Jack and Michelle, New to the Game GET SOME!!

Hey Jack!

Glad to see you got back safe! Sounds like you've got a lot of good things going! I think the biggest thing to consider in light of what the police officer and your realtor said is: regardless of who's living there, will the property rent? Are the rental rates strong in the area? Second, if it will rent, are you willing to deal the type of tough renter who is willing to live in a tough neighborhood? If you can say yes to both, I think that's the biggest thing.

Vincent

We went by the tex foreclosure during the day today and I went into the house, the back door was open and its vacant. The owner is in a nursing home and he was a horder(one who never throws anything out). The place was a mess, no telling what is in there. The siding was all rotted and windows needed to be replaced, so we decided this was not for us. Off the the 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo, the owner met us there, this is where the police officer and my realtor buddy said no go, but we checked it out anyway. After checking the place out, its nice but just not what we are thinking we want to get into, section 8 in an area that more then likely places won't appreciate anytime soon, we talked to the owner about what we had heard and started finding out whats going on with her and why she is selling. Her husband had quadruple bypass and his business is slow, so they are selling this and a piece of property at the beach. They are offering owner finance at 7.5% with a ballon at 5 years. After we told her we still were not sure she told us to make an offer if we wanted. We declined but didn't say absolutely no. Whats everyones thoughts out there on this? Offer half and apply for section 8 with the owner financing? How hard is it to get approved for section 8?If we bought it for $25,000, at 7.5%, 20 year ammor, with community fees and taxes, we are looking at $475 a month with rental income of $675.

Hey Jack,

Lots o' big numbers in there! ("we're naught but humble pirates!") Have you given the advisory line a call on this?

Vincent

Hey Vincent, after seeing your message I called the advisory line and went over the figures and discussed that I wanted to offer $25k and all and they told me it sounded like a good deal if I could talk her down to $25k and still get owner financing. I am waiting for a local RE Investor that I met at the last meeting to call me back. He also owns a property management company and charges 8% for his service. He told me after the meeting that if I had any questions about rents and deals that he would be happy to talk to me. I called him a few minutes ago and he said he needed to call me back in a few. I'm nervous about making a lowball offer to this lady, but after talking with her the other day, they seem to really want out of it and are not in need of money, just want out now, so it might work out. I'll let you know! THANKS

I talked to Craig at the success academy and he thinks if we can get the condo for $25k with owner financing, its $200 cash flow a year, then its a go. I called an investor/property manager that I met at the last REI meeting(he gave me a card and told me that he would be happy to help me out since I was starting) and he said if we could get it for $25-$30K that it was a great deal and if we didn't take it, then call him and he would. Michelle and I are nervous about sending the lowball offer to them now, but they did say to just make an offer and they really want out.

Here is a question I have, if we could get it for $25K, but then instead of renting it out, we did a lease to own with $5K down, with owner financing(which is really the original owner we are financing from) to someone else, doesn't that sound even better?! We'd clear $5k right off the bat and then there would be someone in the place that really would take care of it and keep it up. We'll offer them the same 5 year ballon with 20 year ammorization at 7.5% interest or maybe even put that up a percent or two to make a couple dollars a month. Hows that sound?

Jack,

Regarding #34, that's great! Don't worry about making a low offer. If you can, either send a letter or give a call to the owner explaining why you are making the low offer (something that Dean espouses to create relationship and build rapport with the seller). But, if she doesn't like the offer, either come up a little bit or move on to the next deal!

Regarding your question in #35, see #33.

Vincent

The seller came back saying they already had a higher offer they refused and have now decided to rent section 8. NEXT! Michelle and I spent the whole day cleaning and setting up our office. I work from home 3-4 days a week and she works from home once in a while, so we have work pc's, home pc's, and business pcs. We bought another 4 drawer filing cabinet and got it set up with our business stuff and bought another table to put in the office so we could seperate the pc's. We spent some time researching RE stuff and also researching for our cruise planner business. I read some more of Your Town, I sure hope MY TOWN is ready to create some nice profits! More of the same today! Can't do much outside, our developement is iced in, down here in NC they don't plow or salt roads in the developements, so you wait until it melts away. We have 1-2 inches of solid ice on the roads, not going anywhere. We decided to follow Indiana Joe's craigslist/ebay selling and are going to try selling a few things we don't need that we found yesterday during the cleaning. LATER

Michelle and I just got home from checking on 2 houses. They were side by side and were both for sale. One had a For Rent sign so we are going to call and see what the deal is. The other is empty but looked nice, we'll need to get an appoinment to go check it out.

OK, before I ended this posting I decided to call the For Rent number and got the owner of the house. He told me it was for rent or for sale and then gave me the realtors name. He has been under contract with her for 6 months now, his contract should be over by now, right? He said he wasn't sure. He also mentioned that he has 2 other houses for sale, one on the same street, and that he needs to sell those 2 to settle an estate since his dad pass away. I did a search on his name and 10 properties come up under him. ALL 10 are delinquent on taxes! I just spoke to my realtor and he says that more then likely his contract with his realtor is over and he said I should call him and ask him what he wants for all his properties. He also said to talk to him and find out what he NEEDS and figure out the best deal on multiple houses. I am defnitely not ready for this, I have no buyers at all. My buddy says to lock up whatever I can and start putting them on craigslist and get the word out. ADVICE!!

My realtor pulled up comps in the area of 3 of the houses this one owner is trying to sell and investors have been bought a couple of the houses for half of tax value so he is telling we need to get them for around that. I called the owner and talked to him about all his properties, he told me he is only looking to sell 3 of them right now. I asked him to come up with a figure for all 3 and to call me back. His realtor called an hour later to talk and started going over the prices I already knew, I told her I was not intersted in those prices, I wanted to know what the price would be for all 3 and told her to email me that. She came back with, $133,000 for all, thats $7,000 off the total price of all 3, not what I was thinking. 2 of the 3 are rented out now, the one was just renewed and the other one will be renewed in March. The third one that is empty was section 8 until Feb 1st and is empty now. I need to go take a look at them all to see what kind of repairs are needed. The one empty looks like it needs a good bit of work, so my realtor is thinking that more then likely he is selling the ones that need alot of work. We'll keep you all posted.

Michelle and I are heading out to look at the 3 properties that the one owner has and about 6 others that are on the MLS foreclosure list. You never know, this could be the weekend to find the gem, don't let yourself get caught slacking and missing the boat. I had some other things I want to get done today, but we found these properties last night when we were checking out area foreclosures and decided we needed to get on these. Lets see what happens!

It's great to hear and see doors opening for you two. I believe church is a great place to make contacts and find gems for anyone in the business. I hope much sucess and it gives all of us hope and ideas for our own towns.

jen

What a weekend, alot going on. Checked out a bunch of properties on Sat, still talking with Michelle about those. 2 of the 3 that the one guy is selling are rented and they would pay for the mortgage on all three, so the third would be cash money. But we need to really check into what work they need done. The guy has not kept up on 2 of them so they'll need some money to get where we would be comfortable renting them out. Then we had our non profit show(Reel-time.org) Sat night, they are always alot of fun. Talked to an investor/GC/appraiser guy at church this morning and he wants to get together to try to work on some things. He is the one that rubbed me wrong not to long ago with being kinda cocky when I was talkikng to him about REI. Went to a Super Bowl party tonight and saw one guy that I just met tonight, looking at houses online on his Blackberry so I went up to him after the game to ask him if he was looking to buy. Turns out he is a roofer/siding guy and looking to do some investing in Charlotte, so we exchanged cards and plan on talking soon. Have a meeting with the President of the NC USO tomorrow morning to discuss a fund raiser cruise for the NC USO's. Michelle and I bought a cruise planner franchise on top of getting into REI and everything else, so we are flat out busy. I sure hope she gets laid off from work soon with her severance package, then we can really start cranking.

Now there's something you don't here people say every day now! "Hope she gets laid off from work soon!"

Vincent

If Michelle gets let go now, her severance would be 16 months of pay and they usually have you leave 2 months before that while getting paid also. There are rumors that this could change in 2010, so we'd like to get her out and working REI and the Cruise Planner stuff now while not needing a paycheck. We are chin deep in both of these now and getting a little overwhelmed, so we are going to relax a little and just do what we can while working full time and running a non profit on the side. We have 6 shows this month with the non profit, so that cuts into alot of our outside work time, but we'll still be on it. LATER

The realtor from the three houses called me to tell me they lowered the price to $130,000 for all 3 houses. 2 of them are rented right now with new leases for a total of $1300, that would more then pay for all three houses. My realtor says that is still to high and that the brick houses have gone to investors around there for $25k, but they have needed a ton of work before putting anyone in them also. Two of these already have folks in them and the third was rented up until the beginning of the month. I asked her to send me comps from the past 6 months that justify her price and I also asked what needed to be done to the third house in order to have it pass for section 8. They are supposed to get back to me asap. We are leaving tomorrow for a church retreat over the long weekend, so we won't be doing much REI. AND we are cranking on the cruise planner business, we haven't been to the week long school yet, haven't done the online training yet, are not set up yet, BUT are already working on 3 group cruises. The people in CORP are floored that we are coming to the game ready to play already. We hope we can lock these 3 cruises in and have a couple more we are going to go after soon to. Good night REI land, talk at you soon.

I love this site. Hearing all the stories of Success! We are still reading and researching a ton. I think we are having a problem with really pulling the trigger. Busy with work, REI, non profit,and cruise planners. I was thinking about Deans new video and how we are into alot right now. Just setting up for Michelle's layoff right now. After she gets that, we'll have her full time running these and me part time. LATER

Jack, I'm fairly new to this too! ITs so encouraging to read your journey and all the leads you've generated. It gives me motivation! I will keep watching your progress! Keep it up!

We have been away for a year now. Bought a travel agency franchise and had to do alot to get that going. For the past year we have been still checking out the REI scene out here but we're just trying to get the travel agency going and save save save. Well, we are back at it, checking out tons of houses. We put an offer in a week ago on a short sale and should know something this week. We have several other properties we are supposed to get into and check out this week that we have driven by and are interested in. Deal we put the bid in on: 3/2 1300 square ft, short sale, was being taken off the market to go to foreclosure the day we showed up and made a cash offer of $70K. My realtor thinks we can get $105K for it in a couple months. It needs about $3K of work. If we get it, we are thinking of taking the first $95K and running to the next deal. Hope to have great news about it in a few days!!

Welcome back, Jack and Michelle!

We have been pounding the pavement looking at properties. Still have one offer out there and know we are the only ones in the running. We offered $70,000 cash(totalview shows $118k), it needs about $2k to replace a couple things and paint and we plan on flipping it. Realtor thinks we could flip it in a month for $95k-100K. Might have a young married couple interested in it also but will pursue that more once we find out if the offer has been accepted. We have another couple from church that had to short sale their house 2 years ago and they live with her parents now and they want to move. I offered to help them with a lease to own on something they would like if they wanted, so we might be able to work something there also. Checked out a bunch of houses on Mon and am meeting our realtor tonight to go look at half dozen more. He sent us 2 CREAMPUFFS about an hour ago. Two townhomes with tenants in them, owned by the same Trust in California for Short Sale. Totalview has them at just under $85K each, my realtor thinks they are more like $100k. He thinks we should put a bid in of about $40k each and see how it goes. If they work out, we plan on finding a local investor who might want to purchase them both from us for a nice profit to us. We are going to see these from the outside tonight and meeting the realtor to go into a couple more after that. LATER

Just got back and we are going to put offers in on the 2 townhouses and one other house. The townhouses are owned by the same Trust and they want $64k each(short sale). We are going to offer $40k each. He said they are a steal at $64k but lets see how low we can get them. He thinks we can sell one for the price of both and own one outright. He said they have been over looked due to in that area no one thinks they can get anything for less then $100,000 so he doesn't even think they are searching for that low. And anyone who has seen them is searching for themselves, not for rentals. They already have renters that have said they will stay or go, whatever we need them to do. They are paying $600 a month but we are thinking $600 a month is way to low and my realtor agreed. He said they should be at least $750 but we rather try to just flip these to another investor looking for renters. We want the cash to go out and flip more if possible. The neighborhood is sweet and well taken care of, about 6 years old.

The house is a 3/2, 1152 square foot. Asking price is $50k short sale, we are putting in a bid of $35k. Repairs are about $10k if we really make it sweet, Total View says its about $77k and realtor says we can get $75k all day long.

We looked at a couple other properties that are also great deals but we need to slow down and try to get these few done and not stretch ourselves to much. I had another DGer from about an hour away contact me about coming into town this weekend to look at some stuff. So I talked to my realtor and he is going to help them out with the other ones he has available.

We need to get our buyers list going! There are so many deals out here right now, its flat out amazing and he is only showing us the cookie cutter deals now since we are needing to cut our teeth on something easier then a full blown rehab which we know NOTHING about, but there are tons of thoughs out here and are what he really likes doing himself.

Have a great night!

We are fired up, the three bids went in today and we are going out to looks at some properties tomorrow. Get out and start looking folks! The weather is getting better so the buyers are coming out. Had an idea to find buyers, I was out for a run the other day and saw cars rolling around in my neighborhoos picking up sales flyers from houses for sale, I am now going to run with business cards and go up and talk to them. Not saying you have to take up running, but maybe drive around some neighborhoods check the RE scene and if you see folks out looking, jump out of the car and give them a card and tell them what you are doing. Just an idea. Have a great night!

HA HA, patience has never been a strong point of mine but I am learning as I get older that its needed and I can see in REI it is definitely needed. My realtor called me this morning and he heard back about the one 3/2 we put a $35k bid in on that someone else put a bid in and he was going to submit them and did we want to adjust our bid. After talking with my realtor, he said he wouldn't since we aer offering cash and closing anytime they want. And he is finding deals like this everyday for us. We looked at 3 more townhomes today and are probably going to put in bids on 2 of them. We also heard from the realtor on the 3/2 we put the bid in on for $70k, she hopes to hear something this week, but we have heard that before also. Michelle and I are just fired up that we are in the game and will patiently wait, ha ha, I had to laugh at that, me patient? I can't get enough of Deans books and this site. Sleep and working out are definitely lacking the last couple of weeks. We want that FIRST one! My realtor is putting us on all the cookie cutter ones, as he calls them. $2K-10K of fixing up, nothing with to much repairs needed.

Welcome back -- glad to see you are getting out there and looking and making offers. Nothing will happen without taking action!

Thank you for your service and it is so great to see you are giving back.

Got a call from my realtor and he told me the other realtor called him and said there are 5-6 more bids on these 2 places and are all above ours so we need to put in our best offer. We think with about $5k in upgrades, the places will bring about $100k, full asking price is $64k. We are thinking of offering full price on just one, don't want to take all of our cash on these when we have 2 other deals in the works also. Called another buddy of mine that wants to get some rentals and he might bid on the other one now also. They have renters in them, paying $600 a month, but I would want mine out so I can put the money into it and sell. The original owner put $600 on them so he could bank the money and not pay the mortgage until it went into ss or foreclosure, my realtor says they are $800 a month properties at least.

We also we called by the realtor of one of the 3/2 that said they had other offers and asked if we wanted to go with our original or up ours, we kept it where it was. Hope to hear about the other 3/2 this week, it would be great to get one of these under our belts real soon. We also looked at 3 other townhomes yesterday and might out in 1 or 2 bids on them, both seem like good deals, we'll see how we feel after sleeping on all this tonight.

We are scheduled to close next Wed! Excited but staying focused. Have to finish the paperwork to put in the offer on the townhome this weekend. We think its a steal even at the higher price. Possibly have another DG going in with us on that one, we'll see if they can get the $ together to do that. We leave for a European Rive Cruise next Fri so this week will be busy with the closing and getting a few things done on the house and getting ready for 10 days away.

Ok, don't picture me singing that song! But we should be closing on the house tomorrow and ready to roll out on vacation Fri while the work gets done. Hope to come back in a week and a half and have most of the work done. Sounds like a great plan to me! We missed the bid on the other 3/2, they had called about us putting in our best offer but we kept it where it was since we knew the other 3/2 was closing anyway. We will get back into looking at new bids when we get back from the cruise. Hope to be able to post here tomorrow that all is well and we closed!

Went on vacation without closing but its now set for Tues. Have a potential buyer that saw my ad for the house on CL. Its perfect for her, shes elderly and moved back to the area a year ago and needs to be out of her apartment by July. She likes the price and the location is close to her son. Plan on letting her see if Tues night after we close.

Was out looking at neighborhoods tonight and got a text from a DGer about a property so we punched it in the GPS and went to take a look. She, Lori contacted me weeks ago since she lives close by and we mentioned maybe doing something together. We liked the house, needs plenty of work but it looks like its priced right. She is going to try to go buy and get inside with the realtor tomorrow with her brother in law that is a handy man and is then going to call me and let me know what she thinks. Hope all is well with you all, life is moving forward and we hope to be in and out of this 3/2 quickly and on to the next. Keep an eye out for an update Tues night with me fired up!

It feels so good to be back at DG and really trying to work it. Fired up, closing day should be on Tues for our first house and I have a buyer that seems real interested that is coming by Tues evening to look at it before we do anything. I'll offer her to buy it now as is or she can tell me what she would like done once we agree on a price. Whatever we can do to make a nice profit and sell the house quickly.

Mama and I are online hours and hours a day researching houses and went to see 4 this evening and are excited about the potential for them all. One still had folks in the house and was a little more expensive then the others, and looked like the least amount of work, but with people living in it, it more then likely will take longer to work the deal. I rather the hosue with no one in it and try to hurry the process. My realtor is out of town until Fri so we hope to be able to get in and see them Sat morning and get some offers going on them. I left a message for the DGer that lives close by us to see if she wants to be involved with any of these. She went and checked out one house today that she told me about last night but we aren't so interested in that one. Needs more work then I think we want to get involved with and there are 2 houses right across the street that are abandoned, one is up for foreclosure, not sure about the other one, so I think we want to stay clear of that. The ones this evening really seem to be good deals. We are going to do some more research on them and try to get in to see them Sat.

I haven't updated this blog since I have created a blog for each deal and other things but thought I should keep up with this one now with offers and things we are doing. Life is good, we have done 2 flips so far and are starting on our 3rd. The links are below, one was a profit of around $20k and the second was about $45k. We bought our 3rd rehab less then 2 weeks ago and it will be another 2-4 weeks before we even start. We are coming up with the plans now and then need to get them approved by the city and permits and all, but we already have a great team ready to go. We have one of the top GC's in the area that has done over 100 rehabs on houses just like the one we bought and he will be running everything for us.

We are also bringing in some friends who want to get involved, so we are bringing them in for 1/3 of the cost and giving them 1/3 of the profit. We have brought in a HML for 1/3 also, this is the first time we have done something with others and also the first time using a HML, but its a huge project so there is plenty of profit to share.

We also have an offer in on a mobile home, we countered their counter on Fri and hope to hear something tomorrow. Its a double wide, 1640 sq ft in great shape on 1 acrea. After a quick fix up it should be able to be flipped for around $60k, we hope to be in it for less then $35k. We have also entertained the idea of keeping it for a rental, should bring over $700 a month. We are buying this one through the IRA.

We have folks coming to us with money that want to join with us but they are wanting to jump in as partners. We are not interested in that since HML is less expensive, so we are trying to get them to think about being PML at 8%, which is ALOT cheaper then a HML.