Flip This Wholesaler

6/4/2008

I got one of my REO offers accepted yesterday afternoon, which is great, except the buyer I had lined up is now not sure if he wants it or not (grrrrrr). So, now it's a race to find another buyer. I didn't leave myself much time to close, because I was sure my guy would take it, so I kinda need to find a buyer fast. It's a good house that doesn't need any work, and I've got it at a good price, so I don't think I will have too much trouble selling it. We'll see. I've already got some signs up in the neighborhood, and put the word out that it's available.

Today I sold one of my wholesaler friend's houses to one of my cash buyers who was ready for another. The spread was really thin, so I'm only going to be making a grand off of it, but it's better than getting punched in the face or kicked in the teeth or what have you. This is the third house that I've sold to this buyer on the same street. He wants to buy up the whole block, I think. Fine with me.

The other cash buyer that is ready for another deal sent me an email today that really ticked me off. A lot. In a nutshell, I spoiled him with the last deal I sold him, and could probably have gotten at least another 5k out of the deal, if not more, but I'm retarded sometimes, and I told him how much I had it under contract for, which was a big mistake. Anyway, the place was a 3/2 block, needed ZERO repairs, he bought it for 72k, did a 70% refi (appraisal came in at 145k), pulled some cash out, and had it rented within a few weeks. This was his first deal, and apparently I gave him the impression that deals like that are just hanging out by the pool in my backyard. Anywho, I sent him a deal today (the one I have under contract) asking 79k. It is the same square footage, roughly, but is a 3/1 instead of a 3/2, but it is in a better part of town, and, would rent for a higher amount. It is rent ready. So, he sends me a (rather rude) email back saying (in a nutshell), that "frankly" a higher priced house that has one less bathroom is not very "appealing" to him, and maybe if I was asking 68k or less it "might be worth a look." Really? Well, go f yourself. How bout that? Go find your own deals and see how easy it is, pal.

Oh, You'll never guess who I had the pleasure of telling off yesterday.........Slim Shady's accomplice who wrote the bad check a few weeks back! I was having lunch with another wholesaler yesterday when this retarded piece of trash called the guy I was having lunch with. Slim and Co. have been pretending to be buying one of this guy's properties, too, and have been pulling the same shenanigans with him. So, I made my friend give me the phone, and I WENT OFF on him. I told him he was a dirtball and nobody in the entire city of Tampa wants to do business with him because he is a shady bastard. So, then, true to form, he tells me that he is still planning on closing that deal he bailed on like 2 weeks ago. HAHAHAHAHA. Then he tells me (this is freaking HILARIOUS), that he has a hard money lender in CHINA who is going to lend him FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to buy houses, and can he have his hard money lender call me? So, I play along, and a few minutes later I get a call from some other bozo with the same story. I let him have it, too, and let him know the only way I would ever sell him a house was if he showed up with a suitcase full of cash for the entire amount of the purchase.

These shady a-holes need to be put in their place. They give the rest of us a bad name.

I'll leave you with a picture of Slim that my buddy Bruce out there in Blogland sent me.....



Hehehe. You crack me up, Bruce.

5/16/2008

Well, a few hours after I posted yesterday, Slim's phone was turned back on. My friend got a hold of him, and he still claims to be closing today.

The check still hasn't cleared, but it hasn't bounced yet, either.

Not sure what time the closing is supposed to take place, but I'm guessing I'll be getting a call round about noon from SS or one of his cohorts with some story about why they can't close.

I'd love to be wrong, but I'm just not thinking this thing is gonna close.

I'll keep you posted.


P.S.
My friend closed on it yesterday with his own money, so he owns it now.

5/15/2008

I would think I was making this up if I wasn't actually in the middle of the deal..

So, my friend just called Slim to set up a time for closing tomorrow, and HIS PHONE IS DISCONNECTED. What a surprise.

I'm going to go ahead and guess that if he doesn't have the funds for his phone bill, he probably doesn't have 2k in the bank to cover the deposit.

My guess: he disappears into thin air and we never hear from him again.

Good times.

5/13/2008

And the saga continues...

I got a call from my friend earlier today letting me know that Shady never called back yesterday, and that he was pretty sure one of his other buyers was going to take the place (at a much lower price). I can't say I was surprised.

About an hour later, my phone rings, and guess who it is? That's right, Slim Shady (I even have him programmed in my phone as Slim Shady, which I think is hysterical). Anyway, he's all hot and bothered because he REALLY, REALLY, for serious this time, has the deposit, and wants to bring it over RIGHT NOW. FOR REAL!!! No, FOR REAL this time!!

I let him know that he pretty much lost any remaining shred of credibility with both of us, and that we didn't want to deal with him anymore because he is a liar and a waste of time. He kept insisting that he was for real this time, and said he would bring the deposit over NOW. No really, NOW. FOR REAL!! I told him it wasn't up to me, and to call my friend and ask him.

After a few more phone calls, Shady finally promised my friend (for REAL this time), that he would be right over with the deposit and the contract.

I have to say that I am totally shocked, because he did, indeed, show up with a check for 2k (that I will bet my dog Jim on, is going to bounce). He has until Friday to close, and I am giving him a .00000000000000000000000001% chance of actually getting it done.

I seriously will have a freaking heart attack if this guy actually closes.

Stay tuned.

5/12/2008

Wow this Shady character is really something else...

After disappearing for the last day and a half, Slim resurfaced again today, called my friend who has the contract on this property, and made arrangements to meet @ 3pm to sign the contract and give his deposit (this is at least the 5th time he has done this). 3pm comes and goes, and Shady of course does not show up. He then sends my friend a TEXT (because he is too much of a P-U-S-S-Y to call), asking if he can get another copy of the contract faxed to his "attorney" because he accidentally lost the one that was sent over the weekend. Right. So, my friend says no, he's not faxing anything until he meets up with Shady and his mysterious "partner" and their mysterious "attorney" face to face. (We pretty much came to the conclusion that Shady and his "partner" are one in the same, and his "attorney" is most likely make-believe, also). Shady's response, of course, was that he needed to call his partner and he would call right back. Still waiting...

At this point, we realize that this fucking loser is never going to close on the deal, but we're hoping to get a 2k deposit out of him that he will most likely walk away from. We're even thinking of dropping the price down to 46k or something (he's buying it for 60k), just to get a deposit out of him, because we know he will never close.

Nothing would please me more than to take this idiot's money.

Where do these people come from, anyway?

5/10/2008

I guess I should have kept my big mouth shut.....The buyer who was supposed to drop off the deposit is STILL giving us the run-around. My friend who has the property under contract called me yesterday evening to tell me what was going on. Apparently the buyer's partner (it's always a red flag when there is a "partner" involved- always.) keeps saying he's on his way over to drop off the check, and then, for one reason or another, never makes it. I guess this happened 4 or 5 times, and so my friend called and said he can't figure out what's going on. This is a guy, by the way, who is the craftiest, smartest, cleverest (I know that's not a word, but it sounds better), investor that I have met thus far, and who I would venture to guess, is doing more business than any wholesaler in Tampa right now, so when he says he can't get a read on a situation, I'm genuinely surprised. We have done 5 or 6 deals together, and usually he just takes control of the deal, and I don't hear anything from him until it's time to pick up my check. So he tells me that he really thinks these clowns are going to buy the house-they actually contacted the title company AND the listing agent (without telling us first), to see if they could close it yesterday. This created (another) big fat mess, since neither the title company nor the listing agent had any idea who the hell these guys were. ANYWAY, my friend called me and said he needs a second opinion, and asked if I would call the "partner" and see what I thought. He also said that as furious as he was that this guy kept giving him the run-around, that he just couldn't be a dick to him because it would be like getting mad at Ned Flanders. I didn't understand what the hell he was talking about until I got off the phone with the guy. I got the same impression from him- that he has every intention of buying the property. Nice guy too, and if he is full of shit, then he's the best hustler in town, because he has us both fooled. And this ain't our first rodeo, either.

OK, so, long story short, last I heard from him, he was driving out to Odessa (this was yesterday at around 8pm) to get the contract signed by his "partner" and he would have the contract and the deposit to my friend's office by early today. And that's where we are at with this deal. There's some more drama involved, but it's too convoluted to explain, so I won't.

Oh, do you want to hear the funniest part about this whole mess? Anybody wanna take a crack at what the "partner's" name is? Anyone?

SHADY.

I swear. May God strike me dead with a random bolt of lightning next time I go outside, this guy's name is SHADY. It's in the tax records and everything.

Apparently his Mom was a psychic.

4/29/2008

Well, the deal that was supposed to close yesterday is officially in the dumpster. The seller would not agree to extend the contract, and there is another offer on the table already.

Win some, lose some.

If I had to pick one of the 3 deals to bite the dust, it would have been this one, so I'm not going to bitch about it..... Well, except to say that the sorry-ass investor who had it under contract, was, apparently trying to re-wholesale it, which I find really hilarious, because if he would have just told us that in the first place, he could have saved himself the 2k that he put up for a deposit. If he brought us a buyer we would have happily cut him in on the deal, but instead, he opted to lie about it. Nice job, asshole. He also had a second deal with another wholesaler that was supposed to close yesterday that he bailed on as well. That's really a great investment strategy that he's got going on.....put up a few grand on a bunch of deals that you may or may not be able to sell, and then just walk away from them at the last minute. I like it. I bet he'll be coming out with his own course before long: "Wholesaling for dumbasses...... How to go broke in 30 days or less." It will be all the rage.

Let's see, what else? My car is finally out of the shop, which is good, although I could have done without having to shell out $1500. Oh well. If the same thing happened last year at this time, I'd be walking, so I guess I should be grateful.

In light of the 3rd deal crashing and burning, and the unexpected car repair, it looks like my trip to Costa Rica is going to have to wait. I'll get there eventually. Dammit.

I bought this Brian Tracy audio at Borders over the weekend called "Eat That Frog,"-(Mark Twain wrote, that, if you eat a live frog first thing each morning, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day). Good stuff. The cover reads, "21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time." Definitely up my alley, as I have a humongo problem with time management. In a nutshell, he instructs you to pinpoint the activities that are going to have the greatest positive impact on your life and/or business, and then tackle those tasks first every day... Pretty basic when you think about it, but I think most people (myself included), tend to waste a lot of time, well, wasting time. I've listened to all 3 cds several times already, and started implementing what I learned today. Like anything else, it will be a work in progress, but I am already beginning to enjoy the taste of frog...


P.S.
That's a damn cool frog picture, isn't it?
God bless Google.

3/10/2008

Man, I've had quite a day.

First of all, remember the free money I told you about back in January? Well, I called this morning to see what the status of my claim was (it's supposed to take up to 90 days), and the lady told me they just sent a check out to me on Friday for 1300 and some odd dollars!! S-W-E-E-T.

Next, I checked my email, and lo and behold, there was the HUD and the closing documents that I've been waiting for so I can get this REO deal closed. I guess they aren't even sending a notary/closer out this time- we just have to sign all the docs, FedEx them back, and wire the money to the title co. Sounds good to me. I called my buyer, and we are meeting at Starbucks tomorrow to get everything signed, and so I can GET PAID!!

Then, I get a call from the listing agent of one of the properties I made an offer on over the weekend, telling me that the seller is countering @ 60k! The house was listed for $76,000 (worth about $120k-ish), and my offer was 50k. Niiiiiice. This is another property that was listed as a 2/1, but really is a 3/1. Hehe. It really isn't in that bad of shape at all. Needs some cosmetic updating, paint, and carpet, but overall, not bad. Only problem is, the interstate is right behind it, but it has a decent amount of space in between, and it's on a not-that-bad street. So, anyway, after I went and looked at the property and checked the neighborhood out (it's kinda in the hood), I called one of the investors/wholesalers I met while calling "for rent" signs on my last hood excursion. I've never met this guy in person, but we've talked on the phone 20 or 30 times since my initial call, talking about deals and such and trying to make some money together. Anyway, I called to get his input on this property, and, as I'm halfway through describing the house, he interrupts me and says, "It isn't the one on 123 Main St. is it?" Yes, it certainly is. I'll be damned if he didn't just submit an offer on the property that morning for a little less than what I did, AND, he thinks he already has a buyer. We talked about it for a minute, and decided to just work the deal together. So, he called the realtor back and offered 49k, and I called back and offered 51k. Long story short, I got the property for $53,500. He (the hood investor) calls me back half an hour later and tells me this other wholesaler and another investor will take it for $58,500. My plan was to market it for $59,000, so this is perfect. I tell him I'll write up the assignment agreement (this isn't a bank deal, so I can assign it), and ask him what name they want on the agreement...... Wanna take a stab at who the investor is that wants to buy the house???? That's right- Slim frickin Shady. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Up until this point, Slim had no idea that I was the one with the contract, and I had no idea that he was the investor who wanted to buy it. So, I tell my hood investor the whole story, and he tells the other wholesaler that I won't do business with his buddy because he is a SHADY BASTARD. So, we hang up, I go eat dinner and chuckle to myself about the almost-instant karma that just transpired, and then my phone rings. It's my hood investor calling to tell me that he just got off of a 3-way phone call with Slim Shady and the other wholesaler. Slim swears up and down to both of them that he has never met a Stephani, and has no idea who I am or what I'm talking about (I met him 2 weeks ago at the title company when I picked up his 2k deposit check, and sat in the lobby talking with him for a half hour or so). He also claims that he never put a deposit down on that deal (I have a copy of the check, still), AND -this is my FAVORITE PART.....He says that the reason he didn't buy that deal was because the bank backed out at the last minute!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!! What a sorry-ass, lying, piece of shit!!

It's bad enough that this asshole backs out of a deal the morning of closing, but then, he can't even own up to it, and tries to make me out to be a liar. Bastard. He already has a horrible reputation around town, and I can promise you that I will continue to smear his name to every single investor that I talk to from now until the day I die. I can be a spiteful little bitch when I want to.

So, anyway, that was my day.... Got another deal, got one closing tomorrow, and got some free cashola coming in the mail.

I'm pleased as punch.