Spellbound's Journal - A confusing trip

Leland,
Welcome Back! Sounds like you are working it, good job. I have been doing this, learning, overcoming info overload etc so I know how you feel. Great job on the bandit signs. Were those for investors, properties or both? The one thing I would have done differently would be to build my buyers list first. It is no fun losing a deal because you don't have a buyer.
Best of luck

thanks Jim

with the signs i got land lord, other investors and renters all with the same sign " 3br/2b owner desperate and the # " so it worked well i had calls for a week and it was a full time job just answering the phone and they started ringing at 7am to about 10 pm. I will have to make them a little different for the type of buyers i want...

Well my I called my agent yesterday to find out why i had not heard from her and she told me she had just send me a list of 10 properties and 1 of the was ready to sell now...so i need to look over the list and go walk them and see what they look like. I don't know if i am getting into a hurry as i have not finished my power team yet.

I have been loading my plate up so much I don't know where to start at times.
right now i still have to find a few contractors and closing agent and get them set up on my team.

in 2011 i set up an "S" corp, this should be good for wholesaling and I have my business cards, so that is done and still will need to set up a few LLC's also later on when i can.

I have a buyers list from the bandit sings i put out, just need to check and see how good my investors are.

I know i am missing something just hope i find it before i need it.

Well tomorrow I will do my walk through with my agent and she just told me that one of them is an estate sale and the attorney wants an offer of any kind... If i make a deal this will be my first one !! so nervous about it all..Got about 10 to look at and my mom wants to go with me to look at them so i will take her so she can get out of the house.

I don't know anything about Estate sales is there any differences about the way you would do one ? What is all involved with them ?

Well i did the walk through and only looked at 5 and the estate sale had 3 houses on it. 1st was full of crap wall to wall that would take a week just to get clean. Part of the ceiling sagging and a few roof leaks where the drywall was falling off. 2nd just full of stuff and had a hole in the roof in 2 rooms and the 3rd one i could not get into to see it but it looked like it was the best one a little smaller but in better shape...funny the neighbor said he was interested in the 3rd one

not sure how hard it would be to fix the ceiling so its not sagging or if its even worth messing with. I have never done a rehab so i am not sure what all could be done with this mess but if it can be fixed without a lot of money it would be the money maker. They just want an offer and I don't thing anyone will put one in on it.

a few was ready to rent and did not need anything work to them.

When is it too much rehab to do and better just to tear it down ?

I took a lot of pics so i would remember what they looked like and keep track of them for later if i need them.

Got to go back and look at 4 more tomorrow..

I know i am not ready to do a rehab so i am just looking to assign the contract, but still need to know more about it so i will know more of what i am looking at

Well done!! Keep taking more action and it will definitely pay you off at the end..

Goodluck:)

Properties with repairs are always good deals as long as the seller is motivated. YOur offer= FMV X 0.70 (depending on your market) - Repairs - your profit = your max offer.

Sometimes you really don't have to drive up to these properties before you put an offer. You can call up a contractor to go with your agent to estimate the repairs.

Please don't forget about your buyers list and following up with them even though you don't have a deal yet for them.

Hope this helps.

______________________
TC
Miami, FL

So you would take your contractor with you to view the houses then or would you make arrangements for him to look at it later ? I am really not sure about how to fit him in.

I looked at some more properties with my agent 2 weeks ago and she is just now getting some information back to me. I had asked her to give me some comps for : foreclosure( so i would know what properties were selling for at foreclosure),rental( in case my investor wanted to rent it out), and sales ( so i would know what it should sell for to get the amount i should offer with the other items and repair value) of the properties we looked at. Sunday i sent her an email telling her i needed to find out when i could go look at 3 of them with a contractor to get repair value and she still has not got back with me about it....I like her and she has 30 years of experience and has worked with investors before, but i think it may be time to find another agent, she has no drive. Today she sent me some info on 3 of the properties and found that one she had showed me had be sold not long ago and i see it was an investor who is trying to sell the house, so that one is out.

I have to send some information to my attorney to have her make me a contract to use with FSBO.I don't know why i get cold feet when i get near things like this. All I have to do is get her to make a contract for me that will allow me to get out of the contract if i have to without losing anything.

All i see are road blocks with me not knowing or not sure about the next step, i think i am on the right tract. Its funny when you think about what little things you will let slow you down or just stop you. I know I will look back and say what was i waiting for ?

Well tonight i talked with an closing attorney who does mostly Real Estate to see if i wanted him on my team. He does about 2000 closing a year and has been doing it for about 17 years. When i started asking him questions about working with investors, assignment of contract, double closing...he seemed lost a bit. When I asked about assignment of contract he asked how many closings i have done and then what my job was now. I told him I had not done any yet and was new and trying to make sure i had good people on my team before i needed them.

He told me all of the investors he worked with have their own money to make deals with, so I really don't think he has worked with an investor like me before. I think i will call some more tomorrow and see if i find one that i connect with better. Seems like i am moving so slow with this all.....

Thanks NATCHEZ MISSISSIPPI for finding someone in my area and letting me know about them.

This is what its all about helping each other to make a difference in each others lives. I now have a new friend and we will see how far we can take this new friendship ( who is an Real Estate Agent and Investor )and what we can make out of it. We each have hopes and dreams and it means so much when others help you reach your dreams.

We will meet soon and start helping each other push forward into our Investor careers as we increase our Real Estate Portfolio and enrich our lives and the ones we touch.

Well the other day I was taking my son to his friends house when i saw a trailer with a broken window and tall grass and vacant. I pulled up in the yard of the house next door and found out about the place a little. It had have a lot of high level officials come and visit the trailer, DEA, FBI and the local police department. It seems that business was going good there until they got busted for meth lab in the trailer a few times. Anyway I was told that it was also being fixed up but they had not been there in a long time....sounded like they ran out of money and maybe i could make a deal on it.

Well today my son sent me a text and said there was someone there cleaning it up, so i went to see them. I found out that the owner was and X-police officer who had turned Investor and had about 100 rentals, so i gave the guy my card to give to the owner and have him one as he was doing rehabs for the guy.

Got me some foam board to put up on my wall to put a map on and use map pins to track the areas that are hot and i look at. Should help me see what area is near it and be worth looking into.

I was thinking yesterday and I remembered that I had gotten the Rock Bottom Blue Print program of Dean's that i have never looked at....I felt so stupid for not remembering that and all the information that was in it, so I started to read it and get back on tract...need to get the ball rolling and make a new life now and not waist any more time.

You think back and see what little things you let get in your way of doing what you knew you should be doing and it will make you mad. I think self discipline is one of the hardest things to do.

I also picked up Napoleon Hill's The Law Of Success to listen to in the truck when i am going to look at a property or just driving. I have to get back in the habit of self improvement so i can keep growing.

Well back to work

Hi, I have done 3 deals and relate to you since I quit my job in 2011 to do the business but had a ton of obstacles and problems one of which is my wife going to mexico fighting immigration and battling blindness but anyways finally am getting going and the most important thing I would say like our friend said is getting buyers that simple.

Get buyers, lots of them, find out what they want, and give it to them and get paid, that simple, and you will get deals. Get your 1st deal and you will explode from there and you need to since you said you will run out of $ soon so just get buyers, get deals w/the info the buyers give you and make $ ok. God bless.

@CaliTony, I have started a buyers list and am working on putting more on it. It sounds like you had it really hard with all that happening to you and good to hear that you are getting going now and I like your saying " Im too blessed to be stressed " I like that...

I am sure it will explode after i make my first deal and thanks for the encouragement and I am not going to let this beat me I will win the battle

You can use the state contract for your deals and all real estate agents use that as far as I know. Make sure you just add and or assigns and that you have a good contingency clause in case anything happens and you need to get out of the contract. Yeah, you may have to look for another real estate agent. It took me a while to find one, and now he is not so demanding but works hard and even texted me yesterday Saturday about some deals. He has also automated my list to save me asking and him the trouble of always putting them in. One list he hasn't been able to automate is the expired listings, but he still sends them almost daily.

I will check in on that, I have sent the contract off of here to my Lawyer to look over and make sure the contingency clauses i want to use will work and i will have a way out if i need it. My Agent works slow and has over 30 years experience, but i don't think she has worked with an investor like me. I have also found another DG member who is a Agent also and I will meet with him this coming week and see if we can work together and make some deals happen for both of us.

Thanks for the help

Well this morning i will be getting some estimates on a few properties so i will be able to run my numbers ( if i understand it all right ) and see if i can put in an offer on a property. One could be a push down and rebuild and if that is the case with that one i will just walk away. The others are not as bad so we will see how it pans out.

Hi Spellbound,

I'm a Canadian investor who is also just getting started. And I'm finding this to be a very time-consuming occupation. Haven't completed a deal yet nor cashed a cheque, so hoping all this time and effort will pay off in the end. I've closed on one property but am waiting for contractor estimates. And I have four more closings slated for the next 3 weeks. And I have an offer in on one other, and am negotiating a FSBO deal as well. So lots on the "go" but nothing completed yet.

Just wanted to commend you on your bravery in stepping away from a guaranteed paycheque and encourage you to keep working hard - - I am looking forward to hearing about your first deal!

Thanks for the encouragement and I will not stop until I make it. I can't stop or I will go hungry and have nothing. I positioned my self this way so I could not stop but find ways to make it work for me and my family.

If things work out I will make a deal soon

Well today I meet the contractor I found and we looked at 4 properties so I could get my estimates and he said he would have them back to me around Wednesday and my agent is finishing up the comps for me. After I get all my information I will run my numbers and see what I think i can offer.

The contractor had a good idea on one of the properties we looked, it was turning one house that had been added to over the years into a duplex and that would help my investor get his money back that much faster..I really liked that Idea even if I am not keeping it or they don't take my offer.

My agent started to open up to me a little bit more today also and she has a lot of information she is sharing about the area and what is selling and what is not...

Time to do some more work now that I work from home....

Keep it up. One thing I would suggest to you is to have like 3-4 agents on your team with specific different assignments.

Right now I'm just focusing on lease options and wholesaling other investor wholesalers deals. here is a good way to this which I learnt from Dallin who is one of Dean Success coaches.

1. Go on crag-list under for sale by owner and type in the search box
- Equity
-handyman Special
-Fixxer Upper
- Repairs

Let them know you got buyers who might be interested in there deals. For example right I have an investor wholesale property under contract and i'm marketing it to my buyers... The property is a 5/2 ...$15k in repairs...and he is selling it for $230. I did my numbers and the comps were coming out like around $350k.. I'm pretty sure he got the house for less than $200k because the bank was asking for $249k or something like that when I checked online.. So I let him know I got buyers and I drew up a contract with him for $227k and I'm marketing it to my buyers for $237k. I have three who are but interested but are yet to see the house. I plan on assigning my contract to my buyer for a fee. I;m going make at least $3k on this deal for sure.

Best Of Luck:)

I have read your journal and see you are working in multiple states and areas and i was thinking of doing the same thing. You seem like you are just about there and picking up speed. Thanks for the advice and help.

Today I took two maps of my area and cut them into pieces to put on my wall so i now have a wall map of the areas around me so i can track the properties and see what areas have the most activity in them. I got some map pins to mark properties that i have looked at and will mark the ones I need to go back and look at or that other investors have.

A couple of comments on your post. When you contact sellers, DO NOT tell them that you HAVE buyers! This is acting as an agent and is illegal without a license! YOU are the buyer!!! It is not their concern as long as they get the money and sell their house. Also, if you say that to a seller, they often will not work with you, telling you to send the buyer directly to them.

Now you have the property under contract for $227k. When you market it to your buyers for $237k, the $10k profit that you have built in here IS your assignment fee. You DO NOT charge him a fee on top of this. When you assign, the end buyer is stepping into your position on the "original" contract.

When I have the end buyer sign the assignment contract, I collect my assignment fee (in this case your $10k) in the form of a cashier's check or cash. you then give him/her a copy of the "original" contract and a copy of the assignment contract. Then YOU take the original contract and the assignment contract to the title company/escrow company/attorney (whoever does the closings in your state. I get my assignment fee upfront like this because very rarely will a buyer back out once he has skin in the game. Some investors wait until closing.

Spellbound, I am not highjacking your thread here. This is very important step by step info that will benefit you both. I also have some comments for you on some of your posts. I will be back when I have a little more time.

Good luck Guys!

Karen

Another thing that I strongly recommend is staying in your own area to do your investing until you know what you are doing. It is hard enough to get started there but extremely difficult investing long distance when you are still so new.

I would suggest that you try to get a seasoned investor to partner with you on your first few deals as a mentor. You will have to split the profit but at least you won't screw it up.

Best wishes for success!

Karen

The property which I got under contract was from another wholesaler who is an investor. He had a contract with the bank and he was looking to double close it and obviously he didn't have a buyer. The investor is well established and has a RE offices in the three counties in Southern FL. WHen I looked up his company name on the public record he got like 25 properties in Miami Dade. Then I went online at www.sunbiz.com to find out who is the main owner and I realized there was only one owner who goes by the name Jason (which means that he is a big time investor) To be honest, I wasn't dealing straight with the Jason owner of the company, I was dealing with his real estate agent who I guess is one of the sales person in his office in miami. So the other day like sometime has week I asked him if he can tell me what his boss Jason (the main guy of the company) is looking for, buy/hold or buy/flip and he was like His boss Jason is buying to flip. Then I asked him how much equity does he needs on a deal. He was like he wasn't sure and he will have to ask his Boss and then get back with me .

I got the property under contract between me and the investor Jason for $227k which is correct last thursday 11/7/2013 and I was suppose to have until tomorrow 11/07/2013 to look for a buyer to assign it to a buyer until I met this guy. I blasted it out to my buyers and didnt get a response from them.

So Monday I received a call from a guy Carlos who is a mortgage broker/REA and told me he got buy/hold buyers who can go up to a million and I felt I could let him know about the property which I locked up for $227k. He was to go see yesterday then I received an email from him and he was like the property is still listed as ACTIVE on mls. In my mind I'm like what a heck am I doing I could have done my research properly becoming marketing this house. So I had to contact Jason sales person who sent me the contract to see whats up and then he was like the property is gone and I was like today? then he was like yes. Then I was I noticed the property was still active on mls and then he was like we backed out because it was overpriced. LESSON I LEARNT: I gotta always do proper research before wholesaling other people deals which they say they got under contract with the seller so I dont get myself into trouble lol.

On the other hand, When I talk with like straight sellers I NEVER tell them I got buyers lol. I usually give THEM the impression I'm the one buying the property.

Everything works together for good: Even with what happened I was able to add another buy and hold investor to my list through this guy Carlos(mortgage broker/REA)..

Good advice Karen, so many people make it harder that it has to be.
A-B-C get paid, move on to next deal.
A mentor is "GOLD" they can help you through the learning curve much faster with a lot less costly mistakes and you have a great buyer on your list,how sweet is that.

Hard work pays off!

Aaron-n-Suzy

Thanks Karen for the advice and I will keep it in mind as i push forward and your comments are always welcome and appreciated as is anyone who is trying to give a helping hand

Well I read some post, well a lot of post and took a lot of notes. Feel better and ready to get going.I read one of Matt's Post and it got me going and ready for it all. I have a lot to do tomorrow, got to meet a fellow DG'er and make some progress before the end of the month. I will start my day at the gym @ 6 am running 1-2 miles and working out a little to get my day started.

Well today was a great day, I meet a fellow DG'er and it was great. He and his wife was just the type of people you would love to know. Very nice and not just talking Real Estate they are working it and very up beat and motivated. We will see what we can do to help each other out and keep each other going. We need to push out some deals and make some money. We are going to try and meet with each other 1 or 2 times a month to help keep us on track and reach our goals.

lets keep it going spellbound, right now researching where else in the country to wholesale and have decided actually where so now on to finding out average hm 3/2 bth hm price, average rents, & finding a realtor who is invstor friendly. tomorrow calling all of my buyers to go over their criteria of w/i am investing now w/is So Cal and the KC area and making 25 offers tomorrow there. I'ts all about offers isnt it, have to make offers, today I countered on a prop in KC area so my goal now is to make 25 offers a day either in So cal or KC whichever one, total, let's climb to the top baby.

That is right lets keep it moving all the way to the top.

Have a long day head of me today

1. need to work on my buyers list
2. call some on the list and check in on them.
3. need to post some ads
4. work on goals for the week
5. Need to get ready to make some offers on Monday