another offer, and got it accepted. The funny part is, the offer I made a few weeks ago was for 30k, and this time I offered 25k and ended up getting it accepted at 26.5k. Hehehehehe!

California Guy told me he would take this house at 35k a month or so ago, but he seems to be ignoring me lately, and every time I call him with a property I get the impression that I am annoying him. I'm not sure what his deal is, but he's been really short and rude with me the last few times I've called him. I don't know if he thinks he's doing me a favor by buying my deals, or what the problem is, but I refuse to kiss anyone's ass, no matter how much money is at stake, and as far as I'm concerned, he can take a hike. There are plenty of buyers out there.

I'm actually kind of glad that he's not going to buy this, because it will force me to get out in the streets and market the hell out of it, and in doing so, I will find other buyers. I'm going to put out 100 signs this weekend advertising this deal, and also a deal that one of my wholesaler friends just bought at auction. I guarantee you I will pick up a few new buyers as a result..

OK, gotta run..

1/5/2009

Man, I was productive today!

Up at 6am and in the gym by 7am.

By the time noon rolled around, I had already run 4 miles, looked at 3 houses, and made 3 offers.

Nice.

If I can keep this routine up all year long, I am going to do some serious damage in 2009... Actually, let me rephrase that.....I WILL KEEP THIS ROUTINE UP, AND I WILL DO SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE IN 2009. That's what I meant.

It dawned on me over the weekend that I really don't have to do all that much work to make a very nice living. This epiphany came about as I was looking at the amount of offers I made in 2008 (I keep track of them in a spreadsheet), and then comparing that number to the amount of deals I did..... I made 283 offers and closed 19 deals. That might seem like a lot of offers, but when you break it down by the number of days in the year... IT'S NOT EVEN AN OFFER A DAY! That is pathetic.

Soooooo....my goal (one of them) for 2009, is to make a minimum of 3 offers/day, every day. This is an easily attainable goal, and should result in at least a doubling of my income. I did OK monetarily in 2008- I made more money than I have ever made in 1 year (although that is not really saying too much), but it's nowhere near where I want to be- I know I can do much better...

My confidence level right now, compared to what it was at this time last year (I hadn't even closed an REO deal yet).... is like night and day. Last year at this time, I was "hoping" to kick some REO ass, and this year, I KNOW that I am going to kick some REO ass. There has been a lot of work between the hoping and the knowing, but it damn sure feels good to be here...

Roger Dodger. 10-4, Over and Out.

P.S.
I'm having a Rocky marathon tonight...


Drago. That Russian mothe***cker.

12/29/2008

I spent most of the day driving around the hood looking at houses. I put in a bunch of offers this afternoon, and hope to get something under contract by the end of the week. My California investor is going to be ready for another house shortly, and I want to make sure I have something to sell him when he's ready. Also, my sans-ID buyer is going to be back in town next week, and he wants more houses, too. Oh, and McHotterson called me while I was in St. Louis and told me he is looking for more deals as well. January could turn out to be quite profitable if I play my cards right...

I'm probably not going to get a whole lot accomplished tomorrow, as I'll be entertaining some out of towners.. I'm making a big batch of margaritas, and we're going to head down to the 8th floor terrace and grill some brats and hamburgers and such. Maybe even swim if it's nice out. Margaritas + grilling out + swimming in the sunshine= Good Times!

Adios, Amigos!

P.S.
I recently signed up on Facebook, and kinda wish I hadn't. I've spent entirely too much time over there the last couple of days screwing around, and also trying to get Roger Federer to add me as a contact..... Wait 'til he finds out how persistent I am... Hehehe.


Meow.

12/16/2008

So, the second deal that was supposed to close yesterday, did not close. Not really sure why. The bank's title company sent over the HUD with tomorrow's date on it for the closing, so, I guess we're closing tomorrow. Then I've got two that are supposed to close Friday, but I'm trying to get one of them done on Thursday because my buyer (same guy who is buying the one from me tomorrow), is going out of town early Friday until the 3rd of January.

I made a bunch of offers yesterday and a few today. Jim and I had intentions of going to the hood to look at houses today, but once we got there, I decided that it was too beautiful of a day (not trying to rub it in, Northerners) to spend looking at shacks, so we decided to go to the dog park instead, where Jim came ever so close to dining on a squirrel sandwich for lunch.

And that's all I've got for today.

Well, except for this picture I took from my balcony tonight of the Suntrust building in all it's Christmas glory. I don't know how long it's been dressed up like Santa, but I just noticed it tonight....



HO HO HO!

12/9/2008

So, I decided to try a new approach to getting the bank's title companies to get my deals closed on time. I like to call it........ "Operation Throw Your Lazy Ass Under The Bus." Basically, what I do is, dig up the asset manager's contact info (this is not the easiest thing to do, but I am nothing if not resourceful), and then start throwing people under the bus, one by one. It's actually more fun than I've had in a really long time. The best part is, I do it in such a way so that it doesn't appear that I am actually tattling on people, because, as we all learned in kindergarten- no one likes a tattle tale. So, I just send an "innocent" email explaining the absolute nightmare that it has been to get a straight answer out of anyone as to why in the hell my deal is not going to close on time, and why are files getting lost, and why are addenda (addendums? addendi?) never getting sent to the bank, and why is Paige ignoring my phone calls and emails when she said she would get back to me by noon yesterday??? I just want a straight answer from someone.

This approach is still in Beta testing, but I have high hopes.. I had to give up on the bribery strategy, because there are just too many people involved in the closing process/fiasco, and it's hard to pinpoint the one person who actually might be able to push the deal through. Plus, it really irks me to have to pay people extra to do their job correctly.

I got another offer accepted today, which makes 5 that I have under contract right now, and which also pushes my stress level into the red zone. Especially since I offered to close on Monday on this one, and they ended up taking me up on my offer. This would not be problematic since I already have a cash buyer lined up, however, there are some issues to be dealt with. Here's how the phone call went today between me and my buyer.....

.....................................................................................

Me: Hey Jim, I can get that property on Sitka to you for 27k. You interested?

Jim: Heck yeah.

Me: Well, it needs to close by Monday, and I know you like to use your title company, but I'd feel much better using mine because I know they can get it done in less than a week, so how about we split the closing costs (I normally make my buyers pay all closing costs on the second transaction), and we close at my title company?

Jim: Well, that's fine, except I don't have an ID.

Me: Huh?

Jim: Yeah, I don't have an ID. I've been doing deals at my title company for so many years and they will notarize my documents without my ID. Is that going to be a problem.

Me: You don't even have a state ID or anything?

Jim: Nope.

Me: Uhhhhhhh, let me call my title company and see what the say......

..................................................................................................................................................................

So, I call my title company and explain, and they, of course can not do the closing without an ID from him, because the docs have to be notarized, but they say they can do all of the title work, and then just send it to his title company and have them do a courtesy closing, and sign the docs there and wire the money to my title company, who would then wire it to the bank's title company. Lost yet?

This sounded good for awhile, but I can't even imagine having to add a 3rd title company into the mix, so I called and talked to the attorney who owns my buyer's title company, and he said they would do a simultaneous closing (using my buyer's funds to fund both deals) as long as there was full disclosure to my buyer (there is ). S0000000000, long story long, it looks like we are closing at his title company, and I just KNOW it is going to be a really good time. Should make for some great blog fodder, anyway.

Well, now I have 4 deals that are supposed to close by the end of next week, and I think we should all take bets on how many actually close. I've got my money on one. One out of four- that sounds about right.

10-4. Over and out.

P.S.
In case you're wondering why my buyer doesn't just go out and get an ID, well, I'm just guessing that he can't, and I don't really want to know why.

12/4/2008

Gosh, lots to write about- and I still have to pack for Phoenix, clean my condo, and figure out how I'm getting to the airport....

Well, lets see.....the deal that was supposed to close Tuesday where they forgot to get the addendum signed......that has turned into the biggest circus that I have ever seen. I'm not kidding you. I really, truly, have never seen a bigger mess before in any of the deals I've done....The contract expires on this deal tomorrow, and the asset management company still does not know what is going on. I will explain it in more detail when I get back, but just trust me when I tell you this has turned into one ginormous fiasco. It's almost kind of funny, except for the fact that my paycheck is once again at the mercy of a bunch of bumbling idiots.

I finally gave up on the property where the asset manager disappeared... the last counter I received from them was Monday, so I just figured it was a dead deal and I had lost it to someone else. Well, I got an email from the listing agent at around 4pm today telling me they accepted my offer!! They didn't even counter back, they just took my offer of 24.5k. This is phenomenal news, as I'm pretty confident I can make 10k on this one. Woohoo! My favorite part of this deal is that the listing agent was too lazy to check the mls history on this house (or actually walk through the house and look at it), so it is listed on the mls as a 2/1 (that's what it says in the tax records, which are often incorrect), when it is really a 3/2. Hahahahaha. Nothing makes me happier than capitalizing on other people's laziness. Really.

I also am probably going to get another one accepted tomorrow. We've been going back and forth on this one for a few days and are now only 4k apart. The listing agent told me he's pretty sure he can push it through, so hopefully I will get a confirmation tomorrow. I already have a buyer for this one if I get it (he's the buyer for the deal that fell through on Wednesday where the bank screwed us over and sold to someone else).

I have more to write about, but it is 1am, and I need to get at least a few hours of sleep- my flight leaves at 6am, and I always like to get there extra early, just in case.

Have a fantastic weekend y'all........I'll be back Monday with tales from the Flip Vip's trip.

P.S.
I hijacked the title to this post from Vanilla Sky. In case you were wondering.

11/14/2008

Well, I closed deal #1 today with California Guy (yay!). We have another one that should be closing in 2 weeks. He was flying out to CA right after the closing to meet with his financial backer, and as he was leaving he asked me to have 10 properties lined up for him when he gets back next week. Sweeeeeet. Once he gets these first two houses rehabbed (shouldn't take too long), the money guy is going to fly in from CA for a grand tour. I can't wait to meet this guy. We spoke twice on the phone and hit it off quite well, so I'm looking forward to sitting down with him in person when he gets here. Also, I'm looking forward to putting his million dollars to work. Hehehe.

In other, non-real estate related news......I got a new haircut yesterday. I spent about 4 hours online looking for the perfect haircut, and then I finally found it and printed it out. And then I forgot the picture at home so I had to try and explain it to my hair dresser, and as it turns out, I am not that good at explaining. So, instead of looking like Katie Holmes in this picture:

I ended up looking like George Washington in this picture:

No kidding- my head looks like a giant mushroom. Sweet.

Ahh well... it will grow back eventually...

Have a fantastic weekend, y'all!


P.S.
Check out my interview over at Clifford's new site..

P.P.S.
If any of you guys ever have questions about wholesaling REOs, please feel free to post them in the comments section, and I will be happy to answer them. I am getting a ton of emails, and am having a hard time keeping up..... many of you guys have similar questions, so I think it would benefit everyone if they were posted here as opposed to private emails. I will still answer your emails, but it may take me awhile.... I am working on a new website that will have a FAQ section, and am tossing around the idea of an REO discussion forum. It's still a work in progress, but I'm getting there...

10/26/2008

Geeze, sorry for not posting very often lately- I've been a busy little bee....

*The "Stacy" deal closed last Thursday. Yay! Guess how much I made? Go on, guess..... Give up? Well, my 7k payday turned into a whopping ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS ($101.50)!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Hilarious, ain't it? Long story short (and then I don't ever want to talk about this stupid deal again), the buyer couldn't get his financing ready in time, so I found a buyer to basically bail me out of the deal for my contract price + $500- closing costs, which left me with a little over a hundred bucks. The original buyer's hard money "should" be ready to go this week, so the guy that bought it from me is going to sell it to my original buyer, and we're going to split the profits. I have no faith whatsoever in that actually happening, and I have officially written this deal off. If it actually ends up working out, it will be like bonus money, because I'm certainly not counting on it. The only good thing to come out of this whole debacle is that the deal actually did get to closing and I didn't look like a total moron like I would have had it not closed. After harassing the title company and listing agent for 3 months, it would have been really not-good for me to not close. Also, this broker has about 9 million listings, and is one of the last people I would want to piss off.

* I got another REO under contract last week, found a buyer for it the next day, and just met him this afternoon to sign the contract and get a deposit. So, now I've got 3 under contract, and will find out tomorrow about another 2 that I have offers on.

* I hit the freaking mother load with the buyer that I just met this afternoon. He was referred to me by one of my other buyers a few weeks ago. She told me that he owns a bunch of properties, but has been out of the game for several years, and now he wants to start buying again. She told me he has a money partner in CA that wants to spend a million dollars on single family houses in Tampa. When she told me this, I almost busted out laughing on the phone because I have heard this exact same story about five thousand times over the last year. It always turns out to be a bunch of bullshit, so I don't even get excited anymore. Well, anyway, she told me she was going to give him my number (the guy in Tampa, not the guy in CA), and that I should expect a call from him. He ended up calling me earlier this week, and he told me the same story about this guy in CA (who is his Dad's best friend that he has known his whole life and who is a multi-gazillionaire looking to invest in real estate now that the market has crashed). I gave him the address of one of the properties I was about to get under contract, and he called me back at the end of the day to tell me he would take it. At this point, I still thought he was full of shit, which I kind of think he picked up on, because he told me that he wanted me to call his money guy in CA and talk to him myself. Which I did. Twice. And as it turns out, this guy is the real deal, and this is the opportunity that I've been waiting for to come a' knockin on my door. So, I met the guy today to sign the contract and get his deposit, and we talked for awhile, and he is ready to go gangbusters buying houses, and he wants me to keep sending him deals until the cows come home. This is good news, people. This is really good news.

Gotta run.

¡Adios Amigos!

10/21/2008

Hi Everybody. Sorry for the lack of posting lately. It's been an interesting 2 weeks. I started getting some emails asking if I was dead or something, so I thought I would write a quick post to let you know that I am not dead.

In a nutshell.....

*The "Stacy" deal is still not closed. Actually it's supposed to close tomorrow but I still haven't figured out how that's going to happen. A miracle, perhaps. This deal officially takes the cake as the most horrible, awful, pain-in-my-ass-of a-deal I have ever done. Seriously, it just keeps dragging out, and just when I think it is going to work out....it doesn't. I HATE THIS DEAL WITH A BURNING PASSION. HATE. IT.

*I got two new REO deals under contract 2 Fridays ago and sold them both by the end of the weekend (still not sure how I pulled that off, but I did).

*May be getting another REO under contract tomorrow that I already have 2 buyers for. This will truly be a miracle if it works out as it was the easiest deal ever to get- just hanging out there on the mls waiting for someone to offer on it. "Pick Me! Pick Me!"

*Have had the most stressful month of my entire life. Well, except for last year at this time. I have gray hair now.

*I'm getting sick. This does not fit into my schedule so I am just going to pretend like I am not sick. I'll let you know how that works out.

*If you think there are no buyers out there, you need to pull yourself away from the TV and listen to someone who is out in the streets selling deals, right now, in this "crappy" market (that would be me). I went on a Ninja mission last week to find buyers. Put out 40 signs, and called every "for rent" sign in the city of Tampa. I am not kidding you when I say I have buyers lined up and waiting for me to find them deals. I am not blowing smoke up your ass, either. I swear to God, I have more buyers than I have houses to sell them, which is why I can not get sick right now. I NEED SOME MORE HOUSES! I have 10 to look at tomorrow, and I will be offering on every single one of them.

*I am getting a house from the bank for EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!! Can you believe that? I can not. It's in a crappy neighborhood, but only needs about 8k in work and will rent for $750. I had this house sold in one phone call. The guy I am selling it to says he wants to buy a house like this each week for the next year. He is a cash buyer. This makes me happy.

*I went to see the Rays game Sunday night and had seats right behind third base. Had a blast. I spent the last 15 minutes trying to post some pictures, but my computer is evil and will not let me, and I am all out of patience.

*Someone is blasting the Spice Girls from their balcony right now and I am about to go outside and assassinate them.

And, that's all she wrote.

Buenas nachos.

9/29/2008

Today was not good.

Mrs. Hancock decided to stop taking my calls, the bank will not give me another extension, and we are supposed to close tomorrow. Good times.

The other deal that was supposed to close a week ago is probably never going to get to closing. The assholes at the bank's title company will not return phone calls, and no one knows what is going on from one day to the next . Same old story. Blah, blah blah, I want to head down to Ft. Lauderdale with a bat...blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before.

Oh, and I'm writing this post from one of the computers on the 8th floor of Skypoint, because my computer is FRIED!

AWESOME!

P.S.
No- I did not back up my files, and yes, they are all gone. Woohoo!