Steve and Veronica's Journal

Steve and Veronica's Journal

Steve and Veronica’s Real Estate Journal. I have said in the past, I did not want to post anything on a deal, until the deal closed. I felt that it is not a deal until it is closed. I see so many other DG Family members writing about offers they make trying to get a deal done and I realized that is part of the deal so I should write about our real estate experiences good and bad. I have a lot to say to catch up here with this first post.

We started with real estate back in 1985 my soon to be Father-in-law told me if I wanted to marry his daughter I had to buy a home for her to live in. To save money to buy this house, we built a room in my Father in-law’s garage for me to sleep in. For 6 months, I worked two jobs to save the down payment money. At this time, I did not earn enough money to go with a VA loan and we had to use a FHA loan with my in-laws co-signing. In Jan. of 1986 I bought my first house for 80k at 10.5% interest. Our payment was $850.00 a month.

I had to rent bedrooms out to friends to help pay the mortgage. Then in August of 86 we got married and Veronica moved in. With my wife working and me working two jobs, we still did not make enough money to pay the mortgage without renting to roommates. After a year of living with roommates, we decided to move back to Veronica’s Mom and Dad’s home and rent our house out to one family.

The last day of 1989 we were blessed with a little girl. I was from the Midwest and my wife and I thought it would be better to raise our daughter in Indiana where my family lived at the time. Veronica’s Dad told us he would give us 40k to buy us out of our home after one of his other homes sold. So off to Indiana we went. It took a while for my in-laws home to sell to give us the 40k and we were down to having no money, no job, and bill collectors calling. Veronica went back to California with our daughter to work and help get the house sold. I said I would not move back to California and I could make this work out here. One of my brothers in Northern Indiana said he could get me a job up there in Elkhart. Finely in December of 1990 our home sold Veronica came back to Indiana with our daughter and the money. We were able to get ourselves out of debt.

We moved to Elkhart Indiana and I started working at an aerosol packaging plant as a maintenance mechanic making good money. In 1993 we bought our first no money down home using a VA loan and seller paying all closing cost. It was a great place to raise our daughter but Veronica was getting tired of what she called "12 years of long winters." She wanted to move back to California. We left Indiana in 2002 with 60k from the sale of our home.

In 2002 the prices of homes in California were going through the roof. We bought a 255K home with no money down, again using a VA loan and seller paying all closing. The week after we closed on this house Veronica and I got laid off from our jobs, we worked at the same place. Veronica was able to get a job right away but it was harder to find a job that paid me what I was making as a maintenance mechanic. We still had money in the bank from the sale of our house in Indiana so we knew we would be okay for a month or so. I have worked for over 20 years without taking any unemployment benefits. So I took the school benefits and put myself through a 23 week Sheriff’s Academy. After I completed the Academy I worked as security at a mall until I was hired on at a Sheriff’s department. During this time houses in California were going up in value like crazy about 10k or more each month.

We moved to Northern California and sold our house in 2004 for 410k that was a 155k profit. We paid 17k in commissions to the real estate agent. We still had over 100k in bank. We bought a house in Northern California with 20% down for 385k. Due to not being on the job for 2 years I could not use the VA loan.
In 2005 the area we lived in was hard on Veronica’s allergies and we knew that if we were going to sell it would have to be very quickly because we knew that the housing bubble was about to burst. We sold that house for 399k. We moved closer to Veronica’s work and into a better high school district for our daughter. Again, we felt that the housing bubble was about to burst so we rented a home for the next three years. The house we rented was close to the high school which was convenient.

In 2006 we started watching Dean’s programs on TV and Veronica read Rich Dad Poor Dad. Veronica told me we needed to start buying homes and renting them out. By 2007 we had been to a 3 day class by Rich Dad but we did not want to pay the 24k-40k they wanted for their advanced training classes.
Veronica knew my Mom and Dad had never owned their own home and were great renters. Homes in the Vermillion County area of Illinois were not affected by the housing market like California was. We bought a house to rent to my Mom and Dad and in 2007 you could buy a house with no money down using a 80/20 loan. 80% on the first mortgage and 20% on the 2nd. We wanted my Mom and Dad to have a nice house to live in that they could feel that it was their own. My Dad takes better care of rentals houses than most homeowners.

In 2008 I bought the book Be A Real Estate Millionaire by Dean Graziosi. We paid $ 495.00 for a 3 day class by Rich Dad. Dean’s book cost $24.95 at the bookstore and had better information on real estate investing than the 3 day class we paid $495.00 for.
In the spring of 2008 our daughter graduated from high school and we felt it was time to buy a primary home for us again. Using Dean’s techniques we bought an REO home that previously sold for 655k we got it for 365k no money down with the seller paying 4% toward all closing cost and enough money left over to buy down the loan. The home was built in 2003 so it was only 5 years old plus it was a 4060 sq ft. We did not need a 4000 sq ft home but all the other homes in the area were smaller needed more work and were priced higher. This house was vacant for a year. The fence in the back yard was down from a windstorm and the neighbor's big dog had left big messes all over the back yard. So we told our realtor to request additonal money form the seller for for repairs. The REO bank said they would give us 1k for repairs in addition to having the fence repaired before closing. All the things Dean says to ask for on a deal the bank was saying yes to. We walked out of closing with so much money we had to have the seller put ther rest of the funds into an escrow account. I guess the seller cannot directly give money to the buyer at closing. However, we did get a check for over 1k at closing and the remainder was placed in an impound account wich was applied to insurance and taxes. Thanks Dean.

In August of 2009 we joined the Success Academy. The On Demand classes are great and the Coaching staff is terrific. We were on fire to get our real estate business going so now we opened a LLC and started making offers. We started with a duplex in the small town of Covington IN...FSBO. I have a sister that lives in that town and she looked at the property for us. The owner did not want to do seller financing so we talked to a small town bank about a loan. The bank said they would consider making a loan to us and needed a purchase agreement. The sellers were asking 38k for the duplex. We sent the sellers a purchase agreement that we printed from this DG site. We gave the seller 5 days to respond. The 5 days went by and we had not heard back from the seller. I called the seller and was only able to leave a message. Since there was no response to our voice mail my wife and I decided to move on to other deals. The seller called us back about ten days later saying she wanted a different contract. I had to tell her we have moved on from this deal. So we did not get that house. It was a duplex, one bed one bath each which had rental income of $550.00 a month together. After the mortgage payment it would cash flow around $150-200 a month. But we did not get this one.

We started working on a two home deal in Danville IL for 34k. I had my Dad go with the realtor to look at the houses for us. Remember we live in California. So my Dad said with a little work they would be good rentals. Both houses were two bed one bath homes that would rent for about $400.00 a month each. We had the down payment money and we wer talking to banks for the rest of funds. We got to the end of the time frame for the loan contingency and all the banks said our debt to income ratio was to high. That crushed us. ( Don’t let this happen to anyone of you reading this post.) We dropped out of the hunt for a deal for a few months.

We tried to see if the stock market would give us the capital to buy homes out right. That did not work out so well.

We refinanced our primary home and dropped our payment by $400.00 a month. I bought the book Profit from Real Estate Right Now. We were back in the game but I wanted to study the classes put on by the Academy and maybe get out of our comfort zone and try something else than just buy and hold. We bought the book Your Town Your Real Estate Profits and we are on fire again making this real estate business work.

I was talking to some coworker of mine about real estate and they said they would be willing to partner up for some deals. This was in May of 2010. We looked at a lot of houses and agreed to go for a house listed for 60k it is the worst looking property in the area in this part of California. The other houses in the area were selling for 150k. It was a two bedroom with one bath on a third of an acre lot. We put an offer in for 55k with the seller paying closing cost. The seller countered with 58k and we said OK. The bank we were working with told us they could not give a loan on this house due to a report of mold. We were dead in the water. We talked to a few so-called Hard Money Loan people and they wanted 30 to 40% down telling us there is no hard money 100% financing. Well with the mold issue which, in my opinion was not that bad we still decided to move on.

A few days later our agent called us and asked if we still wanted that house. The bank was willing to pay $2,100.00 for mold abatement if we would pay 60k for the house. It was worth it to us if the bank could give us something in writing that the mold was removed, so we said yes. Now our partner on this deal moved on to another deal so he would not be able to go through on this deal with us. Veronica and I decided to do the deal on our own. After the inspection report, we felt that there was too much work to be done to this house. The kicker was that the person the bank sent out to remove the mold ended up just wiping the walls down with bleach and not producing a clearance report for the removal of the mold. We countered with a 55k offer with a contingency that the house would appraise at 55k. The bank said no so we exercised one of our exit clauses ad canceled escrow. I just received information that we would get our earnest money back as I am writing this post. There are a lot of deals out there so we know that we don’t have to settle on just one house.

We now have the Set for Life program and are going to try some wholesale deals.

Sorry this was so long but we had to do a lot of catching up.

Steve and Veronica


06/08/11

We went to a REI club meeting last night in Roseville CA. It was the first meeting. It was hosted by a Realtor friend of ours that we met at a real estate seminar. He had a hard money person there and a private money person plus attorneys, CPAs, title, insurance agents, mortgage loan officer and a contractor.

Over all it was a very good meeting. Having a power team in one meeting room, that was great.

We plan on making a lot more offers here in the next few weeks.

I hope everyone in DG land is doing well.

Steve.


Great Stuff!

Hey Steve, congrats on all you have going on. That new REI meet up sounds great. Our closest REI is about 40 minutes from here. Haven't been there in a year or so. The meeting is once a month and ually falls on the Thursday we volunteer at the Childrens Hospital with our non profit. Not this week though, its tomorrow and we don't have a movie scheduled, so I think we'll be heading down there to check it out again. Hows the new investment house going?

SF
Jack

__________________

SEMPER FI
GET SOME!


Jack

Hey Jack. My contractor is going over the house and putting together cost for different projects. It is going to take some work but when it is done it will be a cash machine.

Jack you and the family take care.

Semper Fi.
Steve


06/09/11

Today we put in an offer on a small REO house in a small California town for 10k. It needs a lot of work about 30k to bring it up to an ARV of 95k. If the banks accecpts the offer. They are asking 50k. We have a lot more homes that we are going to be making offers on. We are really trying to take our investing to the next level.

Steve.


06/10/11

Today my Dad went over to the new Illinois property we have and met with the contractor that will be doing most of the repair work. My Dad says it sure is a ugly house but I told him it just needs the ugly taken off it like Greg M. says. The contractor told my Dad it will look like a new home when he is done.

I also called a brother of mine that lives in that area. He used to lay carpet full time and now only does it as a side job. I did not want to ask him in the past to do extra work for me due to taking time away from his family. His wife told me today they are happist when they are busy working on projects. So my brother said he would be happy to do the flooring work for me.

Don't be afraid to ask people if they want to work for you. Most of the time they say yes. We have been blessed I tell you.

Steve.


Steve and Veronica

i love the new picture! i appreciate what you said in an earlier post about paying your family for their time. just because they are family or friends does not mean you can take advantage of them. their time is valuable too. that was a great post! sounds like you had a great time at EDGE 2011 and are using that knowledge and fire to do even more with your REI. way to go!

__________________

Linda, Army EOD Mom
you can follow my journal at http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/45351/...
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Evidence
Appearing
Real


Linda

Thank you for stopping by our journal. Thank you for the kind words. I do believe in giving to others that take the time to help us. Everyone's time is just as important as our time. The more we help each other the better we all become.

I hope sells are going well for you as an agent. We may still be looking at your area of Indiana here soon for more properties to buy and hold. When you have time send me a PM on the average rental income in your area.

Have a great week Linda.

Steve.


06/14/11

Today I went out looking at more house deals here in California. My new Realtor is good about looking at investment properties. He is a contractor also so he is good about giving me average repair costs. We are going to be putting in some more offers this week.

Steve.


Steve,

...Congrats on the new realtor and keep those offers going. I look forward to reading about your new deals. Keep up the good work and let me know if you are planning a trip to the Midwest this Summer. Have a great week. Believe and Achieve! Smiling - Joe

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Joe

thanks for stopping by. We do hope to get back out there soon. We have a rehab going on now in Illinois Danville area. We want to go to Chicago to the field museum next time we get out there.

I hope you are still coming out to CA some time soon.

Joe you and your family take care.

Steve


Steve

i just read this post. i haven't been able to keep up lately. Smiling i will find out and get back to you.

__________________

Linda, Army EOD Mom
you can follow my journal at http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/45351/...
IT'S ALL GOOD AND EVERYTHING IS WORKING OUT PERFECTLY FOR ME!
Fear equals:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real


Linda

Steve and Veronica,

that is awesome that you are now investing here in Cali; I'm hoping to do the same in the near future too- I'm finding out that there are good deals here too, which is great for us!

wishing you many deals here in Cali

Valerie

__________________

Valerie

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!” ― Dr. Seuss

"I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends; I am surrounded by angels, but I call them friends" - Unknown

My journal: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/59110/...


Valerie

I have made a lot of offers here in Ca. Still waiting for them to go through. I still have a project house going in Illinois right now and trying to get deals going here in Ca.

Take care Valerie.

Steve.


Admin

If you read this we have only been to the Edge event one time in 2011.

Thank You.

Steve.


07/06/11

We have been very busy here lately. I wish we had more to show for it but in time all the deals will start to come through. We have received some quotes back on our Illinois property. They are a little high right now. We are waiting for a contractor's quote that did some work for us on our Indiana house. He is a lot more reasonable, he is just busy. Most of the good ones are busy.

We have also been planing a 25th wedding anaversary trip that has taken a lot of my time. We have not been on a real vacation in years. We have been out to visit family in the past but not a vacation just for us.

I hope that everyone in DG Land is doing well.

Steve


Steve & Veronica, Glad to

Steve & Veronica,

Glad to hear you're busy. The deals will come through in time. Happy 25th anniversay! Hope you have a wonderful vacation when you go!

Cheryl & Dave


Hey Steve!

Happy 25th anniversary to you two! What a wonderful accomplishment! I too have only been to one Edge event. Something is up with the 2009 badge.

Take care Steve and Veronica! Hope you get a wonderful, relaxing vacation for just the two of you!


Cheryl & Dave

Thanks for the congrats on our 25th.

We put in an offer just today on a house that we had an offer in on a month ago. The price came down again and if we get it for what we want to pay it will be a good deal. We all have to make the deals work for us. If the numbers work it is a good deal. If not then we pass and go on the next deal.

I hope your REI is going well.

Take care

Steve.


Tammy

Hi Tammy. Thanks for the happy 25th. August is the anniversary. Our Daughter is going with us on our vacation. She is 21 and we are getting a suite at the resort so she will have her area also. It should be good and hot at Disney world in July. Our first date was at Disneyland but we have never been to Disney World so we thoght it would be a fun trip for our 25th anniversary. We wanted to get out of California for a while also.

Take care Tammy.

Steve.


Vacation

We are going to take a vacation. We leave tomorrow and we are going to put REI on hold for a week. Well we might look at some properties for fun in Florida. I do not want to think about rehabs and making offers for a week. We still have some pending offers but we are not going to make new ones for a week. I think we all need to take a break once in a while to come back ready to do REI full speed ahead. One of these days I will have all the team members in place so the deals will happen even when we are on vacation.

I do want all of my DG Family to keep going strong while we are away.

We are looking forward to the brainstorming that we have coming up with Dean and some other students here in the next few months.

One of these years I want to go on a DG cruise that Jay puts on.

Steve.


Enjoy your Vacation!

Steve and Veronica,

I hope you have a great time in Florida! congratulations on your 25th!

I hate to tell you, but once a DG rei, always a DG rei, and that means that we can never truly get away from rei! even while on vacation I cannot help checking out properties in whatever area I may be in... stopping at houses for sale to pick up flyers, reading the re section of the newspaper while enjoying a nice breakfast...

I'm just saying.... Eye-wink

have a great, relaxing, fun time!

Valerie

__________________

Valerie

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!” ― Dr. Seuss

"I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends; I am surrounded by angels, but I call them friends" - Unknown

My journal: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/59110/...


Valerie

Thank you for the congrats on our 25th.

We are back now and we did have a real good time. I was still talking to contractors and realtors while on vacation. I did not spend a lot of time but we still have deals working.

Take care Valerie.

Steve.


If you guys DO ever come to CA

we will definitely have to get together. And we can goto DL too. Eye-wink

You mention the brainstorming with Dean. I have not heard about any of that yet. I know there are 2 sets doing it, but I had hoped to be in the same group as you. I've run into a snafoo with my refi so I haven't pd my entire amount yet, so maybe that's why I haven't heard.

But, it looks like there MAY be light at the end of the tunnel on that one. Hope you thoroughly enjoyed your FL trip!


Tammy

Steve and Veronica live in CA already!

__________________

"You're never too old to be what you were meant to be!"

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"Shining Like a Star & Dancing on Sunshine"

"Shoot for the moon! Even if you fall short, you'll still land among the stars!"


Steve and Veronica

Happy, Happy 25 years!

I am so glad you had a good trip. Don't you love Disney World? I like it so much better than Disneyland.

You guys are doing great things! Keep up the good work.

Karen

__________________

"You're never too old to be what you were meant to be!"

www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/59128/day-for...

"Shining Like a Star & Dancing on Sunshine"

"Shoot for the moon! Even if you fall short, you'll still land among the stars!"


Tammy and Karen

I do not know where the coming to Ca. part came up but we do live in the Sacramento area. We did have a real good time at Disney World. Over all I think we liked Disney World better there is so much more to do with 4 parks. It was a much needed time off full of fun. Now we have to get back to REI.

Take Care everyone.
Steve


08/03/11

I am so happy for all the ones that are getting the Rock Bottom Blue Print program. I do think it is one of Dean's best programs he has offered.

We are in a back up spot on the last deal we put an offer in on. I guess we will see what happens.

The house in Illinois we will have rehabed in October. All the good contractors are so busy in that area.

I hope everyone one out in DG land is doing well.

Steve.


08/06/11

I have been watching Dean's live event from So Cal. So much motivation. I am so happy to be part of this DG family.

Thanks Dean for all that you do.

Steve.


08/09/11

25 years ago today Veronica married me. It is our 25TH wedding anniversary.

We went to Disneyland on our first date back in 1984 then got married in 86. To celebrate our 25TH anniversary we went to Disney World in Florida in July. It was the only time close to our anniversary that we could take off together. Plus we took our daughter along. You may ask what does this have to do with REI? Nothing I just wanted to share this information with my DG family. Plus to let everyone know that you can stay married through all the ups and downs of real estate investing. I could not ask for a better partner than Veronica.

Steve.


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