Donna's road to Success

thank you Cathy, We have been working hard. We still have many things to learn. Some days it seems like we don't know much. Thank you so much!

I want to thank all of the men and women that have fought for our freedom.We greatily appreciate it!

We have had some crazy weather out here in the NorthWest but I think we might see the sun today.
Dan and I have been moving right along. I think we may be finding our niche here. To all of you just don't give up. The good news for us this week is that we finished our last rehab and put it on the market. We got an offer in 2 days. Inspection has passed and we will close in about 30 days.....happiness
I am having a hard time finding another rehab property. I think I am offering to low.But then I have to remember it is a numbers game.
To all of you have a nice day.

Just stopping by to say HI and keep offering low. At least that way you know you are leaving nothing on the table.

Randy

Than k for stopping by Randy. What you said is a very good point. If I start offering higher then I am like everyone else. And I do not want to leave alot on the table. I will keep offering. thanks I needed some advice.

It has been a long 3 weeks since I have been on the site and I have missed everyone.
It has been an emotional time in my life so. I think I can focus better now. My daughter has been ill for 6 weeks but is on the mend now. I quit one of my jobs. That frees up 3 days a week for me and I am so relieved. I was helping my business partner by agreeing to work for his Dad as a consulting nurse. What a mistake. I have been working for free "training" 8 hours a day 3 days a week since April. It took all my time. Lesson learned everyone sometime you just have to say NO!!!!!
It probably would have been OK but It is real estate that I love. Now I am back in the game yippee!!! Dan and I are looking to build some wealth.

Our last rehab closes August 8th. we should profit about 70k. but most of it will go right back into out business to buy more houses and keep us afloat. I would really like to pay off our debt.But Dan and I have a plan for that. Tell me what you think.
We have a large amount of CC debt that is still drowning us. So we figure we can get about 10k from the proceeds of the sell of the house. The moneyfrom the REfund from DG, and do 2 lease options and we will be better by 60% that where we sit today.
Even though I have my RE license my Realtor Chris is still on the hunt for me. He is much better at it than I am and my RE license really was obtained for our property management business.
Chris and I have been focusing on MLS listing for owner contracts and by george this week we have 3 interested. The offer that was accepted today is a pretty good deal. It is a 2 bed 1 bath condo approx 980sqft, FMV is 90k, We have it for 60k, 10% down at a 6% ammortirized ballon in 4 years. it will rent out for about 850.00 which will also cover the 130/mo HOA fees. The positive cash flow will be about 250/mo.

I just wanted you to know that we did offer to let the new buyer pick the exterior color of our last rehab and He love being able to. The house was pending in 2 days, he chose "chestnut"

Am I too late for a refund??? Does anyone Know?? Let this be a lesson TAKE ACTION do not wait

I have been waiting for this silly house to close to turn in my paperwork but It is extended again!!!!!!!!!!!! Uhhggg. The bank is dragging its feet. They required 2 appraisels and now the appraiser doesn't like the paint job! So the docs are back in underwriting. WE hope to hear something today. What should we do the buyer isn't at fault. It has been under contract since 7/6/10.

Donna, Congrats and you found the right group to support you all the way and just keep your chin up and have faith and you will do well.

Paul

Thank you Paul. I needed your encouragement. That is what is nice about being part of this

Sometimes I do not know what to write about. This week us was every active for us.
DEal number one was MY first assignment. I wasn't much but I didi it!!! I was a 2 bed 1 bath house approx. 900 sqft. Another pocket deal from my awesome realtor Chris. I got it under contract for 35k, It needed 15k in repairs. FMV was 110k after repairs. The contract was to close in 2 weeks with cash. No worries, I had my buyer ready to go.
The Owner got tight for money some time ago and borrowed 2000.00 from a family friend and signed the deed over. We had to find the friend and get him to agree to the sell.. Then we found him got everything signed. Fantastic!
No quite yet, the title search came back with 6000k in liens against the house....Oh boy. So we had to negotiate again both sellers agreed to take care of the liens out of the proceeds. My buyer was all line up and agreeable to buy the house site unseen. This was his very first investment property.He is good friend of mine that has been listening to me and my husband for a few years now and watching our company grow. I am so proud of him.
Anyway, everything is ready we think ready ro close, But OH know . the second owner has and exwife the may or may not have an interst in the property. And she wants 200.00! Fortunatily for us we have a great title company, who check it out and found that she hadn't any interst in the property. Finally we closed and within the 2 week time period. I made 750.00 on the deal.

I have been working a deal on an owner carry contract. 10% down 5% interest for 4 years. The property will cash flow about 350 dollars a month.It is a 2 bedroom condo FMV 96k, purchase price was 60k. A few bumps along the way. The lesson learned here is do not give up. It took us a while to figure out how to make it work but we did, We wrote it up as a purchase and sell with an extended closing (4 years) and monthly payments until the closing date.

I absolutily love this business. It takes a lot of creativity. None of our deals have been alike. On to the next.
We have 4 more deals in the works and working 2 lease options. I will tell more details when they are finailzed.
And best of all my husband is back in the game.

Well, I tracked down your journal and have now caught up with all you are doing! Wow - I'm impressed. You are working VERY creatively in your deals...great inspiration for sure! I have done alot in two years, but it has taken me this long to kind of "step out of the box" so to speak and really start being creative in structuring deals. Thanks to you posting and so many others about all the unique things you are doing its really got me all fired up to get out there and do more!
As far as your refund question....you may want to contact Megan or someone on Deans staff to ask them about your circumstances. I missed my refund by one deal too. I always tell people make it a goal and keep it in the front of your mind or time will slip by! Just another reason why goals - both long term and short term are SO important to write down!
Thanks for sharing all your deals here and I look forward to reading more

just got finished reading your journal. i'm ready for a big nap now! you are so busy and doing so much. very creative. as Laura said, "thanks for sharing all your deals here". you are on an amazing journey and accomplishing so much. i also am interested in your comment early on about making the same low offer on a property over and over until they accept it. we have a property we need to do that on and we haven't. part of my issue is that i don't totally believe that the broker submitted the original offer to the bank. i am also a realtor, but not sure how to approach that issue and deal with it. i may have a broker i can call about it, but i have to tread carefully here. anyway, i will have to follow your journal regularly now because of all the excitement you stir up on here. way to go!!!

Thank you for stopping by. I love it when you do.
Yes we have been very creative. Every deal it seems is not straight forward. But if I just give up I would be no where. I know I could do a better job. But I still work as a nurse and the property management takes time also.
Thaks again Laura and good luck with your next deal

I cant imagine doing property mgmt! So much to deal with all the time! My first invest props were done long distance so I've never managed them myself and now Im spoiled And yes - every deal is presents its own challenges...thats one thing I love about real estate...its sure never boring I think you are doing awesome while still working..dont beat yourself up! Just think one day you'll have enough that you can turn all your props over to a different mgmt co. and sit back, relax and enjoy your passive income

Thanks Laura, I am not giving up NO WAY. I appreciate your kind words. I hope you rehab deals is going well

Well this week I have worked 2 12 hour shifts at my JOB and have spent as much time as possible with RE. WE are getting really busy again.. We have 4 accepted offers crazy!! and we are going to do them all!! Oh MY!! . This will be great. We should make 20-30k on 3 of them and will assign one for 5k. I love this stuff. Our house that has been pending for 7 weeks is finally going to close. I am so happy. Our team is doing awesome.
One of our deals in an aution house FMV is 110 I got it for 50k and it only needs 5-7k in repairs and back on the market. I will probaly list it for 95k or so and since I am the listing agent no fees for me...
My husband says I am a real estate freak!! and he has created a monster..
who little ol' me???

i hope to be just like that - a real estate freak/monster!!!

You can be a monster too. Hahahah My husband called ma a monster today. Keep going. sometimes you will be discouraged and sad but just keep going. Thank you for visit my page.

Well we have been busy of coarse. We finally closed on a property that has taken 2 months. In the passed 2 weeks we hve picked up 2 owner carry contract properties which is another good way to increase your portfolio.
We have been making lots of offers. We have 4 undercontract!!!
1.This is new construction that has nothing on the inside except studs and plumbing. Our inspection period expires Friday. We will see what the bid come in at. It is 2400sqft, 3/2. We have it for 75k we are not sure how much rehab money it will need because we haven't done anything with new construction before. But comps support an end price of 160k.
2. This oneIs an online Aution house I bid on on RealtyBid. We have in under contract for 50k, FMV is 125k. and it needs 5k in repairs. I was so amazed when I went in the house.It has a great back yard too. We will put it back on the market at around 90k the potential profit is about 30k. SWEET!
3. This deal is a 3/2 house that was hidden I think I can not believe no one has bought it, becuase it is in great shape. All the house needs is a sign in the yard that says "FOR RENT". We will have under contract for 45k. FMV is about 90k. It will rent for 750/mo. NICE!
4.This deal Dan acquired. I am so proud of him for getting back in the game. I love it. The house is a 2/1 with a large garage. He has it under contract for 30k It will need at least 20k but FMV after repairs in 90k-100k. We plan on assigning this deal. We got it on a post card. Post cards work. Trust me they work very well. If you cannot find anything on the MLS, pick a neighborhood and send out some postcard.
I am having some much fun! The only drawback is that I am rarely home anymore.

With real estate things change quickly. DEals come and go. Somethings work out somethings don't. Last week we thought we had 5 deals and 2 have fallen through. But that's OK.
I got 1 more management account today. It will be another 90.00 a month. I need 40 more. I have a potential for 4 more real soon.
Croy st,the unfinished house, we have to decide what we are going to do it. Our inspection period ends tomorrow. Not all of the bids are in so it will come down to the last minute for a decision to proceed or not.
The Aution house will close on 9/24. We have to find funding now.
The N Pacific house closes on 10/1/10. We got it for 47500.00. This is about a 50% discount. We are undecided on if we will flip it or keep it.
There is so much going on I should write a book! hahaha!!! Our Realtor is so aggressive! I love it.
This week Dan and our realtor, Chris, had a meeting with a private money person that we have used in the past to fund a few deals. They met with him to discuss a deal he had interest in; I will explain. We have been looking for owner carry properties to purchase and add to our portfolio. Chris has a friend who purchased a house with private money, which was the person they were meeting with. Chris's friend needed to get out of the deal. So Chris and I wrote up the deal. The deal is we would purchase the house for 65k. We would assume the 25k debt from the private money person and the owner would carry the remaining 30k. The 30k would be ammortirized over 30 years at 6% no payments for the first year. The houses is worth about 110k maybe more. the house will rent for about 650.00/mo.
So back to the meeting. The results of the meeting was that the private money person is OK with us assuming the 25k debt and agree to extend the note for 3 years. But the best part is that he told my husband the he has 400,000.00 sitting in an account making 2% and he would like us to find 3 or 4 deals and he would fund them for 5 years. That is excellent!! What a week.

Congrats on all the Success You're having. I was actually down in Kelso Visiting a Friend last week. I live up north in Everett. Anyhow, i was wondering if you could shed light on how you approach people when you would like them to fund your deals. I try to explain to some of my family and friends about how safe an investmen real estate is as along as you know the current value of the property based off of similar properties nearby, but they're just not willing to put up the money. I can see from their perspective how scary it would be and i was just wondering what your approach was to convincing people that lending you the money is a good investment?

Again, I'm glad to hear a fellow Washingtonian is having success!!

Keep it up

Jordan

I'm actually goin at this on my own right now. There are people I'd like to pull in and partner up with, but I haven't been convicning enough yet i guess. I probably need to exert more confidence like you said. I might also try puttin an ad in the Little Nickel. I didn't think about that:)

Jordan

good work Donna

I will call you soon

I have been going to school and got a present for jury duty for the two weeks afte school got out

Take care

It has been a while since I have posted anything. Busy lives and vacation have kept me occupied. The vacation was needed. But it is back to work now.
We have our property management company off the ground I even developed a facebook page for it! free advertizing!
We have 2 rehabs in progress and got another owner carry contract.
Some how I have to figure out how to get myself out of debt and keep adding to our company. All comments are welcome........I am listing 2 property. We have made 5 offfers this week. We hired a full time mantenance person to free up Dans time. Our plan is that He and I can focus on deals to pay off our debt.
Fall is here and it is wet and rainy

so glad to see you back. i was wondering about you. sounds like you are keeping plenty busy and have great ideas.

One thing you could do is find some equity partners for your current homes. You would give up on 1/2 cash flow and 1/2 equity, but you would get 1/2 the cash you spent back!!! Best of luck to you.

Cathyb

Thanks for stopping by. there is always somethng goin on in our lives. I really never stop thinking about real estate. I love it!

I like your idea. here is the deal tell me what you think. we have a business with 2 other partners, our real estate business. in that business all but 2 of our houses are tied up in. Our partners are not really involved of our investing practices; one is a silent partner and the other oversees finances. We have to keep things seperate and it is a hard. There is a fine line. We made an agreement in the beginning that the business got first right to all deals and then after the business declined any of us could pursue the deal themselves. We have been taking about 10% of the profits from our flips for ourselves but it isn't helping very fast. So Dan and I want to start doing some rent to own like Greg Murphy to help our situation.And the better we have gotten at finding deal the better our company has done. We are doing well on the business front.While personally things are very tight. Boy am I rambling. Dan and I do not want to upset the partnership. But we also can't continue like this. I will have to go back to work fulltime!!! Do you have ideas????

Hey donna

is there anything i could help with