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...

6/12/09

So, as you may have guessed from my last post, Mr Price didn't want to go along with the proposed price reduction. He sent over extension #4, which would have the property closing on the 19th (next Friday). I haven't signed it yet, and do not plan to, unless I can find a buyer this weekend. I made up a story about having to get my GC back in the house today to look at the repairs one more time before I sign the extension. If they get impatient and try to reach me today to see what the status is, I'll conveniently not answer my phone and/or emails, and drag this thing out until Monday. After almost 2 months of waiting on this jerk-off to sign a couple of documents, I will thoroughly enjoy giving him a taste of his own medicine.

I put out 30 signs for the property yesterday, and strangely, have not received 1 single call. I've never had that happen before. I'm heading to the sign shop today to pick up 100 more, and the goal is to put all 100 out this weekend. If that doesn't get my phone ringing, nothing will. I need some new buyers anyway, so it all works out...

I could be mistaken, but the last time I checked the mls, there seemed to be quite a few new REOs listed, and I'm wondering if that fabled 3rd wave of foreclosures is on it's way? I certainly hope so. Everybody better clear the way once it gets here, because I am GOING TO TOWN!

Well, I'm off to the pool- I've got a swim date with Michael Phelps....

Have a great weekend, Blogosphere!

6/3/2009

So far so good with my Power of Less Challenge. It's day 3, and I've been up at 6am all 3 days, and in the pool swimming laps by 6:30. I wasn't aware of it until yesterday, but apparently Michael Phelps lives in my building, and trains in the pool on the 8th floor. OK, not really, but there's a guy who looks just like him who was at the pool the same time as I was yesterday, and he was swimming up a storm and making me feel like a total jackass. I may as well have been dog paddling... he was swimming 2.5 laps to every one that I swam. It was quite embarrassing, but I ended up getting a phenomenal workout because I was trying extra hard to keep up with him. I can barely move my arms today, which is a good thing...

On the real estate front, things are going well. For the most part. The short sale that I got under contract a few weeks ago is scheduled to close next Friday. The deal that has now been extended 3 times looks like it is going to crash and burn. The new extension goes until the 10th (next Wednesday), but I don't have any confidence in the bank signing the closing documents. DB is the buyer on this one, and he said that if it isn't ready to go by the 10th, he is going to pass, and I can't say I blame him. It's been over six weeks now since we signed the initial contract. Also, there is a leak in the roof of this property, and after all of the rain we got these past few weeks, there is quite a bit more damage (and mold) than there was a month ago. The bank actually sent someone out to cover the roof with a tarp last week (after I called and complained), but the damage has already been done. I tried to get them to knock off a few grand to compensate, but, being the ignorant assholes that they are, they wouldn't budge.

I sent an email off yesterday to both the listing agent and the title company letting them know that I am going to pass on this deal if it doesn't get closed on or before the 10th. Both of them forwarded it to the bank's asset manager, who, apparently doesn't give a crap. If they aren't able to get it done by the 10th, I'm going to try one more time to get them to knock several grand off the purchase price. If they say no, I'm going to have to walk. Nothing like having a payday flushed down the toilet because of someone else's incompetence. Yay!

Other than that, I've been busy making offers and looking for buyers. Gotta keep the funnel full..

Gotta run- later alligators!

4/23/09

You guys are probably going to think I'm making this up, but I now have 7 deals locked up, and am waiting on a contract and deposit on an 8th! No kidding.

I sold one of them to a guy who responded to my Craigslist ad that I posted over the weekend. I haven't used Craigslist in a long, long, time, but decided it wouldn't hurt to start throwing some ads up every once in awhile- it only takes a few minutes to do, and it's FREE. I love me some free advertising. So anyway, I got 2 calls on the ad I posted, and ended up meeting one of the guys yesterday for coffee. He didn't buy the property I was advertising, but ended up putting a contract on another one that I have an option on. My option price is 30k, and this guy is going to buy it for 35k. This makes me happy. Craigslist rocks.

Today I'm meeting 2 of my wholesaler buddies for a power lunch. The 3 of us together are a dangerous combination. In a good way.

I'm also going to be putting out a bunch of signs today- I just bought 100 last week. My goal is to put out 25/week. That will keep my phone ringing for sure.

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

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

P.S.
Thanks to all who are participating in Accountability Monday- I look forward to hearing about all of your successes this week. I'm kind of slacking on my goals at the moment, but will be sure to have everything done by Friday.

2/6/2009

It feels good to be back in the swing of things. Took me a day to get back on track, but now I'm ready to do some damage..

The deal I was working with Lee closed on Tuesday.

Still waiting on the bank's title company to get everything ready for the duplex deal. This, of course, is the one I'm working with Murphy, and I'd like to just go on the record as saying that I think this deal is going to be added to the list of deals that we've worked together that have crashed and burned. I get the feeling that something is awry, and every time the phone rings and it's him calling, I just know he's calling with bad news. Supposedly, the bank is trying to negotiate with the city to get a lien reduced (or something), but it seems to be taking an awfully long time, and I just think there is something else going on. Or maybe I am just paranoid because every deal that we have ever worked on together has ended up in the dumpster.

Yesterday, I got a call from an agent on a property that I offered on on (on on?) January 20th. In case you don't have a calendar handy- that's over 2 weeks ago. Anyway, the property is listed at $29,900, I offered 11k (hehe), and the bank countered at $18,900. Nice. This house is a glorified shack, but if I get it cheap enough, I can sell it. Usually when they come down that far off of list price right off the bat, they will come down more. I'm pretty sure I can get 19k for this (famous last words), so I countered back at 13k yesterday afternoon, and hopefully will get a response back today. I love getting good counters on Fridays, because then I have the entire weekend to get my buyers out there to look and give me feedback.

I'm back on the offer train, so today I'll be looking at more houses, putting some signs out (in the cold), and blasting out some more offers...

Have a great weekend y'all...

P.S.
Countdown to Costa Rica, T-minus 16 days! Woohoo!

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.

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.