i found a good deal but listed with agent, which i dont mind at all, but it seems like every agent always wants 1,000+ earnest money, and proof of funds!!, but ron legrand(my mentor) said in his tapes, always tell the agent the most i put is 500 earnest, and do a double closing, and its not big deal, any advise from pros who do DOUBLE CLOSINGS!?
Is the problem that you don’t have the $1k to lay out or you don’t want to lay out more than you have to?
the problem is i dont wanna put 1k down if i dont have to, unless i knew it was a guarantee closing.
HELLO EVERYBODY!!! can any body give me some advise with this agent?
Does the agent need to know you are doing a double close? Just tell them that you are putting down $500 and leave it at that.
All REO properties around here require $1,000 of an earnest down payment; nothing can be done about it (here). In my area is gradually changing to $2,000 to weed out the “fad” investors so be glad its only 1k.
Virtually every REO property will require $1000 for earnest money, sure you could tell them to stick it, but for $500 who cares, thats what I call saving pennies and losing dollars.
If you have the $1000, simply use your escape clause, get your buyers through during the escape period, if they like collect their earnest money non-refundable, and be sure that it covers your costs if they back out, if they dont then use your escape clause to escape from the contract and retain your deposit.
The problem with learning from tapes or cds is that alot of the material is extremely dated and you simply cant use the old school real estate techniques in todays market place. I have read ALOT of ron legrand but I only take what I can actually use from it.
thanks that was good advise , i guess i never really notized those cds were kinda out dated. makes sense thanks
Eric,
I’m just curious what your escape clause looks like, could you post it? Thanks
When I buy sub2 or when the exit strategy is to double close I always put earnest money “due at closing”. Sellers are generally motivated so it has never been an issue. When buying with a realtor the due at closing will scare them. When a property that is a good deal I usually use the listing agent as they will now be working for me and the seller, and recieving the whole commission on the sale. They are generally a little more motivated to see it my way and to sell the Idea of “due at closing” to their clients. And yes it usually helps if you present your self as a seasoned buyer and this is how You do it. I just recieved an accepted offer from a bank which I included “due at closing”. I learned this from buying sub2’s ,while negotiating loan fee’s on defaulted loans with anxious, motivated sellers with less than cooperative loss mitigation depts. If and when these deals fail , and they have, Then I don’t have to try to get e money from upset, angry, broke, sellers.Keeping everything above board, straight forward, with no gray area’s has kept me from having to try to collect on the deals that due at closing didn’t work.
Hope this helps ! Darin
Another option is to submit the earnest money in 2 stages. You can submit the initial earnest money and the beginning and the remaining earnest after all of the contingencies are removed (i.e. attorney and mortgage).