Flip This Wholesaler

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.

4/18/2008

Well, one of the REO deals I had going (the one where the listing agent forgot to send the contract to the title co. until 4 days before the closing, and who also told me to get a cashier's check for escrow made out to the wrong company, and then the title company FedExed the check back to the wrong address and someone else signed for it, and it was MIA for 5 days..... you know, that, one.. ) Well, anyway it closed yesterday! Woohoo! My first simultaneous close in the books. I got a call from the listing agent at 4:45 while I was on my way to the closing letting me know that the HUD was effed up. Hahaha. Shocking. It had something to do with the commission, but we got it figured out without having to get the title company to make a new HUD (which would have taken at least 3 weeks). What a pain in the ass this deal was, but at least it's OVER.

Now I'm stressing out over the other deal that is supposed to close Monday. The buyer sent me a text yesterday asking if we were still closing on time, and I sent him back a text telling him I was trying to get it done on time, but didn't know if the title company could do it by Monday. We've already extended the contract once, and I can tell he's kinda getting pissed.... So, the lady from the bank's title co. sent me an email earlier today letting me know that we could close it on Tuesday (the contract expires Monday). I called my buyer to see if that was OK, and I haven't heard back from him yet. It's not like him to not return my call, so, naturally, I'm imagining the worst case scenario- either he's dead, or he had a last minute change of mind, and is just going to bail. If he doesn't call back by tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to go into full-on panic mode. I have been harassing the listing agent and the people at the title co. for the last two weeks to get this thing closed ASAP. I can not even imagine not being able to close this on Monday, if they are ready. I will be exploring options B, C, D, and E if I don't hear back from him by noon tomorrow. Hopefully, I am just over reacting, though. Wouldn't be the first time....

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Deborah, who drove all the way up here from Venice to discuss working together. She's a newly licensed broker in FL, and I foresee us making a lot of money together....




And then John came over to celebrate the deal I just closed.......



Also, we decided that we are using the proceeds from the commission of this deal (he's my buyer's agent, if I haven't mentioned it before), to book flights to Costa Rica!! I can't freaking wait to go! My friend who moved down there last fall gave me the go ahead to come down anytime.... There's a small chance that once I get there, I won't come back, but I guess I'll ride that wave once I get to it (hehehehe).

P.S.
I bought a video camera for 50 bucks yesterday (I'm a bargain hunter, if you haven't noticed), so I'll soon be adding some video clips to my blog.

2/22/2008

So, I went to look at that Skypoint unit that I saw on Craigslist last week, and I LOVE IT!!! Love, love, love it. The owner and his girlfriend are super cool people, too. It would pretty much work out perfectly for all of us, because they only want to rent it for a year or two, and then move in, and I only plan on being down there for a year or two, and then moving elsewhere (Costa Rica?). They even offered to throw in their new furniture if I decide to rent it (sweet). I would have given them a deposit today, except, there's a little problem.....

There USED to be a park right across the street (up until a few weeks ago), but now it is a construction site. I guess they are re-doing it or something. So, I asked the guy at the concierge desk where people walk their dogs, and he said, "Well, that's kind of a sore subject around here." I guess a lot of people with dogs bought condos here because the park was right across the street, and now the park is gone, and people are PISSED. So, I need to figure out where I'm gonna walk Jim. There's a dog park about 2 miles away, which is fine during the day, but I'm not gonna be walking 2 miles at night through downtown. So, I'm going down there tomorrow to scope out the area and see if it's gonna work out or not. I talked to my Mom and my friend Brett, and they both said, "Well, what do you think people in New York do?" I don't know. I guess I could always just put Jim to sleep. Just kidding. So, anyway, I'll go check it out tomorrow, and then make a decision. I really, really, really, want this place, though. I told the owners I would call them Sunday and let them know either way.

Oh, here's a funny story for you..... Remember the Ronald McDonald House that I made an offer on a few months back? Well, it's still on the market, and I have been putting in offers every 3 weeks or so for the last few months. Each offer I make is less than the previous. My objective was to just keep offering on it until I got it, or someone else did. Well, yesterday morning I put in another offer, and when I got back from the gym, I had a missed call/voicemail from the listing agent, and I just KNEW that he was calling to tell me they accepted my offer. Hehehehe. Here's what the voicemail said, loosely:

"Hi Stephani, this is Randy Realtor calling you back about the offer you made on the Ronald McDonald House. The bank has rejected your offer, and the asset manager has advised me that she does not want to see any more offers from you on this house. Ever. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 123-4567......."

Hahahahahaha. Guess my plan backfired, huh? Oh, well, a little bit of rejection never killed anyone, as far as I know. I should put in another offer next week, just for kicks. Just kidding.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

12/04/2007

I finally got the Photobucket thing figured out- thanks guys, for helping me out. I appreciate it.

The seller of the deal I was talking about Friday where we were 4k apart on price (she wanted 99k, I needed to get it at 95k), ended up calling yesterday and saying she would take 97k. After going out to the property to meet her for the second time, I got her to accept 94k net. This is a deal that was brought to me by another investor, so we are working it together. We are marketing it for 99k net. Another wholesaler I know may have a buyer, so it will be a 3 way split, which is fine with me.

I don't really know what I'm doing differently now as opposed to what I have been doing all year, but things just seem to be falling into place all of a sudden. It's really kind of bizarre, actually. After spending this entire year struggling to put deals together and survive, it feels really "unreal" for things to be going my way for a change. It's kind of hard to put into words, and I probably just did a really bad job explaining it, but hopefully you get my drift. For those who have been reading this thing from the beginning, I think you understand.

The deal that I assigned to my investor friend is set to close next week, Thursday, I think. No worries about that one closing, as I have done business with him before, and know he is a solid buyer. Gotta love that.

What else? Oh, yeah, I think I mentioned in a prior post that I had news about Costa Rica. The news is, I'm not moving. Not just yet, anyway. There are two major reasons why I'm not going. The first, which is probably quite obvious, is that it would be really foolish of me to just pack it up and leave now that things are starting to pick up a little bit. The other reason is that I have been told by numerous people (including my friend who moved there), that Jaco (where I would be living), is a ginormous party town, and that if you have an addictive personality (which I do), that you might get yourself into a little bit of trouble. I left the bartending biz in order to avoid being in that type of environment (and also because I felt like a complete loser), and, as much as I know I would love living down there, I just don't think it would be a wise choice right now. ¿Comprende? Hehehe, I'm slowly learning Spanish.

I have some other stuff to talk about, but am about to pass out on my keyboard. Long day.

Buenas nachos. (Hehehehe).

11/26/2007

I just got done booking my flight home for Christmas. My Mom insisted on sending me money for the ticket, and started crying when I tried to refuse it. Bless her heart. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I really lucked out in the parent department. I haven't seen my Mom or Dad since my sister's wedding, and haven't been back home since I don't even know when. Long time. I usually try to visit in the summer, because even just thinking about the bitter cold, gray skies, and frozen, dead, everything, kind of makes we want to commit suicide just a little bit. Also, like I mentioned before, I have a touch of the SAD.


Anywho, I've decided that I need to make 100 offers before I go home for Christmas. I'm leaving on Dec. 22nd, so I figure if I make 5 offers a day (including today), that will put me at 100 offers 1 week before I have to leave, which will give me 1 week to find a buyer and get things wrapped up before I head out to Illinois to freeze my ass off for 7 days. Ultimately, I'd like to have a deal closed before I leave so that I will have nothing to worry about while I'm there, but I'll settle for having something in the works.

My wholesaler friend has 2 new properties for me to market, so I started doing that today. My intentions were to start marketing them over the weekend, but the turkey and breggnog (brandy and eggnog- also known as eggnandy) talked me out of it.

I'm also working on another deal that another one of my wholesaler friends called me about on Friday. It's kind of a long, tangled, messy story, that involves another wholesaler going behind his back and cutting him out of the deal, but in a nutshell, he's going to pay me a grand if I can get the property under contract for a certain price. There are about 5 other parties involved in this ginormous mess, so I'm really curious as to how it will turn out. I'm meeting with the seller either tomorrow or Wednesday, so I'll let you know what happens.

I also have news about Costa Rica, but it's an hour past my bedtime, and I need some zzzs.