B.C.'s journal

Since i didn't start this journal before all my past adventure's I will give a quick update.
I bought deans TALD program in Feb of 08. I read through it and listened to the cd's. Went and found a partner at work who had a hard money lender at his hands. We looked at a few houses ,went to a live auction( on our lunch break)
bid on a few properties. our strategy was to buy a rehab cheap and fix it up with the HML money, then flip it. So we got a call that our bid was being considered. set an appt to look at the property again. It was 2 houses for the price of 1. The day we were to go, my partner got cold feet and bailed out on me. So i was thinking this won't work for me. Well i decided to go back to re read the books to see if I missed anything that i could use to do it on my own.
So i logged into this web sight and found a lot of information that i could use to my advantage. Since then I found a buyer in a fellow employee just through conversation. I had him circle on a map the exact area he wanted to live in and asked him what type of house he wanted. He wants a duplex so he can collect rent and live there for a lot less then he is paying for rent. So this weekend i am going to look at a few homes i located in his desired area. After hrs and days of researching for foreclosed homes in his area.

I also am currently trying to get a home no money down. My agent is looking into a few things for me first before i put a bid in.
I also recieved my first reply back from a bunch of
e-mails i sent out asking lenders i found on craigs list if they were interested in buying property in my area. He wants me to call him today.
Moving forward... I also made the decision to call deans coaches and enquire about the costs and so on. Although i am working on deals ,I feel that i can gain even more knowllege from the coaches. So since I live check to check I have opted to sell my only and favorite thing. My Harley. This will give me some money to afford the coaching. In the end i know i will be able to buy a new one. Thats all for now .Sorry for the long post but i tried to collect everything from my other posts to give an idea on how my steps went.

I went and looked at the homes this morning for my end buyer.
I visited 3 properties but got lost trying to find the other one.So i went home with some pictures i took of the outsides and the contact numbers. There are a few other ones for sale there also. I jogged down the numbers just in case. Now i will send him to look at the houses as he lives in that state and it is easy for him to access. If he is interested in one I will make a bid on it.I asked him if he went to get pre aproved like i suggested. Well he told me he is going through a friendly devorce with his wife. But he also said that the co-op that she lives in is in his name. She pays the rent since they have been sepperated for a long time. Now i am wondering if he can still get a loan, with that in his name.I just hope he didnt waste my time and money.
I also called the investor that replied back to my e-mail. He said to fax anything i find that is a good deal to him.

Continued today trying to get more buyers . I e-mailed a bunch i found on backpage.com and craigslist. hopefully i will get some nibbles.
I also registered in 2 REI clubs. I want to go to a meeting to hook up with some investors there also.
Keeping busy every day. hopefully things will start happening soon. As far as my deal im working on now, My buyer will be going to look at the house i suggested he buy. i will update as it progresses.

Make sure you have something in writing between the two of you. Remember what your vp said.

I am one of the most trusting people there is, and so far have NOT been taken advantage of. But I hear so many stories of backstabbing, I just don't want to see you lose out on a deal because someone went around you.
Just a reminder to a great guy.

Rina

WOW! I had 2 more people contact me via e-mail and phone messages. One i think is a dead end. He is trying to sell me another program to realestate millions. But the other was a shot i took. He was advertising for apt & co-ops. But i wrote to him anyway. He wants to call me tomorrow. Things are picking up and i still have yet to sign up for deans coaching team. I also just confirmed that i will attend a REI meeting on the 28th.
(I am little nervous about it though).

Thanks Rina for the advice. Hopefully one of these will be the house he likes. It is getting expensive driving an hour to another state and paying all the tolls along the way.

I spoke to an investor today about backing me on a property. He asked me a few questions and what town it was in .He said he would call me back ,that he had to think about it. hopefully I didnt screw up and he doesnt find it and go around me.

The investor never called me back. But I e-mailed him again anyway explaining I guess he didnt want to do the deal i offered and i was ok with that. I also asked him going foward, that if i come across any co-ops/condo's would he like me to pass the deals onto him after i get them under contract. I told him i think its a good idea to build as many relationships as possible to make you more succesful as you go on in this business.
Still no calls on my Harley thats up for sale. I think i will still be able to sign up for coaching soon anyway.
I also took another step by hiring a credit repair law firm to fix my credit. It is frustrating not being able to get loans at a good rate for some great deals i come across. I have one i may be able to do no money down but the ones i really want i cant get like that.
One house i wanted already sold. It was on the market a short time. 3 family that would have brought in about 1500+ a month cash flow. killer!

I like how you worded that to the investor. Confident, but not cocky. Gave him the OPPORTUNITY to work with you. That should grab his attention. Yeah, I like it!

Rina

P.S. Good job on the credit building!

Well It worked. The investor wrote back to me.

Hi Richie,
I would not necessary say I don't like the deal. The thing that threw me off is that I would have to finance it all myself and I don't even know the area. I am interested in co-ops and condos, I'll email you over the weekend in terms of what I"m looking for. Have you tried getting hard money to buy that house?

So i will take that as a positive action. Even if not for the funding but the possibility of bird dogging for him.

Hi BC did you join Dean's coaching program?

I made a little progress with the house i wanted to partner up on with the investor.
I found who the owner is. The neighbor and i were at a party together last night. So i asked him if he knows who and how many people own the house. So he told me that the pipes froze and broke last week( sound familiar Rina) and that the woman who owns it is fed up. So i told him to tell her i would like to talk to her.And if she is willing to make a deal i will take it off her hands asap. So my plan has changed from asking the investor to partner up, to asking the owner to hold the mortgage until i can get a refi loan. The problem is it is listed with a realestate. I may have to borrow money to pay their commision on the sale price to get them out of the way.

I am considering going with a HML to buy the house out right. But the catch is I have 6 months to refi or the payments are astranomical (15k per month). The HML sent me an aproved loan. The loan should put around 25k in my pocket for repairs. Then the refi would put another 20k in my pocket after closing expenses. And I would still get 250.00 per month cash flow on rent. Then I may want to sell it in a few yrs for another 50k profit. My only worry is that i wont get a loan to pay off the HML before 6 months. I currently have a law firm working on my credit repair but I don't know if it will be good enough in 5 months to get a loan. any advice?

Hey, good job on all the thought process that goes into this. makes a wiser man.
Be sure you have a back-up plan. Is it a good enough deal to pass onto another investor, even if in 5 months?

If you are planning to hold the property, I would make certain that I had a plan laid out for when the 6 months is over. You don't want to end up losing out after all your effort and hard work. HML's are great as long as you work them to YOUR advantage. What are the penalties if (worst-case scenario) the six months go by and you are still unable to refinance?

I liked your idea in the previous post about asking the owner to hold the mortgage until you can refi. Did you check into that? Do you have anything for a down-payment or deposit that could help her decide that it sounds good?

Any more luck on a partner?

I would be cautious about the HML. (Hope I don't sound negative, but that's a biggy)

Best wishes,

Rina

I guess i was contemplating going with the HML because I am afraid I will loose the house. But maybe i should try the owner finance thing first. But then I still have the selling agent to deal with( i assume ). My problem is getting money to pay them and maybe giving this Lady like 5k up front to push the deal along. I guess i am putting the cart in front of the horse right now. Just getting impatient on not getting either deal done yet.
Rina. I never consider anything you say negative. I value your advice. You are in the friend category I will wait until i speak to the owner and see how she feels about owner financing before i make any other moves. Thanks again for the advice Rina.

B.C. wrote:

I guess i was contemplating going with the HML because I am afraid I will loose the house. But maybe i should try the owner finance thing first. But then I still have the selling agent to deal with( i assume ). My problem is getting money to pay them and maybe giving this Lady like 5k up front to push the deal along. I guess i am putting the cart in front of the horse right now. Just getting impatient on not getting either deal done yet.
Rina. I never consider anything you say negative. I value your advice. You are in the friend category I will wait until i speak to the owner and see how she feels about owner financing before i make any other moves. Thanks again for the advice Rina.

Don't be afraid of working with the realtors. You'll probably have a good experience with them. And remember, they want to get this house sold, too. So does the owner. YOU are the solution, my friend. Try your offer from the different angles you suggested. You might be pleasantly surprised right off the bat. Otherwise, work it through. you'll do great.

Rina

Ok. After asking around for someone who knows where this woman lives. I found out From the neighbor that he had the name wrong! Which is why i could not find her. But I got one better. The selling agent is someone from the neighborhood that i know. So tonight I will contact her and speak to her about setting me up with the owner for a meeting. I will explain to the agent that she will get paid her commish as soon as the deal is done if i can get owner financing. Does that sound right.

NOW the other deal i am working on ran into a snag. He doesn't like the houses i showed him this time either. So i have 2 more for him to look at.I think this will be it. one of the 2. But they are foreclosed and the price would mean i would have to assign it because the range of price would be too much to make a big enough profit to warrant a double closing.But I know banks don't like the and/assign on a deal.I will think of something:)

WOW! The wierdest thing just happened. My agent called the selling agent to set up a meeting so we can go inside the house and look around.( the selling agent wasn't the one i knew) But anyway. The selling agents office gave my agent the owners phone number to call instead of the selling agents number. Well the owner asked him how he got her number and why was he calling HER. So with this he apoligized. Then called the selling agents office again to report that they gave out the personal number of the owner. Big nono. With that the selling agent picks up and curses out my agent saying he must have had inside help on getting the number and demanded he give up his contact or he cant look at the home. He told her it was her office that gave the number to him, but no one fessed up to it. then she said if we don't offer 200k then don't bother because they turned down 190k.
( appearently the owner called very upset)
Well I am going to have to contact the owner on my own thru people i know. Maybe the selling agent is not passing along the info because she is waiting for top $ even with the broken pipes and water damage.
I dont see her getting it with the work that would need to be done to upgrade the house.

Very nice. Amazing that realtoris still in business in this market. I would have expected him/her to be weeded by now.

wmark1963 wrote:Very nice. Amazing that realtor is still in business in this market. I would have expected him/her to be weeded by now.

You would hope so!!
Something like this could only happen to me lol. trust me.
Well since my agent can't get involved due to the selling agents tirade.
I will try to contact the owner myself like I had originally planned.
A good friend of mine was the neighbor of the late owner. The current owner likes him because he helped out the old woman all the time when she was alive.
The worst that can happen is she hits me with a cane or something and tell me no. But with my luck she will probably own a pit bull

Sorry it did not work out. We all lose sometimes, but when you win it will feel all the more sweet. I hope your agent or you can work something out with the owner. I'd be happy to work with you soon, and we live right near each other, so that is a big plus. Keep in touch and I'll talk to you soon. Jeremy

B.C. wrote:

The worst that can happen is she hits me with a cane or something and tell me no. But with my luck she will probably own a pit bull

Richie,

Bring a box of chocolates and a steak with you.
Sweet-talk'em both.

Rina

Thanks Rina & Jeremy.
I will try to talk to her. hopefully I will know her when i see her face and vice versa. But atleast I will know HER answer and can close the book on that property.
Jeremy.I would definatly like to work together even if this deal doesn't go through. We will see how things go. Thanks for the encouragement.
Im not fazed or depressed by it.
I understand that is the nature of the business. I will just keep digging until i get what i want.

No luck finding out where the woman lives. So I kicked into plan c today after thinking about my next move for a while.
I just wrote 2 letters .One to the house that the woman owns and another to a house i had my eye on.The 2nd house is big! Could be a 3 rental house. But i am considering getting it for myself and renting a studio on the 3rd floor to cover a part of the mortgage. The owner owns the house out right so I am going with the same strategy of owner holding the mortgage. If this one works out I will sell my house almost at cost just to get rid of it. I asked in the letter to speak to each of them and that i will show proof of income that i could afford the payments easily. I asked them to hold the mortgage at 4% explaining that will enable them to make up most of the difference in the price they are asking and the price I am offering over the course of the loan. I also explained that they will recieve a nice monthly check by doing so.
I was kinda getting mad at myself for sitting idle for so long after the other debacle last week.
Hopefully I will hear from both by Saturday. Does anyone think i missed something in my offer? Is 4% a bad offer for them to accept.

Letters in the mail!!
Mean while back at the ranch. My end buyer just came back from vacation. I am going to push him hard to get a deal done soon.I have 2 properties waiting for him to look at.

Someone told me i may be doing something illegal on the first house. They said since my agent contacted the office of the selling agent. It would be considered going around the selling agent which is illegal after contact. But I never was shown the house because the selling agent went sycho.I also excluded my agent from this house deal all together because we both agreed it was not a good idea for him to be involved after the accusations thrown around by the selling agent. Is this true? On the second house I just wrote a letter to the owner. didnt even contact my agent on this one.
Also Please tell me if i am correct on this. If a seller signs a contract with a agency under EXCLUSIVE TO SELL, That means the agent gets their money even if the seller sells it first. If they sign up EXCLUSIVE, that would mean that if the seller sells it first ,the agent gets nothing. am i correct?

Here's what I found. But ask a few agencies in your area what their definition is. Just call anonymously with a general question. More than likely you will find this same answer, but I would call anyway.

http://www.realestateabc.com/homeselling/listingtypes3.htm

Exclusive Right to Sell
Giving a real estate agent the "exclusive right to sell" your property does not mean that there will not be other agents involved. Your agent is the listing agent and the most important part of his or her job is to market your home to other agents who work with buyers. Those agents will show your home to their clients. Regardless of who sells the home, even if you sell it yourself to a friend at work, your listing agent will earn a commission.

P.S. You would probably have to wait until a listing has expired before you would look at a house as FSBO.

Well one of the 2 owners responded to my letter. It was the woman who owns the house with the crazy REI selling agent. Unfortunatly I was away for the day Sat. But my wife was home and took the call. She is going to call me back Today.Turns out she doesnt live on the next block like i was told. But I do know who she is. She happens to be an old friend of my mothers.hopefully i can make a deal with her.I kinda feel awkward dealing with someone i know but i will go at it from a profesional stance.Bottom line is i could have given up on this house deal after I ran into 3 different obstacles. But I just found ways to get around the obstacles that got in my way. If I do Or don't complete this deal It is still a learning experience as well as a stepping stone that will help me in the future.

Ok, I called the lady since she must have forgot to call me like she said on Sunday. No answer but I left a message for her to call me. I was originally going to offer 140k but now may offer 160k if she holds the mortgage at 4%. I can still get positive cash flow out of it. It will resell for 250k with a little update and fresh paint. If she accepts my offer I will still offer to partner with the guy I had offered to do so with in the first place. Would be a good experience for both of us.And he can get his feet wet.

Here is another offer letter i have mailed out. tell me what you think.
It is for a 2 bed 1bath home. needs some work. It is listed for 239k. He bought it for 86k in 1988. I looked it up.

Mr. Abuiso:

I am writing to you about the home you have for sale.
I also am a resident of xxxxx,
I am willing to offer you 135,000 for your home with you holding the mortgage at 4%. By holding the mortgage you will make more on the sale with the interest and by not having to pay a real estate agent commission. We could work out a deal where you hold it up to 1 year or less. Although I really don’t want to go near 6th road because of the flooding I will do it if we agree on the deal offered. I noticed from the outside that I have to rehab the roof and outside of the house as well. So I am looking at 30-40k in rehab(very high estimate) costs which would put me near the Fare Market value of the home. With the house prices expected to drop another 11% the rest of the year I am cutting it close on my offer.
If you are interested we can get a deal done soon and you can move on. Below is the figure you will get by holding the mortgage.

You will get 596.00 per month by holding the mortgage at the agreed price and rate. If you want to hold it for up to 1 year until I rehab and refinance it that is fine also.
At that point I will refi and pay you in full. I can also give you around 5k up front and you would hold the mortgage for the balance for either the year or longer if agreed on.
If interested, below is my number. If not thank you for your time.
Iam thinking if i dont hold it i can fix it up and flip it for around 30k profit. I think the rehab will run me around 10-15k But i always go with a very high figure to cover myself in case i run into surprises along the way.
Please feel free to trouble shoot this and tell me what you think.

On the other home I am trying to get I am getting frustrated. I some how missed the womans call Tuesday even though i was home. So i called on Wed and left a message but she hasn't called me back. I will leave one more message and move on from there because i dont want to cross that line of being annoying even If she is an old friend of the family.
Thanks in advance for all the support from my DG fam.