OFFER ACCEPTED!

My listing agent is my buddy of 12+ years. He already told me he would not take full commission on the sale, he got his 3% when I bought it and he wants me to turn around and put all the money into the next deal. Mama and I had already decided if we got a certain amount we would pay him his full 3% anyway, just to make sure we stay top priority to him and to make sure he is happy and knows we have his back. He had told us if we just covered his expenses for the sale, so we are good either way. Appreciate the heads up, always appreciate your posts. Lets hope I have great news tomorrow!

OK, so they don't answer calls or texts for our 2pm. What is it with people? Anyway, we decide to hit a nice late Fathers Day lunch and then head on home. We are not going to let this phase us, there is one a whole lot more powerful in charge of whats going on and we are just going to have faith and relax. We get home from lunch and my phone goes off, my realtor texts me to tell me there is a showing today 2:30-3:30!

Had a showing today and it went great. This couple wants the house but he thinks he is to busy to get it done before they get married Aug 6th. I told him to contact my realtor, a mutual friend and work with him this week and lets move on this or its for sale until someone shows me a contract with financing. If he wants to wait until mid August when he gets back from his honeymoon, then he can take a chance. I called my realtor and he said he will work with them to get something this week.

Then I got a text from a buddy that lives in the community of our flip, asking for the price, saying neighbors were asking him about it. I text the price and asked if anyone wanted to see it. He came back going off about how they are all ****ed and so is he and how myself and my realtor need to go screw our neighborhoods over and leave his alone and that we are messing with their investments. I sent him a text back telling him to get his head where it needed to be and check comps and know what he is talking about before opening up his flap. Lets see, I buy the house for $70k, the price was $76k and was being foreclosed on. Then I make some repairs, upgrades and have it for sale for $115k, with comps showing its worth around $120k ish. I would think they'd be happy someone bought the house and fixed it up and sold it for alot more then what it was purchased for. Whatever, I guess we'll see how things go the next time we see each other. We work at the same place but I work from home mostly, but the Marine in me wants to go into work just to see what stirs up, I don't take to kindly to folks talking smack and opening up a can around me. Anyway, time to hit the rack, and hope I wake up ready for a new day and a contract on the house.

congratulations on your showing going well; from reading your numbers, I'm sure you will get an offer soon! You're being very smart in planning to compensate your realtor regardless of whether he finds the buyer or not; he will most likely think of you first when he knows about a great deal in the future.

Regarding your co-worker... it's not worth it... stay focused on what you want to accomplish in rei; think of him as a distraction to your success-ignore him!

Valerie

I agree with Valerie. No sense it bringing yourself down to his level. That way you won't regret later something you might say in anger.

Good luck!

Karen

You all are right. Just keeping myself focused on the goal. Not needing the distractions or the trouble.

We have a showing on Tues with an older woman wanting to move down to NC to be near her family. My realtor says they are serious and he thinks we'll get an offer this week. He said she has a contract on her house up north and will be coming with cash to the table if we make the deal.

He pulled every house in the area for sale in our size and price range and has said there are only 2 or 3 that might be a better deal but not in as nice a neighborhood, so he is confident that we are priced to sell and we'll be going to the table soon. Time will tell!

A couple more showings this weekend! Lets have a buyer please!! Looked at a house up near the lake today and notice 2 abandoned houses in the area, going to find out the info on those. Sold the old stove from this house yesterday and the people who bought it are renting a townhome(landlord won't fix their stove and its been hosed for 6 months, only 2 burners work) and would like their own place. DING DING DING. Told them we would help them out with a lease to own since they are fixing up their credit and all and they said they would be interested. You just never know who you might run into and need to always be talking about what you do.

We had 3 showings this weekend but all said no. To small, near power lines, and there is a semi busy street behind it. These are the 3 reasons we knew we'd hear if there were any issues when people looked at the house. 3 more showings today and they overlap! BUY BUY BUY! Mama is over there now with our son and he is cutting the grass and she is wiping down a few things and making sure its ready for them. It sure would be nice to get an offer soon!

Hey everyone,

We have had our flip on the market for about 35 days now. We have had about 2 dozen showings, great feedback on the upgrades but no offers. Mostly the reason given is its to small, the house is 1299 square feet. We were told there would be an offer made yesterday but it never came. Called my realtor and he is going to call and talk to the other realtor today. Mama and I are going back and fourth with the idea of lowering the price. I mentioned that to the realtor last week and he said we are priced right and to hold off, but I wanted to get some feedback here. We bought for $70k, have $8k into it, the sale price is at $114,900 now and we have a realtor so we know we'll be out 6% of sale price with that. Thoughts?

We always have a plan (myself and my realtor) and a projected time frame as to when and how much to drop the price if the property does not sell in 30 days. You have had a lot of showings and no offers. This can only indicate one thing. You are priced too high. Even if the house is small, the right price will bring offers. You may be able to sit on this one until you get your price or you can reduce, sell and move on to the next one.
Personally, I would reduce $5,000 right now. I would have my realtor do an open house for realtors and then the following weekend do an open house for buyers. If nothing happens in the next 15 days I would reduce again. This is just my opinion of course, you may want to sit tight and wait it out.
However, we always look at ROI on each deal. If it sells at $114,900 that is around 34% ROI! A killer return and grand slam deal! If you have to reduce all the way to say $104,900 that is still almost 24% ROI. Where do you get that kind of return?? No where but REI!!!

Lets look at what would be the absolute worst case, I doubt you will have to do this, but in this extreme buyers market, you never know.

Sale price $100,000
Commissions, holding, closing costs 9% = $9000
Purchase $70,000
Rehab $8000

Net profit $13,000

16% ROI. Still beats the heck out of the stock market! How about the educational factor!!! No training could have EVER supplied the learning experience you have gained on this one deal!! Think about that! People pay $10,000 to $50,000 to learn theory about what you have DONE!!
You are also on your way to determining what a true ARV is. Not what an appraisal or what a realtor says, but what the MARKET and location say!! Before making your offer, determine what the house will quick sell for in the first 30 days, if it does not sell, have a pre determined amount to drop the price. Unless of course you what to just let it sit and wait for that one buyer to come along. This is fine if that is your strategy.
I personally believe this business is about volume. Marketing, offers, closings. DO as many and as much as possible and never spend to much time one one deal. Get er done and move on.
Congratulations, I know there will be more to come for you guys. Action takers!!

Michael

THANKS so much for taking the time to reply. I am with you on this. I knew that is what I am supposed to do, just wanted to hear from the DG folks I guess. I called my realtor yesterday and he asked me to wait 10 more days and then we'd drop it but he'd do whatever I tell him to do. He said we are in the right price range(says comps say its worth $120+) and it will sell and that he feels comfortable that we will get an offer for $110k. When we started with this house we were going to put the price at $105k and knew we'd go down, so at your example above at $100k is what we were planning on, he just thought we could get more. We planned on doing an open house this weekend but thought we had an offer so we stopped planning, so I plan on doing it this Sat. I'll talk to my realtor about getting the word out plus get it out on CL. I spoke to a few people at our REI meeting on Thursday and they also said what you did about lowering the price, sure we can wait for that offer, or we can sell and move to the next. Your right about the education with this flip, and another thing that was awesome with education was our REI meeting on Thursday, we finally joined, so it was like $150 for both of us, the stuff they went over was worth that to me and that was only one meeting. What a great group of folks, over 400 members and this REI won the top REI in the country this year. Not a bad place to be when starting out! Thanks again Michael!

Michael,
Really great break down on the numbers there, and a sure fire way to take the emotional element out of the price, or to put it back in with different perspective. Money out of this deal sooner, is money in another one sooner...and still with a bang-up ROI.

Take care,
Chad.

Have you considered offering closing cost also as an incentive. That might help.

Sandra

Came back to 3 offers on the flip and told there is another one coming. Going to go back to them and tell them we have multiple offers and tell them to send their best. All are low, 2 real low and no way we would take them, so we'll see how it plays out next week! But I do feel a closing coming soon!!

Woohooooooooooooo, fired up! Came back from the cruise and had one cash offer(WAY LOW) and 2 more offers that have to wait until Sat since they are going FHA and they can't officially but in an offer until the 91st day after we bought it. The cash offer was $90k, I was torqued and sent a counter of $108,900, thats $1000 less then our asking, I was making a point. Their realtor came back upset about it not being much of a counter, my realtor told her if they are serious then come with something or forget it because we knew the offers Sat would be better. They came back with $98k, but we know one of the FHA offers is $108,900 with $3k for their closings and stuff and $350 for a home warranty, meaning it was just about $105,650. So I told my realtor I would take a $105k offer now and close in 30 days or I'll wait until Sat and see if the 2 will get into a bidding war. They came back and agreed to $105k and close on Sept 16th!! HA HA we are fired up!! We should be closing on our next project within the next 2 weeks, waiting to hear back from the bank on the date and time, so this will be falling almost perfectly into place. Had hoped to sell this one before buying the next but having a contract is sweet enough.

Hi Jack,
I just read you very first REI adventure from the beginning to the end, I felt like I was riding roller coaster, MAN,... you rock the bottom blueprint like a champion. My heart was racing up and down along your story, it's a lot of fun,exciting, emotional and very inspiring for newbie like me. I just realize that REI is not easy but it's not too hard if I put all my energy to it like you do.
Thank you so much for sharing and CONGRATS! Keep it up, bro!
Charles

Nothing worth going after is easy. Some people get going easier then others, but if you stick to this site and read the forums like a mad man, you will see anyone can do this. There is a forum out there that is something like why some succeed and others don't. Randy started it and alot of the successful people here have commented on it. One thing, fill out your profile so people know who they are talking to. If you saw Deans new video he talks about people on this site doing deals together, but no one if going to give someone on this site the time of day if they don't have their profile filled out and are not on this site all the time. Be involved here, read read read, and ask questions and things will fall into place if you follow what has been working for the people here. I just read today an email from an MLM I am associated with, it said something like quit trying to change and do things your way when the plan that already works is there for you. Good luck!

Looks like we will be selling on the 16th! The buyers had an inspection and the inspector said there was some cranks in the cement and they should be checked out by a structural engineer, so the buyers came back to us to get it done. I told my realtor that my inspector noticed them in our inspection and said they were normal and my floor guy also said they were normal or he wouldn't put the floor in, so I was not going to pay for that. They paid for one and he met my realtor at the house this morning and he was mad that they wasted his Sun morning looking at it. He agreed that there were no issues, so now we have a few small items that were on their inspection that they want taken care of, we offered them $250 to put towards them instead of worrying about them ourselves, so we'll see what they come back with. Either way, it looks good for the sale on the 16th, which is good since we have the other house ready for rehab and need the money.

All good things come to those that are patient. I can't wait till I can post my first, second,TENTH deal details. Your journey has been very encouraging to me. I just made my very first offer on Thursday (9/1), and the banker replied to my email, and said they'd look more into it and give me a REAL reply next week. Hopefully my first deal will be as smooth as yours. Keep up the good work, and keep getting those deals.

Im very happy for you..I cant wait for my time to shine.

Congradulations on your first deal. You are an inspiration.

Good luck on that offer! I read your profile and it looks like you have taken some great steps and now you have the offer in. Did you join the local REIA yet? That is huge, great contacts! NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK!

You are on the right site to get your REI going! Join the local REIA ASAP also. Ask questions and read the posts here on the site, you will learn so much just from reading, then if you have a question, post it and some of the experienced people on this site will help you out. This is a great site with great people out to help those that want it. GOOD LUCK!

Congrats, guys,
You took action and succeeded,
you are giving strength to go for other as well,
you are an example of doers!!

Dennis

I haven't joined the REI club yet, but I will be going to my first meeting on Tuesday. Can't wait to see what type of atmosphere it is, but I'm sure I'll love it! I'll update my profile with the info as it happens. Thanks for the tips.

Hope you went to the REIA meeting. We went to ours last night, incredible. Had a great guest speaker and made tons of contacts. The GC for my new flip was in the hospital and called me Mon to say he had heart issues(something like a heart attack) and was told he needed to distance himself from his work and he told me he had a guy that would be calling me that day, Mon. I haven't heard a thing, but when I was at the REIA meeting last night I was talking with folks and one of the guys mentions that he is a GC, as well as an investor and he would work with the subs I have picked. We also are now talking with a GC from my wife's networking group for our travel agency, so it pays to be out networking!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We get to close on our first flip today! Its been a fun ride but I am ready to get off and try another one! Closing is at noon and I was told we should be in and out in a few minutes. I am supposed to be playing in a charity fundraising golf tournament for Purple Heart Homes at 1 about 40 minutes up the road. I am so pumped up about the closing! I'll put the numbers up once we put it all together with holding costs and closing and all that, but it looks like it will be about $18k in our pockets.

Keep us posted once it closes! And go celebrate for the hard work you put in

This was my first deal this year and I have just purchased another house to flip about 2 weeks ago. In the past I have had a rental and I also built a spec house for some builders trying to get into a community(headache and took about 8 months and had to split a profit a little less then this one with an ex wife who didn't do squat to help). This was a basic cookie cutter deal with very little work needed, the new one is a full rehab. I am sure I will have tons of questions for the pros out here on the forums once I get that going. We bought this house(short sale listed at $76k) for $70k, put just over $8k in the upgrades and bills(electric/gas/water) to the house and sold it for $105k. After realtor/lawyer/closing fees we recieved a check for $96,978.87, so our profit was a couple dollars short of $19k. We had cash to do this deal so there was no PML or HML. We bought it cash and our buyers were also cash, so that made things a little easier.

Congratulations on your success!

Do you have a consistent repair person? If so, how did you establish that relationship? or do you do repairs yourself.