A while ago I discussed a property that I had under contract in which the tenants had lived there for 30 years. I almost let this deal go because I had a hard time showing it with the tenants and their 30 years of stuff still in the home(in one room there were boxes stacked almost 8 feet high that took up the whole room). Then one day late January I received a call from the owner stating that the tenants wanted to finally move . Although they didn't technically get moved out until this past Saturday, I immediately got an extra set of keys from the owner and put a lockbox on the door. I slowly (due to the fact that the tenants still hadn't completely moved)showed it to many potential buyers.

Sold our first flip on a deal we did with my sister in Indiana. The closing was on the 22nd. I am happy with 9k that we made, we had about $1500 of our own money in on this deal so that is a big ROI. 6 times our investment is that 600%. My sister made out on this deal also she made about 42% ROI. This was a good deal for everyone. THe HUD people got rid of a house they did not want any more. We made money and the end buyer wanted the house before we bought it, but she could not do the repairs. She is very happy with the house now that it is fixed up.

HUD asking 51k we bought for 35k sold for 72k we ended up spliting 18k profit after repairs.

Bought in Oct sold in Feb.

Over all I think this is our best deal.

the last quarter of 2011. Overall, the nation’s median home prices fell by a modest 0.1 percent. Nine Census Divisions are tracked, and here are those numbers:

Division Ranking 1-Yr. Qtr. 5-Yr. Since 1991Q1

USA -2.43 -0.10 -19.16 80.27
West South Central 1 1.24 1.07 1.84 94.52
East South Central 2 -0.76 0.33 -7.62 79.35
West North Central 3 -1.33 -0.21 -9.40 92.29
New England 4 -2.06 -0.60 -12.67 96.67
South Atlantic 5 -2.78 0.03 -26.07 76.39
East North Central 6 -2.88 -0.72 -17.05 59.08
Middle Atlantic 7 -3.43 -1.16 -9.99 97.19
Mountain 8 -3.59 0.62 -31.15 100.34
Pacific 9 -4.78 -0.11 -38.24 68.71

Ranking is based on one-year appreciation.

ARV $170k easy
Repairs $15k
Under Contract $95,500

Typical 'Bread n' Butter'
1400 sq ft
3/2 Ranch
1.5 acres

Repairs: cosmetics,paint, upgrade faucets,lighting ceiling fans...easy one

I just came back from closing our IRA deal. I bought it in my roth IRA for $14K and resold the property for $19K in about 4 weeks, considering free craigslist marketing of the property, getting the property under contract, and closing process time. We didn't put any money into, so I did basically wholesale the property to another investor. Now I can see my Self-Directed IRA growing faster than the traditional IRA market. The traditional stock market cannot beat $4K in a month and Tax Free! but Real Estate can do!

Fyi... for anyone interested about Self-Directed IRAs, my wife, Jeri, has done a lot of reaseach about UBIT (Unrelated Business Income Tax) as you could be taxed from flippling in your roth IRA, which will depend on how you structure your roth IRA and deals.

These are short excerpts from the week’s real estate news.

Home Buying Most Affordable in Decades

CNNMoney article says that buying a home now is more affordable than it has been in the last twenty years. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index hit a record level of affordability due to low home prices and rock-bottom mortgage rates.

Home affordability at this extremely high level isn’t translating into sales though. The tough mortgage market and people’s inability to afford down payments make it impossible for a large portion of potential home buyers to purchase even if they are inclined to do so.

30-Year Mortgage Rate Holds at Record Low