Bad Decision

That 2 years you just wasted should make you want to formulate a plan of what has worked, and what hasn't, and then start again.

If the FSBO's aren't available and the Realtor's aren't cooperative maybe try researching probate properties. I've read a lot about them on here they sound really interesting to me. This way you would be dealing with the client before any Realtors get involved....just a thought.
Barbara

Great home in the heart of a county seat town that is a central location to a wide array of services and great jobs. Nearby University of Delaware/ Newark, Delaware. This house has three bedrooms and one bathroom. Upgraded electric and new oil heater and duct work in place. Large shed for storage is on the property. Also only house on the street that has driveway for alley and front street access. Potential for investment is a added value. This house is 1,407 sq ft and sits on a 6,011 sq ft lot.

116 maffitt st

Total view says it's worth $137k, seller is asking $110k. Seller seems motivated, no realtor to ask for a big earnest money deposit or saying an assignment won't work unless you can buy the house if it falls thru. Check it out and let us know what happens.

You mentioned that total view has it valued at 137k and its selling for 110k.
That is not enough spread. I had a few homes in that same area because its close to Univ of Delaware-- not enough meat to quote one of the investors. That's what I am trying to tell you they want something for nothing in my area.

Randy S.
Elkton MD

I am not seeing it on craigslist.

Don't know where you found it .

Randy S.
Elkton MD

Best thing to do with a seller who is willing to talk to you but seems to be inflexible in his price is be prepared. Show the seller the recently sold houses in the area, their size, beds, and pictures if you can get them to SHOW them that they are making it impossible for them to sell their house with what their asking. This is not necessarily an inflexible seller, but maybe an uninformed seller. Show them listed price and sold for prices and how long it took them to sell, as well as any upgrades the other properties may have that theirs doesn't. If they still don't care, thank them and give them your info and ask them to contact you later (then follow up in a month or so).

Also, if they want to get a certain price, see if they're willing to do owner financing. Often times you can structure owner financing like this. Ok, If I can give you (overpriced price they feel they must get) will you be willing to work with me? When you sell, what are you going to do with the money? WIll you need all of it right now? Could you possibly take in a monthly amount instead of the whole price upfront? (keep talking and LISTENING, and finally come to something like this) (If they have a mortgage you'll have to explain how you can do this) Say they say they'd be comfortable having $10K in cash now and can defer the remaining over time and need at least $1000/month for it to work.

In order for me to give you what you're asking, I will need to pay your over time for it. I am an investor and I do need to make some money on this, but I believe we can come to a conclusion that will be a win/win situation for both of us. If I give you $10K now, and pay you $100K (maybe add 10K to the price up front for interest to make it more attractive to the seller) for the next 100 months. You are getting a house with basically NO INTEREST (unless you add it to the price) and no income qualifying for a loan!

OR, you can see if you can do a L/O and do a sandwich lease.

Make sure when you do this, you use rentometer.com or zilpy.com to find out a realistic rent that will cover your payment, taxes, insurance, maintenance and if you don't manage it yourself, property manager. AND, make sure you put an inspection clause in so if there are any major repairs you can maybe get that cash upfront reduced as a negotiating tool to do the repairs, or lower the price by the needed repairs. If you do a L/O see if they'll do the repairs before you do the L/O or see if they'll work with you on sharing the monthly expenses. Think a little different, and it becomes an opportunity instead of a dead end.

Make the situation work to your advantage.

BTW, if you were to amortize a $110K loan the way banks do over 15 years at 5% interest, your payment would be $870/month + PMI of $50-65/ and with interest you would pay over $156K for the $110K house.(or $988/mo + PMI at 7% w/ a total of $178K). Now, with this method you just paid 110K for a little over 9 years. Overpriced houses aren't necessarily automatically NOT a deal.

I know your frustration and pains well, because I've been at this for just as long without any financial gains. Bad credit, lack of cash and still laid off from my job is no picnic. So, yeah, your pain is felt far and wide. Don't give up on yourself though, man. We pretty much started this thing together, two years ago. Yes this stuff does take money, but we've got to get more creative in finding it, that's all. I just found out that I've been sitting on top of it all this time while at a New Years night celebration. I won't make a long story about it, but now I have two close sources who have money and are looking to make more of it. My problem over these last two years was where I kind of fell away from doing any legwork to achieve what I wanted. Needless to say, Randy, just find the one's like me, who pretty much all started around the same time as you, to pull your encouragement from. Don't keep looking at all these people on here with stellar credit, who can get loans and other such sources without much ado and then post on here how many deals they've done with little of their own money down, or who's coming from money. Personally, though, I had thought you had made it big by now and I was being left behind by everyone else...lol. So those of us who started this thing 2 years ago, Please give your input and progress for our comrade Randy!

Congratulations on finding those 2 sources !! You know I feel the same way . I keep having this feeling that the key to my success is right in front of me and has been all along !! LOL !!

But I will not quit . Thank you for acknowledging how tough it is in our situation . It is hard to attract investors and / or put homes under contract when you don't have any money of your own.

It's time to rectify that . Happy 2011 to you Max and I hope it is very prosperous for you , me and everyone here at Dean Graziosi.com .

Randy S.
Elkton MD

I am having the same problem. Working to find a no money no problem approach and get the first deal to closing. If only I had good credit maybe something would give. If wishes were fishes........ anyway I feel like just knowing there are others struggling is a boost for me to keep my chin up. Please feel free to PM if you want to JV or just vent.

Hope this encourages you. I lost my job in a hospital over 2yrs ago after 28yrs. Only because of a horse accident that messed me up. But inspite of that, I got back on and rode 4 more years. Lost my job because I had to have back surgery and had lifting restrictions.
I have no income, used up my small pension, credit is fair. After the last 2 horses passed on, I moved in by a friend and sold "everything" I had. Live in a small room now with a few pets I still have.
So I do know where you are coming from. Yes I am scared to death for my future and going on 61 this week. But you can't not try!
I am doing offers and deals on assignments, small as they are, they are at least something. But I will say this, yes it can be done with no money or credit.
I have one home now under an assignment. He called me as he needs to sell now! I won't make much at all, but if I get anything even $500 it is more than I had doing nothing. I have another great deal that someone again called me about. But this family with this really nice place will do land contract, lease option, anything to avoid falling behind.
And here is a good encouragement.
Briefly. I found a FSBO, they wanted to get rid of it, was the dads home and he moved away. They wanted $90k and would take less, just to get rid of it.
I was not really smart. Being new and trusting I asked if I could try to sell their place. I had no contracts, didn't know how to do them.
So put out a sign, got a call in less than 24hrs. Another investor. I told him where it was, he went behind my back, put it under contract for 60k had open house the next Saturday, sold it for 74k and when I called him to ask if he was interested, as he offerred to pay me a "handsome" finders fee, he said he didn't buy it, but sent me a $10 gift card for Mobil gas. I found out weeks later from another investor what Mike did.
But see how easy that was. If I had contracts or would have known about contracts, I would have done it.
So please, just try. Advertise!!! That you buy houses..and advertise, I say I am an investor with some properties. When they called, I said, I have several I am looking at, what are their needs. Then I haven't lied with the ghost ad but yet they know I can find them something.
Sorry this got so long. But just try advertising, for free first. It does work.
Sandi

Liked your response, that is very good advice...
Can't wait to see what doors are opening this month yet. Notice I did not say this year, I plan on it happening now!!
Have a great day!
Sandi

"You mentioned that total view has it valued at 137k and its selling for 110k.
That is not enough spread."
........How do you know the spread isn't enough when you haven't even spoken with the seller and negotiated a deal? There is enough spread to do a lease/option....no realtor, no earnest money, no assignment problems. Go to Baltimore craigs list/real estate and in the "search for" box, enter the address.

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/reo/2143179849.html
$9900 / 3br - Cheap rehab! Make $50k in 30 days! (Winston-Govans)
Three bed one bath townhouse with porch front. Living room, dining room, kitchen, basement. Property needs total rehab. No board up on either side.
Estimated repairs $40k
Market rent $900/m
ARV $110k
Fix and flip or hold for positive cash flow. Must sell! Bring all reasonable offers. Seller liquidating assets. Cash or Hard money!

Someone in a previous post in this thread said they were from Baltimore and would partner up with you. Give them a call.

Speaking of hearing what may not be the best news....here goes....

It is very difficult to get these deals to go through when you have good credit and some cash in the bank, so can understand that if you have NO money, NO credit, and NO job...then you are limited to certain strategies that are typically very difficult in great markets like sandwich leases and assignments etc....

This is to be expected but you NEED buyers in this case and are working for them to find properties, so find the RIGHT buyers...serious investors. No money down deals are out there, I've done 2 this year with cash in my hand at closing....

One last thing.....

If you have Bad credit, no job, and no money, then there may be things that you are doing in your life that need adjusting since the results that you are getting are far from desirable?? Start improving these things once you pinpoint what they are and you will begin to see positive changes.

Randy I know you are having great difficulties getting something started, but I see that the last 30 post on this thread have been dedicated to your problem. Everyone has been offering you suggestions and you just keep responding with negative comments. As canuckinvestments just pointed out there is more problems in your life then not being able to make a deal.

Now if one of my sons told me that they haven't worked or been able to get something going, believe me I would not be so patient or polite with them.

Maybe you are putting off the sellers and buyer because you have such a negative outlook on the whole process.

You should do something positive right now to make you feel better about yourself then others might be more responsive to you.

Maybe go work a few days at day labor or something, offer to work with a Realtor to pick up some pointers,etc.etc.

I hope the next post I see from you will be more positive.

Good Luck

Not sure what the initial thread was, but I can surmise from the comments that it had something to do with working at real estate for 2 years and not getting a deal and can't find buyers, can't find sellers, everything is overpriced and their is no spread and/or underpriced, but you can't compete with the investors who have cash, blah, blah, blah.

How do I put this, but not be rude? Suck it my friend! We are all going through this! If this offends you... GOOD! I hope it puts fire under your rear end to get you out of this mental funk and into taking ACTION! For two pages, I have read threads by nice people who are giving you good advice and trying to help you get through this rough "mental" patch and you still don't get it. YOU ARE A DISBELIEVER! YOU LOST TOUCH WITH YOUR DREAMS AND CAN'T SEE THE BIG PICTURE!

January 3, 2011 has been exactly 2 years for me since I made a pledge to myself that I was going to do real estate and be financially free. I am still working at it. Let me tell you I have been down your road and it serves no purpose. I, too, played the "vicitim game", the "this market sucks game", the "this can't be done unless you have cash game", "the investors with cash snatch up all the good deal game", and finally "I can't find a realtor to work with game!" Unfortunately my friend, that is not your problem, but your problem is you. I have said it in other posts, but didn't really get it until it hit me hard about 3 months ago.

Our brain is a wonderful computer and it's job is to protect us. When we do something that the brain cannot comprehend it sends us thoughts of inadequacy, it can't be done, etc. The brain is in survival mode and will point out to you every doubt and/or fear your brain is subconsciously thinking to protect you from hurt and/or ridicule and embarrassment. You don't think it works... think about a time as a kid where you were really embarrassed. You never made that mistake again right! That's the brain in survival mode. You want to get over this... read T. Harv Eker's book or The Trophy Effect by Michael Nitti. Two short books that are profound on what we do to sabotage ourselves. So what was my big aha moment...

I run a real estate club, have an LLC, have a real estate license and can counsel you on every real estate investing strategy there is, but I couldn't get a deal. So, I was going to quit real estat investing. I left it for exactly 72 hours before I started feigning for real estate like I was a drug addict. I realized that it was my passion in life. I love of everything about real estate, not just the money.

My second aha moment came from my club. A new investor showed up, we hit it off and ended up partnering. Here is the kicker... this guy had ZERO education in real estate, read a book like Dean's and went and flipped 6 houses in 18 months. What the heck? How could this be? I am teaching this guy investing methods? Why I haven't I flipped 6 houses? I quickly realized it was his ATTITUDE! He walked the walked regardless of his experience. He had NO FEAR AND FAILURE WAS NOT AN OPTION!

As a result, I changed the way I approach real estate and myself. I just do it and as an outcome, I am working on 7 deals right now. All the scenarios I ran in my head were all lies. I went and did exactly what I was telling myself wouldn't work. Guess what? When you approach it with a NO OPTION FOR FAILURE ATTITUDE, the whole world opens up to you and you start attracting crazy, abundant things. I have people calling me out of no where asking for deals and money, etc. Change your thinking Randy and you change your life! Good luck... Get out of your head and into doing. Remember FEAR stands for false evidence appearing real.

Very well put, couldn't have said it better myself!

It is CERTAIN we will SUCCEED!

absolutely fabulous!!! congrats to you!!

ladies! We all struggle, but you get through it if you want it bad enough.

I have a property , open contract , POF letter and an interested buyer. Seller is motivated !!

Wish me luck !!

This one may be my first deal.

Randy S.
Elkton MD

Great job! You will learn a lot by doing and taking action! Woo Hoo!

That is great!! So glad for you!!
Keep up the good work and then turn around and do it again!!!
Sandi

I'm just glad to see that we got you up off your_____. Now keep going and I'm
also glad that your next post was a positive one, or we would have had to get after you. GOOD LUCK RANDY.

hope things work for you as you seem to have all the pieces of the puzzle. But just in case, start working on a "plan B" if something would fall off. Perhaps a second buyer? And then if the first buyer performs, you'll have your second buyer ready to go. If he doesn't perform, you'll have a replacement buyer. Congrats on your momentum, keep it going.

I apologize for coming off so negative !! The things I told you guys actually did happen to me . But I am sure that most people here on the site has had the same stuff happen to them as well.

I also admit that even while I was venting , I continued to try different things. I just got so frustrated with little things.

So , from here out I am just going to focus on dealing deals. No overanalyzing or sweating the small stuff. Just deals.

Here's wishing everyone here on DG.com a prosperous 2011 !!

Randy S.
Elkton MD

I wonder how Randy's deal turned out and how he's doing? Anyone know?