D Morrell's Journal

Welcome and congrats on starting your Journal. You story sounds a lot like how I felt when I started... scared to death!! LOL

You will get more confident. And so you kno.....it is hard to get realtor to be OK with less than 1000.00 as EM. I only do 10.00 or 100 dollars. and I write in that the EM is "due approval of inspection."
Keep going. you have taken action and that is great! So many people dont even get this far. Good Luck and happy investing

Not sure if this is how I add to my journal.
Anyway, I've looked at another property: vacant, comps. looked good. Went and had a 2nd walkthrough and took some pictures. Looked online at our local Home Depot to see what the rehab costs would be. That was a good learning experience, as I hadn't done that before. I took a paper from our local real estate investors group that has some rehab costs listed and compared that with the printout from Dean's training. Wow, both were close.
Did the formula to come up with my maximum allowable offer. I'm working with a new real estate agent (she's new to the business and new to working with me). She contacted me from my bandit sign. When she said she was a RE agent I told her I already had a few and didn't need any more. Then as we talked and she said she was new to the business I thought this might be better than the agents I was already working with that don't really seem to be investor savvy. She said she'd look for FSBO's for me. I helped her out by giving her info on having a free energy audit done on her home, and also gave her info on getting solar panels for her home. She signed a contract with a company to get solar panels, and I got a check for referring her.
Today I made an offer on one of the properties she brought me. They countered. Now I'm waiting for some paperwork to come in from the seller, stating some of the work that they said they are willing to do to the house.

Thanks for your comments Donna. When I made an offer today they wanted $1,000 earnest deposit right away. I told them that is not what I usually do, I usually put a $500 earnest deposit when the offer is accepted. I learned at the inner circle camp that the contracts are negotiable. I talked with Mike on the Advisory line today and was reminded that I'm making the offer, not the RE agent/agency. I'm going on vacation real soon, so I extended the usual time for the inspection period. And the RE agency wanted 10% down after the offer gets accepted. I told them I will pay the full amount due at closing. Yes, it is scary, but you don't know what you can get if you don't ask, so I asserted myself. And look, it worked!

I haven't posted in awhile. Had some snafoos with the property I have under contract. I didn't pay enough attention to the escape clauses and later found out I didn't like the dates for the inspection and purchase and sale
(which seemed to be reversed: with the purchase and sale set to happen before the inspection period was up). The paperwork also said I had to have a licensed inspector and had to bring them copies of the report and estimates. I found out that it is illegal for the inspector to give estimates. The RE agent then told me I could get the estimates from a contractor. I told her I was not used to doing any of this and I have been able to have anyone come inspect the property for me and I didn't need to pay a licensed inspector or have to pay for a contractor to give me estimates in the past. I told her to keep my earnest deposit, I was backing out because I was not happy with everything. It's her first deal and she called me awhile later saying I could rewrite the offer any way I liked, so we did that. I waited for the new signatures from the 3 sellers involved. I am now receiving inquiries from the craigslist ads I posted. I have less than 2 weeks for my inspection period and have high hopes that all will go well this time and I can assign the contract.
This would be a first for me.

I had a guy come out to the property to check it out. I had shot out emails to a couple guys in our local REIA group and they asked me to send them my numbers and how I came up with them. I used the 80% formula. They told me they use a 70% formula. I went to their office and talked with them. They said they are willing to mentor me and that they want me to add them to my buyers list. They give me their criteria and say they have plenty of cash available and can close quickly. I put a few bandit signs out in the past and got some good response. Though the signs I left out (and all but the one I put in my daughters yard) got taken. I need to figure out how to get the signs up high on poles so they are harder to get down. Anybody got any good advice for me here?
This property I had under contract didn't work out, but I got to learn some more negotiating skills, and gained some new buyers to add to my buyers lists.

My first deal was thru a real estate agent AND THE CONTRACT STATED THAT I WOULD HAVE TO PUT UP 10% WHEN THE DEAL WAS ACCEPTED., WHICH I DID. THEY ACCEPTED MY OFFER OF $123,000 on a progerty that they were asking $139,900. At the time i was suppose to have backing that would fund the deal. I had 10 days on the inspection, and come to find out my suppoes to be funder was just a like a bank that required me to come up with 20% down etc. Well just at that time my wife came down with cancer, witch took my mind off of the biz, for just too long of time, and my inspection time passed and there went my $1200 deposit.... Now i know the contract must really be in my favor, Also what do you say to a realestate agent who ask you where we are going to get our funding to buy the properties? Thanks for listening Fran

It took me awhile to find my journal here again. Since the last time I posted I have put an offer on another place. I was the first offer in and thought I had a good chance of getting it, but then 3 other offers came in and outbid me.
We also run a restaurant and catering business and have had 2 of our cooks get injured in the last 2 months, so we have been shorthanded and training new people. I put the word out the everyone I could think of that we needed cooks, and one of the R.E. agents I work with mentioned that at the restaurant he works at and sent a guy who wanted some more shifts to come see me. He is in training. See how networking can help.
Today we didn't have enough cooks to run our dinner shift, so we closed for the evening. That gave me the time to participate in Andrea's live chat(my Mid year review) this evening. It was great. Now I need to write out all the things I need to do to make it to my goals and prioritize. I definitely need to take care of the business we already have first (restaurant, catering, and the rental property), and then continue looking at listings and putting in offers.
Tomorrow we should be back opened on schedule at the restaurant.
Also had a bartender of ours tell me she was cutting back her shifts from 5-6 a week to 2. That means I get to do the remainder. I don't have much time to put into my R.E. business some days, but I will not give up. Failure is not an option.
We bought a rental property at the buying summit and the tenants broke the lease and moved out early. It has been 6 mos. it has been vacant and we are dealing with the property management company. It has been a long haul. Today I contacted customer relations at buyPD and they seem very willing to do what they can to help. If anyone knows a good property management company in Warren, MI please let me know. I'm not happy with the current property management company.

Thanks for sharing Fran. There is a lot to learn. I try to remind myself "it is what it is" and to deal with things as they come along, and to learn from my mistakes. There is a lot on my plate and sound like on yours too. I've learned to pay special attention to my escape clauses in my contracts. It has been tricky since I've been dealing with a few different R.E. agents and I find that all their contracts are slightly different (and the one that was very different). I sure called the advisory line with a lot questions. I truly believe that there is money to be made in R.E. and I can learn how to do it. I feel bad when I have no choice but to put it aside for a day, or days, or longer. But I have learned this much so far, and will continue to pursue my dreams. They may be able to side track me for awhile, but not forever. My prayers are with you!

I asked one of my RE agents to send me all the cash buyers in one of the nearby towns and I just got a list of over 50 cash deals in that town in the last 6 mos. Now I need to look up the property addresses and see if I can find out who bought the properties from the registry of deeds website in our county.

D, Couldn't your agent send you the name of those buyers???
Because she has access to the information. Tell you must have their names, location of purchase9addresses preferably), and the purchase price.

I hope this helps