Anita's REI JOURNAL

8am Browsed the real estate ads online

10:00
Met with one of my Realtors to look at short sale for 100K...could not figure this one out because they owed bank 360K so how were they only asking 100K?

10:20
Reviewed list of properties I gave him to pull title info on. Found a 17acre parcel with small
house for 400K in mountains next to Premiere golf course. Owner only owes 28K on it but wants to sell it...just because e is tired of paying property tax and never sees it.

11:30
Met with other Realtor to look at property one town over. Great pieces but all were upside down so no benefit from either.

12:00
Went browsing through lower income neighborhoods and found some great deals....lol I f I had 300K cash I could almost buy a whole block.

2:30
Back on DG...cant stay away. Had to look up a few things in the forum. I had some questions that I needed good answers to.

2:45
Reviewed offer I received this afternoon on one of the house I got last week.

4:00
Ate dinner (my mom cooked)

5:00
Back on DG

8:00 Received several phone calls from other Graziosians (lol) seeking assistance. I was really happy I could help.

9:00 Owner called on house I was looking at to tell me that they sld it for CASH yesterday. They did not have to call but she said that she wanted to let me know because she had enjoyed talking with me and she just wanted to let me know it was no longer available but then she gave m her brothers telephone number (REFERRAL GUYS!) because he had a property he was trying to sell FSBO!.....get those referrals.

MORE TO FOLLOW

on 5-3 you mentioned

"it was a short sale
asking 100K even but upon further investigation owed bank 310K"

How did you find out what the owner owed the bank?

I went to a short sale and asked the realtor what was owed and she looked at me like I had 3 heads. Said she couldn't get that info.

Thanks,
D

Hazco

perhaps you should get another Realtor. Before I even look at the property I have my Realtor pull title and loan info (usually from Chicago title and loan online) and give me all info I need so I am not wasting my time or theirs. If you have a Realtor that really wants to work with you then you will know because they will give you all of the info you need to make the right decision on that property and not just try and get you to buy something. Also Realtytrac will sometimes tel you who they owe and how much...sometimes, it just depends on if they put that info in when they put property listing in.

Yesterday I was presented with a strange case of back dating deeds and wrap around mortgages.

To day I just learned that a house I put offer in on and thought I was getting just fell through because the partner of the person I was speaking to decided to let a relative have it for smae offer I made. They were not to disclse offer information to buyers but he did and they came with same offer and he took theirs. That was fine but just a little dishonest to me.

I went and viewed a FSBO last evening and have been itching ever since...go figure. Benedryl to the rescue.

Well today I am checking out some homes in Scottsdale Arizona via a live walk thru done by my sister that lives there. She will be giving me live feed via video cam. It is a mountain home around 3000 sq ft. It is selling FSBO for 330K but comps she 545K. The owner will carry loan himself if put 10% down. 33K. On a 40 yr term at 5.3%. I am running numbers and thinking on this one. That is why I am doing video walk thru.

Will update later

A couple of thoughts. Even at 300K that is still a pretty expensive house for Phoenix ie may not be a candidate for a retail flip.

I assume you are sure on the comps.. Phoenix has taken a pretty big hit lately. Why is the owner willing to dump 200K in equity AND carry financing?

With that financing, it might cash flow... or at least close to it if you chose to try to rent or LO it.

I have been working on putting together an investment team to star looking at and buying property in the southern sates. I lived there for most of my life and know the market quite well. My plan is to take advantage of the opportunity to buy up while prices are still low before the major manufacturing and commercial projects get in there later this year and things blow up sky high. So I have been concentrating on that and trying to finish up a few offers I wanted to put in in Cali before I head down south for a few weeks.

I have heard others talk about doing something similar (in HotLanta). I like the idea. Props down there can be bought for VERY cheap (if you look and negotiate hard enough). So cash flow is abundant.

How are you planning on managing them?

Since it is just me right now I plan on using my brother that lives in Mobile, AL . He is a licensed contractor and inspector and has managed most of the families real estate down that way for years. He saves up tons of money in repairs and maintenance. Also I like that with me not being there I have someone I trust managing thing. But if the properties become many, and I hope they will I have a very good property management group that I have used before that I will most likely use again.

But the CASH FLOW is there its just a mattr of acting not or regretting later.

How are you going to finance them? Conventional? Hard money? Cash?

Well my mom just sold some commercial property last week for quite a bit and i borrowed 100K from her. So I will pick up as many as I can with CASH and the rest on some kind of owner financing. My credit will not hold a loan which is why I was looking for other investors to work as a collective. But if I buy right I can buy 6 or 7 properties for the 100K outright.

Yeah.. that is about the price I was thinking too ~15 per.

If you pull property listing fr lets say Mobile, AL and search for properties under 20K you would be surprised at what you find. If you are interested I started a Group for Potential investors under the GROUPS LISTINGS

Went to another meeting on the investment property in Mexico. A new community they are building up near Baja California, similar to Costa Rica and those sorts.

Did not do too much was working on my house. If you will not in picture I have no screened security doors so I spent the day grocery shopping for the month and at Lowes. I love a hardware store. Hate the grocery shopping but I guss they gotta eat....lol.

Weighed in on 3-4 properties in Alabama and a new duplex in Mississippi and all were looking worthy.

Be careful with this. The laws in Mexico are "different". A lot of Americans who thought they owned beach front property got a shock when the government took the land back.

You really want a trustworthy Mexican lawyer involved.

Anita, do you have pictures of the Alabama properties? or online somewhere? Are you talking about specific ones you are interested in or just that there are a number available? I'd like to look at them. Mostly out of curiosity, but you never know.

Reatly trac.com has a great listing o properties there and already divided up by type of sale

Thanks. Were you wanting to partner with someone or just letting us know what's available?

I started a group on here for this but no on has shown any interest.

I'll look for the group.

Well I just dropped one of my Realtors. He was the one I had been working with the longest and he knew me quite well but he told anther client how much I put my offer in for on a duplex that I FOUND and BROUGHT TO HIS ATTENTION. It was not even on the market but the owner preferred to deal directly with Agent because he knew nothing about real estate transactions. My agent told some of his "friends " about it over a bar-b-que this weekend and this other guy was an investor and also an agent. He called my guy up and asked him to put in offer. SO I FIRED HIM AND REPORTED HIM! now he apologizing all over the place. I rally wanted that one too. A 3/2 duplex way under market for 120K comps for same size units on same street were 260K. Owner inherited it from relative and had just been collecting rent but not keeping it up. It was a great deal but another "GREAT" deal will be along before the day is over.

LEARN....then Start again.

That is really bad. Realtors like that don't last long because as a Realtor a lot of your business depends on reputation.

I have a neighbor down the street that has three kids and recently divorced. She just bought the first home she ever owned two years ago and is getting foreclosed on today. She had a two-yr arm and was paying interest only on a 375K house because she relied on her Realtor to get her the deal that was "best" for her.

Well she didn't. I just hate to see this happening to her. I sent my agnt to see her (Randy) he has over 20 yrs experience and we both know her only option is short sale but its our plan to GET IT SOLD!

I guess I am taking this one personally. At least she does not have to worry about a place to stay. I will be leasing her one of the homes I just purchased in the same neighborhood.

I guess life happens...you just deal with it and move on. I know we deal with foreclosures and pre-foreclosures everyday but when it hits so close to home it is different and it hurts.

Well it is 6:30am and I am checking out DG posts.

Around 9am I will be on my usual weekend hunt for the deal of a lifetime. I have several properties I am looking at today that are 1/2 acre to 1 acres with two homes on same lot. Most are REO but several are also FSBO. More than likely I will be working with those.

I also have a meeting with an investor I have been speaking with regarding financing of the apartments. Wish me luck

Hurrah for ME!

I contested everything o my credit file about a month ago and asked that until the issue was resolved it be removed. Believe it or not I contected 48 items and they have remove 36 and then today AMERICAN EXPRESS CALLED ME!!!

Apparently my score is now a 703. The offered AND APPROVED me for a AMEX BLUE and AMEX BUSINESS GOLD!

Guys I now have my earnest money, down payment and I am on the road to getting to where I want to BE... A REAL ESTATE MILLIONAIRE.

I am using my new found financial freedom VERY wisely and I plan to track and keep current on everything.

Dean I did what you guys told me to do regarding my credit, and I followed Cindy's advice too and it worked.

GOOD JOB, ANITA!!

Well its the day after...lol and I am still here.

I have a busy schedule today. I will be looking as 2 FSBO before 10am then around 12:30 I meet my Realtor and look at 4 REO properties all double house on each. Meaning two complete houses on each property. I am changing my strategy a little and holding down o the multi units like duplexes, triplexes and quad. The lenders all want them to be occupied and you know REOS are empty. So I am finding properties with two houses on them or mom-in-law houses in back and I plan to utilize them as dual income properties.

So I actually get two properties for investment units instead of one.

Then I am "PRACTICING" for the afternoon. There are some vacant house, not run down but vacant for more than a year and I will practice locating and talking to the owners. They are actually not ny that I want to put an offer in on but I just want to collect info, you never know when it may come in handy.

more later.

Well I went and looked and found a few that could be possibilities but one of the FSBO has water damage to the ceiling in the living room and a sagging room over same area. They tried to cover it up with a popcorn ceiling but when I asked about it I was told that it was old. It does not look old nor does it look to be from rain. Upon further inspection I discovered the swamp coolers water piping ran thru the roof of the house and it was still leaking and when you looked into the ceiling access panel all you could smell was rot and mold. Definitely a NO GO!

Mrning guys
I am taking the ay off. After the horendous day I had yesterday with those properties I am taking a break and resting my mind so that means I will be on here most of the day lurking around the forums...hahaha

Anyway I did end up doing one assign yesterday on a house I put an offer in on last week, I got approval from owner and had buyer lined up. It was in Alabam and the assignment fee was only 1200.00 but the house only cost 17500, so some money is better than none.