$3500 with the 25 to 1 MLS offer strategy

So this is my husband and I's third deal that we just closed on yesterday. Check is in the bank for a profit of $3500. The other 2 deals we did were found from Craig's list and bandit signs. This was our first deal we did through a Realtor and it took us several times to find a realtor that was up for this strategy, so I thought I'd write about our experience.

Basically, if you submit 25 offers from the MLS (50-60% asking price), you will get one to accept. These offers must be on homes that are listed as vacant, price reduced, and "as is". All three of those must be in play. The first time we had a real estate agent say they would do this for us, the agent was kind of negative about it, and he made us go and look at every property we were making an offer on. We submitted all 25 offers through him, we did get one counter offer for only $3,000 over what our offer was. Hindsight tells me we should've done that deal, but we were chicken as we had never done a deal before, so we counter offered at our first price and the deal didn't go through. Our agent got frustrated with us and we ended up parting ways.

The mistakes we made on the first round were that

1. we allowed the agent to make us do extra work which also caused extra work for him.

2. we only put down $1 deposits on these contracts and that made a lot of people mad about our offers. Now, when we submit an MLS offer, we do a minimum of $1500 deposit which is not a big deal since we have our contingencies in our contract. (you only pay this deposit if you get your offer accepted)

3. On the houses we made the offers, not all of them had the 3 requirements of "as is", vacant, and price reduced.

Regardless of our rookie mistakes, the first round of 25 to 1 still worked! We just didn't go through with it. Also, our real estate agent was not up for all the paperwork. He's a retail agent and likes showing houses and is not much of a paper pusher. That's OK, it's not a good fit.

Fast forward to what DID work. We found an agent who is a hockey Mom and does real estate on the side and doesn't like showing houses, having a schedule, or doing all the things that retail agents do. We told her our strategy and asked her if she would be willing to submit 5-7 offers a week (goal to get 1 MLS deal a month). We told her the offers would be low and she may get some people who make snide comments about the offers. She said she was up for it.

So, seven offers in, the house was on the market for 9 months. Listed at $55,000, move in ready and newly remodeled (not a great remodel). We offered $33,000 with a $1500 deposit and our offer was accepted! No counter offer! We marketing the house for a week, found a buyer and closed 4 days later. Our agent was out of town for the closing, but will get a check for $1000 on Monday when she gets back.

The end buyer gets a house for $36,500 and will rent it for $800/month! That's a great return!

We texted her to let her know that the deal closed and there is a check for her at the title office. She texted back, "Let's do that again"! Yes Ma'am, we will do it again!

Couple pointers for working with agents. Tell them your whole strategy. If they try to make you do something different, move to the next agent. It's OK if your strategy doesn't work with them. Heavy retail agents will probably not be up for this. Don't let the agent take the lead, you're the one in control. Anyway, good luck to everyone out there. I just wanted everyone to know that the 25 to 1 strategy is alive and well in my area. Onward to the next deal!

Peace! -Susan and Steve