Flip This Wholesaler

3/26/2009

Remember California Guy? The one who took off in search of greener pastures a few months ago?

He had a problem with me making money on the deals I sold to him, and thought it would be easier to just go after the deals on the mls himself, rather than having me bring them to him on a silver platter. He never came right out and said it, but I could always tell that he viewed my profit as his loss.

I explained to him several times that it's a jungle out there in the world of REOs.... The good deals are gone in a matter of hours, and he would be better off letting someone else (me) do the legwork for him, so he could spend his time working on his rehabs, managing his rentals, taking his wife and 3 kids out to dinner, etc, etc.

He didn't want to listen.

He called yesterday (after 3 months) to see if I had anything available, and also to vent his frustrations with trying to get good deals off of the mls (he hasn't bought anything since the last deal I sold him, btw). The conversation went something like this...

California Guy: There's definitely something fishy going on with these REOs...

Me: What do you mean?

CG: I mean we've lost out on 6 deals in the last month.

Me: What do you mean "lost out"? (I knew full well what he meant, but asked anyway because sometimes it's fun to rub a little salt in the wound).

CG: I mean, every property we are interested in goes pending before we even have a chance to go out and look at it, and when we do manage to get our offer in, we never get the deal- even when we offer over list price.

Voice Inside My Head: HaHa motherfucker- I told you so.

Me: Welcome to my world. I told you it ain't easy.

CG: Send us anything you get from now on..

**************************************************

So, anyway, these guys have a million or so bucks and are looking to spend it in the Tampa market, and, after spending 3 months chasing after deals on the mls, have thrown in the towel, and are ready to swallow their pride, and let me find the deals for them. Again.

We'll see what happens.

Adios, amigos!

3/12/2009

The bank sent over the closing docs yesterday afternoon, but we are still missing their title commitment (which my title company needs). Also, the buyers want to have their attorney review all of the paperwork, but he thought the deal wasn't closing until Friday, so we are waiting on him to approve everything. I went in and signed all of my docs yesterday, and hopefully the buyers are going to go in this morning to sign their docs so we can get the wire sent out today. I should be getting a frantic phone call or email any minute now from the bank's title company asking where the wire is. I will just go ahead and ignore them, much like they have been ignoring me all week. That is my very favorite thing to do, especially when I am out of contract with the bank and it is their title company's fault. And especially when they have been blowing off my calls and emails all week. Hehe. Meanwhile, the listing agent has NO CLUE what is going on, which makes it even more fun. Good times.

No bites yet on my offers. A lot of multiple offer situations, though. Everybody and their Grandma is going after REOs, so there's quite a bit of competition. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but there's been a noticeable decrease in the amount of REOs on the market lately. Not sure if it's because of the moratorium or what, but there's definitely a lot less to choose from. I check the amount of lis pendens filed in my county every month, and that has pretty much stayed the same (roughly 2000/month). I've heard from a few different sources (REO agents) that there is a huge wave of REOs headed our way. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

That's all I've got for today. Busy day ahead of me..

Adios!

3/10/09

Well, I'm supposed to have a closing today, but the bank's title company, of course, is not ready. Apparently the lien search is not in yet, which is what happens when you don't start working on a file until 2 days before closing. Who knew?

So, today my job is to harass the ever-loving shit out of them until they get so sick of hearing my voice that they do whatever is necessary to get the search done and the docs sent out. You might think this is being excessive, but if you don't stay on top of the closer, your file will just sit and collect dust with all of the others. I also told them that I am going out of the country on Thursday (not Friday- if you tell them Friday, they won't have it ready until Monday. If you're lucky).

There's a small chance that it might close today, if they get the search back early enough. My title company is ready to go (I heart Peer Title), and Lee's buyers are ready to go. we're just waiting on the bank...

I've got a whole mess of offers out there right now, and should be getting some counters back today. I've been staying consistent with making 3 offers/day. I try to get out and look at 3 houses first thing in the morning (after traffic dies down), then come back home and write the offers up. My goal is to look at 3 houses, make 3 offers, and run 3.5 miles by noon every day. I feel like a rock star when I do this.

That's all I've got for today.

Happy Tuesday, Blogosphere!

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.

1/23/2009

So, I didn't get any offers accepted this week.

That's just the way it goes sometimes, though.

It always happens this way- I'll get a few offers accepted all at once, and then NOTHING for a few weeks. Then I'll start panicking and thinking that all of the deals I've done thus far were a fluke and that this stuff doesn't really work.... and then I'll get another one accepted, and my faith is restored.

I still haven't sold the house I got for 16k, although I now have 3 offers on the table- two for 18k, and one for 22k. The one for 22k is using hard money, and hasn't been able to cough up a 2k deposit, so I'm pretty sure that is not going to work out. The 2 who offered 18k are both cash buyers, but I'm still holding out for more. I'm going to put some more signs out this weekend and see what happens. I'm pretty sure I can get 21k or 22k if I am patient. I still have a few weeks left, so I am willing to wait. Not too long, but I will wait until the end of next week, and then I will go with a lower offer if I have to.

There is an auction coming to Tampa in February, and my sans-ID buyer offered to "give me his checkbook" to bid on properties at this auction. We haven't ironed out the details yet, but he is essentially offering up his cash (500k), to purchase properties for himself (he can't bid on them personally because he does not have an ID), and also to bid on properties for us to wholesale. I was planning on going to this auction anyway, as I have a few friends who have done very well with this company in the last few months, but I only have the resources to bid on one, or maybe 2 properties.... If I have 500k to play with, well, that changes things completely. Like I said, we are still ironing out the details, but it is looking pretty good at this point (I will explain more of the details later). Even if the auction doesn't work out, it's always nice to know that you have someone with 500k liquid cash (although I think he has much more than that), who trusts you with their checkbook- ya know?

And, finally- look what I found in the mailbox yesterday..



Wooohooo!

Countdown to Costa Rica..... T-minus 30 days!

1/20/2009

Well, I was an offer makin' fool today......

I got on a roll and just couldn't stop myself.

That happens sometimes.

I submitted 9 offers total, my favorite being the one I made for 8k. I doubt I'll get it accepted at 8k, but you never know.

I kind of had another epiphany after I got that last offer accepted for half of list price. The epiphany being that I need to be offering much lower, because the banks are really starting to take some huge discounts, and I want to take full advantage of their "generosity". Hehe.

I'm going on another sign mission tomorrow morning (when I put signs out in the hood, I always try to get there as early as possible, as there is much less of a chance of getting heckled and/or barked at) to market the deal I was talking about in my last post. I already have two solid cash offers on this deal, but I'm pretty sure I can get more, and I've still got 3 weeks til closing, so I'm holding out for a higher offer. This is a first for me, as I usually take the first thing that comes my way even if I know I can get more..... This is a bad habit that needs to be broken, so I am going to break it.

And that's all I've got for today. 10-4, over and out..

P.S.
If anyone happens to run into Mother Nature, can you please tell her to TURN THE DAMN HEAT UP? I'm about 2 degrees away from packing it up and moving farther South. Seriously.

1/18/2009

I spent most of yesterday putting signs out in the hood advertising the deal I just got under contract for 16k. Here's a few pictures of the house, in case you were wondering what kind of digs 16 grand will get you in this market....

Not a bad little house. Well, except for the fact that it's in the hood, but for 16k, what do you expect?

I put out about 25 signs, and have received probably 10-15 calls yesterday and today. No takers yet, but I did manage to add a few new buyers to my arsenal..... Love those signs!!

I spent the rest of my time this weekend monkeying around with my soon to be new website, and realizing that I don't have enough time or patience (or skill) to design it the way I want it to look, so I searched around the net looking for a web designer to do it for me. I finally found what I was looking for, but turns out they have a 3 month waiting list for new projects.. Dang. I'm willing to wait, though, as I was really impressed with their portfolio.. So, anywho, I should be rolling out my new site sometime this Spring. I'm very excited..

And, in other news- my wholesaler friend, Dave, sold one of his deals to a pimp on Friday. For real. He came into Dave's office early in the day with a contract and a grand in cash to put down as a deposit. Dave had never worked with him before, so he asked him for a copy of his bank statement, since he claimed to be a cash buyer. Mr Pimp said he didn't have the cash in the bank, and that he would be back later with proof of funds. And then he came back a few hours later with a DUFFEL BAG FULL OF CASH. I swear I'm not making this up. And then he explained that he was a pimp, and that's why he had all of this cash laying around. Niiiiice.

Never a dull moment..

1/15/2009

Well, I now have 4 deals going, and have 3 of them sold! The only one I have left to sell is the one I just got accepted Tuesday at 16k, and I can sell that one in my sleep. I offered to close this one in 10 days, but the bank set the closing date for Feb. 10th, which is an ETERNITY in my world, so I am going to take my time selling this one, and am going to hold out for top dollar. I think I can get 23k easily for this house. It only needs flooring, and an ac condenser to be ready to rent, and it will easily rent for $600-$650.

One of the deals I put together yesterday is with a friend of mine (who is the REO King of Tampa) who beat me to the punch on a house that just popped on the market at a ridiculously good price. It is a totally remodeled 3/2, and it came on the market at 23k. I was at the house within 15 minutes of it being listed, and had an offer of 24k in within the hour. No contingencies, 7 day close, and I gave the listing agent both sides of the commission. And that crafty bastard beat me to it. So, we put a deal together yesterday with one of my buyers who wanted the house. Easy money on that deal...

OK, gotta run- going to put out a bunch more signs...

P.S.
If you are a Steve Cook student and didn't get the memo today.......the doors to the Wealth Explosion Event are now open to us- don't forget to sign up! If you aren't already a Steve Cook student, and would like to be.....go here for more info. One of the many bonuses of being his student is that you get to attend all of his events for free...

P.P.S.
If you live in the Tampa Bay area, beware of the feces-throwing monkey! (thanks for bringing this to my attention, Dustin) :)

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.

1/3/2009

I got a counter offer today.

On a Saturday.

This is shocking.

I've never gotten a counter offer on a weekend before. Ever. I didn't even know that REO agents and banks worked on the weekends. It's hard enough getting an answer out of them on a weekday, let alone on a weekend. Again, I'm SHOCKED.

It's especially shocking because I've been offering on this stupid house for the last six months. The listing just expired with the (worthless) agent who's had it the whole time it's been on the market, and it was just relisted a few days ago with another guy. I've come to the conclusion over the last year of making offers, that the agent who had this house originally, does not like to make money. Either that or she is just stupid and lazy. Or, maybe all three. I've probably made over 100 offers on her listings since last summer, and I have NEVER, EVER, received a single response. I'm not kidding. And, these are not all low-ball offers, either.... For example, this house that I got a counter offer on today...I made an offer on it 2 weeks ago when she still had the listing.. I offered 8k below list, with a closing in 1 week (or maybe 10 days, I can't remember), all cash, no contingencies. And I got no response. Nothing. Crickets. So, I finally called her up a few days later and asked her if she got a counter from the bank, and also told her (in so many words), that I was willing to come up a little if they were willing to come down a little. So, she tells me she will call me right back, and then I never hear from her again. This was on a Friday afternoon that I called her, and so I waited until Monday afternoon, and when I still hadn't heard from her, I called again (twice), and left 2 messages, and then I sent 2 emails. No response. More crickets. This is unacceptable to me. Seriously. WE ARE 8K APART AND THIS HOUSE HAS BEEN LISTED FOR 6 MONTHS! WORK WITH ME HERE, YOU LAZY PIECE OF WORTHLESS REO AGENT.. Geeze...

Anyway, so the property came back on the market a few days ago, I made an offer on it yesterday, and I got a response back today. That's more like it.

I'm pretty sure California Guy will take it, but he's kind of been pissing me off lately and not giving me any feedback on the houses I send him. Maybe he wants to go find the deals on his own?? Have at it, Buddy. Look out for me and my cohorts, though, cause we'll probably beat you to the punch every single time. Hehe. Just kidding.. Not really.

10-4. Over and out.

12/18/2008

Oh boy. I am a happy camper right now! I closed one deal today at the last minute after sitting at the closing table for two hours because of a code enforcement lien that the bank's title company missed, and my buyer's title company had to get some sort of affidavit signed from the seller saying that the lien was not theirs. Or something like that. It was a really good time, and during those two hours of waiting, I got to know my sans-ID-buyer a little more, and I have to say- I am intrigued by this guy. I do not think he is an axe murderer or child molester, or anything like that, but I think he got into some trouble (drugs) a long time ago (circa 1989), and then skipped town, changed his name (to one of the most common American names), and moved to Tampa. This is just a theory I have, but I am a pretty quick study, and after talking to him for 2 hours, I feel fairly confident with my assumptions. And that's all I have to say about that.

The other deal that we signed docs for yesterday, is still not closed because the bank still hasn't sent the deed package to their title company. I will get to the bottom of this one tomorrow. I think it is just a matter of harassing a few people (by harassing, I mean calling them every half hour until they get it done), and as you all know- I have a masters degree in harassment.

And then...the cherry on the cake of my day....I just got the HUD emailed to me from the bank's title company for deal #4 that is supposed to close tomorrow, and that I thought would never close because the bank's title company forgot to order the lien search until last week. This is great news!

P.S.

I bet I just totally jinxed myself.

Damn.

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!

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.

9/26/2008

Just as I suspected, I got a call from Mrs. Hancock yesterday afternoon telling me that she only has half of the money she needs to give the hard money lender to bring her other loan current. This is after she swore to me that she had the money and would bring it in first thing yesterday. She goes on to say that she will for sure, for real this time, have it today (yeah, right). I just got off the phone with her, and now she is telling me she won't have it until Monday. Too bad we have to close Tuesday, Mrs. Hancock. This lady is a real piece of work, let me tell you. When I initially signed the contract with this lying idiot, she told me she had 20k cash saved up for a down payment. That quickly turned into "well, I don't actually have the 20k- my uncle does" and that turned into "my uncle is out of town and I don't know if I can get the money," and then "my uncle lost the money in a bad business deal, but I'm sure my sister will loan me the money." And, as it turns out, this lady doesn't even have a dime to her name and is already behind on a loan with this lender, who, now that I think about it, probably has no intention of writing her another loan and is just trying to get her to pay what she owes on the other one (which, by the way is $3200- up from the $700 she told me yesterday). I can't imagine anyone being dumb enough to loan this lady any more money when it's obvious that she's broke.

Oh, and then the absolute best part of our conversation today (and I saw this coming a mile away), was when she asked me if I would put up the rest of the money to bring her loan current! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Honestly, I had to put the phone down for about 10 seconds and find my happy place, because I was so close to blurting out "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME LADY?" and hanging up on her. Seriously, can you even imagine the nerve? Who does she think I am- the United States government? (zing!).

Well, I'm off to go look at some houses.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

P.S.
20 days until Steve's boot camp- be there or be square!

9/25/2008

Well, the Deal From Hell continues to live up to it's name... The buyer finally got the money together for the down payment, and everything looked like it was good to go. I spoke to the lady doing the loan at around 3:30 on Tuesday and she said we should be able to close in a few days. I still had not heard from the bank's title company at this point, and I figured I would wait a day or so before I started pushing them to close, because I have learned that "I can get it done in a few days" is loan officer-speak for " I'll get it done whenever I get around to it, and if you try and call me to find out how things are progressing, I will ignore you until you rip all of your hair out of your head in frustration"..... So, anyway, a few hours after I spoke to the loan lady, I get a call from the buyer telling me she had bad news. Apparently, she has another loan with this same lender, and is way late on her payment this month, so they decided to not do the loan after all.

ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME??

The buyer, of course, has some BS story about why she hasn't made the payment yet, and says she is going to go in and speak to the lender first thing in the morning and see if he will still do the loan. I give this about a .0000001 percent chance of happening.

Yesterday morning, I finally get an email from the listing agent telling me that the bank is ready to close. AWESOME. I figured I would give them a taste of their own medicine, and I just ignored the emails, and also shut my phone off for most of the day. We are out of contract anyway, and no one has bothered to even call me or email me up to this point to let me know what is going on, so screw it. Once I turned my phone back on, there was a message from the buyer telling me that she has good news, and they are going to do the loan for her after all. So, I call the loan lady up for the 75th time to ask her what is going on, and she tells me that they will do the loan if the buyer brings in a cashier's check in the morning for the payment she is late on. I called the buyer back and asked her at least 100 times "Mrs. Hancock, ARE YOU SURE you can make that payment tomorrow? ARE YOU SURE? ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE SURE? And, of course, she swears to me up and down that she will be in first thing in the morning with a cashier's check to make the loan current.

Shortly after that, I called the listing agent to ask for an extension until the 30th (next Tuesday). She wasn't too happy about it, but they were the ones who couldn't close on time, so they don't have much of a choice.

And, there you have it. That's where we're at with The Deal From Hell. I am expecting a call any second now from the buyer telling me that something went awry.....or from the lender telling me that they changed their mind again and aren't going to do the loan.....or from the listing agent telling me the bank won't sign the extension and they want to close today.

The other deal that was supposed to close Monday, is still in limbo. I guess they finally got in touch with the attorney who handled the foreclosure on the property, and they are trying to get the one remaining lien taken care of. Or something like that.

Hopefully at least one of these deals will get to closing by the end of the month. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Ahhhh, the glamorous life of a wholesaler...

9/23/2008

I've been wondering what would happen if I got an REO under contract, and then never followed up (babysat) with the bank's title company or the listing agent like I normally do. I kinda figured it would go something something like this........









Yes, that's right- NOTHING happens!! Nada. The Deal From Hell was supposed to close a week ago today, and I have not heard 1 peep from either the listing agent, or the bank's title company. No extension of contract, no explanation of why we aren't closing on time....NOTHING. This, for once, is a good thing, because my buyer (who is a liar, btw), is still scrambling around trying to put the money together for the down payment (that she swore up and down to me 5 million times she had) on her hard money loan. I'm just really curious to see how this turns out. Technically, I could just call up the listing agent and the title company, and tell them I want my deposit back and am not interested in buying this property anymore. We are out of contract, after all.

The other deal that was supposed to close yesterday is still up in the air. Apparently there's still one lien hanging around that should have been wiped out in the foreclosure, but wasn't, so they may or may not have to start the whole process over again. Or something like that. This may or may not take a really long time. No one knows. No one cares. Well, except for me, because I like to get PAID. I got this property under contract in July, btw, and have a 5k deposit just sitting there at the title company, which makes me extra irritated.

I've got a whole mess of offers out there right now, so I'm fully expecting to get another one under contract by the end of this month. I'm making my offers lower and lower these days. Seems that a lot of the financial institutions are in a bit of a pickle right now, so I'd like to take full advantage of the situation. Hehe.

Have a fantastic Tuesday!

P.S.
I was looking through the recent sales on the mls last night, and saw a HUD property that was listed for 75k, and sold for 38k. Not bad, eh? You can't get deals like that, though, if you aren't making OFFERS!! So get on out there and make some offers, people!

P.P.S
I guarantee you right after I post this, I'll get a call from the listing agent of the Deal From Hell, telling me they want to close TODAY. Bastards.