chad.bartlett's blog

2012 was a roller coast ride. I joined the success academy in November 2011. At that time I was in Anchorage, AK turning wrenches as an automotive mechanic. Now I invest full time and the long hours of busting my knuckles and slaving away building someone else's wealth are long gone. My family and I now prosper 100% from my labors. We also help our local economy as a bi-product of my real estate success. I wanted to use this forum to share my failures and successes.

I found a property on CL and dialoged with the seller through email several times. The seller had purchased a second home and couldn't pay two mortgages. Finally he gave me his phone number and we spoke once on the phone before he accepted my offer. Once the property was locked up I put a lock box on the door (the house was vacant)and started contacting buyers. Two buyers looked at it within two days. They both said that it needed a good deal of work. I had estimated $15,000 in repairs based on the sellers estimates ($6,600) that I then doubled and then padded some more. The buyers estimated $20,000+. I sent the seller an email saying that my partners were telling me that the cost of repair was coming back higher than he had mentioned.

Today I finally got approval on a short sale property. The funny thing is that is was the first property that I ever made an offer on. Months later it is my first excepted offer after some price negotiating. The house has foundation issues and I have an engineer coming over tomorrow to work up a plan. From there I will get a few quotes from foundation contractors. If the estimates are higher than I am comfortable with ($20k ish)I'll try to renegotiate or walk.