5 deals today

Today was quite a day for a number of reasons. I got 5 deals today. Quite a good day. I had a seller call me back from 3 months ago where i had offered $4,000 for an old family home and they said they would fix it up and a relative would move in. Well no one fixed it up and someone has to still pay the property taxes on it. its not a pretty house but for $4k i will buy almost any house. The local MLS thinks it should sell around $55k fixed up. Easily needs $20k in work i think. I will try to wholesale it first for around $12k to other investors.

Steven and Karen from Nashville referred me someone from an online lead source that had 7 memphis properties. I agreed to buy 4 of them today after looking at them for a total of $82,000 and 3 are rented with monthly rents totalling $1650 per month! 1 has an assumable mortgage.

Anyways it was a nice day. As today is Monday i need to start getting ready for my private group coaching call tonight.

Group Real Estate Coaching

More thoughts on the short sale...

Even though our first short sale was a bit unconventional, not to mention stressful, it did have some plusses.

For one thing, we did not have to be the victims of a drive-by BPO. By having to submit a contractor's estimate plus photos of wood damage instead of depending on a BPO, drive-by or otherwise, I think we have a better case.

And hey...we already have a qualified buyer!!! Now all we need to do is keep checking in with the lender, and hopefully just show up to the closing on Nov. 3 and collect our check, instead of having to scramble around and find someone.

Hi, Steven and Karen here...

Last week was wild...we submitted our first short sale packet!

This short sale was a bit different than most, in that we had to make a phone offer first. It was really nerve-wracking because usually when you submit a short sale packet, you are building a case, document by document, for the offer you are making on the house.

I was concerned that by just making a phone offer first we would get kicked out without the opportunity to describe the seller's hardship and the work to be done on the house.

However, the offer was accepted, and they also gave some guidelines.

There would be no BPO, so the rep I spoke with suggested we get a contractor's estimate. Fortunately, we had just seen a flyer for a contractor who gives free estimates and he turned out to be pleasant, honest, and knowledgeable.

Then we had to find a buyer first and submit his pre-approval letter when usually you find the buyer after the offer has been accepted. Fortunately, we found one. It is a guy who had a house on one of the local REIA rehab tours back in the summer.

While at his attorney's office going over the contracts we found out from his lawyer, who thankfully was fair to us as well, that the seller owed over $6,000 in back taxes. The seller was not aware of this either...he thought it had been discharged in a bankruptcy a few years ago. We had to call David for advice!!! It is invaluable in these kind of situations to have someone experienced to call on.

This short sale was undoubtedly THE most stressful thing I have ever done, but we got it done! I have done grantwriting, and also published three magazined, but doing this short sale was like comparing fifth grade to med school in relation to previous jobs I've had.

Needless to say, we did not think too much about real estate this weekend.

This morning brought a few calls from the TV ads. Two wanted retail price for their homes. The third does, too, but since the house was built in 42 and hasn't been lived in for about six years, we have a pretty decent case for making a lower offer. It's a probate house, and no money is owed on it so that makes things easier, too.

In the meantime, we'll see what happens with the short sale. It will be nice to make some bucks for our hard work, but we also want to help out Leroy, the seller. He's a good guy.