I got a txt message from somebody asking about one of the fixers I’m trying to sell wanting more info, I sent him a photo and told him everything I knew about it. The next morning I was barely awake and he calls and wants to know why the owner wants to sell. I replied he wants to sell that’s all I know. He tells me he needs to know why. I asked is that important? Seller wants to sell and we want to buy. He tells me he has access to public info and it shows there is a 140K judgement on the property, I tell him thats prob old info and incorrect cuz were only asking 40K for the property.
He says I can call the owner, do you have in under contract, I said of course we do, my partner Dean and Alan do and I’m helping them sell it. I told him I got it for 33K and I’m asking for a 7K assignment. He says the price is ok at 40K And I dont mind paying a wholesalers fee cuz I do the same. He says can I see the contract?
I tell him if you want the property sign my assignment and we’ll start escrow, the title company will do a prelim and in a few days we will know if there are any judgements and we can proceed or not.
He says I just want to see the contract to make sure you really have it under contract and why shud I start escrow before I inspect it.
Now I’m getting perturbed, I tell him there is an inspection clause and there is no risk. I tell him myself and Dean and Alan have been doing this for eons.
He says people can say anything. I told him I wud email him the purchase contract and we hung up.
I txted him later while I was still steaming and I asked him if he gets many deals saying he was going to call the owner and demanding to see the purchase contract and accusing ur contact of illegal activity and acting like an ahole?
He never replied.
Later I surmised this guy was probably a know it all newbie that had read a book or two and I let him get to me.
I’m still pissed off.
[b]You’re got more patience than I have. I get questions like that even when I’m selling a property I have title to.
I remember one fat-head asking me if I owned the house, or not. And then wanted to know how long I’ve owned it, and other miscellaneous questions that ‘actual’ bonafide retail buyers don’t ever ask.
When this happens I just go straight for the jugular and ask, “Do you have the cash I want, or not?”
This, of course is a terrible response to give to a retail buyer, but actual retail buyers don’t ask if I’m the actual owner, or how long I’ve owned the house. Actual retail buyers and some sophisticated investors might ask, “How long have you lived in the neighborhood,” which is a legitimate question, and gives an accurate clue to my length of ownership.
Never mind today, I screen out (most of) the investors and amateurs, by only posting my phone number on the sign in front of the house, and not anywhere else. This way, the looky-loos are forced to find out everything about the house by listening to my interminably-long outgoing message, that describes the house in excruciatingly-fine detail (not actually excruciatingly …or fine), and explains my non-qualifying financing terms, including the down payment and payments.
Then, if they’ve remained awake through my schpeel; are still interested; and taken the time to actually drive by the address I’ve provided, they’ll find my live number posted, and then we can talk turkey.
This extra step of interference keeps most of the investors and agents off my phone. Moreover, when my phone rings, I know I’ve got a serious buyer on the line. And I’m not explaining over and over what the house looks like, or if I have the title.
** One thing I’ve encountered is the ‘bargain hunter.’ He might be a retail buyer, but he’s the one that invariably asks the magical question of magicalness, “Why are you selling?” He, of course, wants to gauge the potential of equity stripping me blind.
You can have fun with this. You might say, “Well, we be selling, because the police discovered two of the bodies my wife and I buried in the backyard, and well, we need money for bail.”[/b]
Some of the houses I been looking at on Zillow show prices starting to drop, not by much, maybe a thou or 2,
I think this is a good indication we are at, or close to top of this newest inflated housing bubble.
Some houses are still at, over, or slightly below the value in what’s owed from the 2009 cluster fruk.
Grab ur tool belt and get ready for battle, cuz some interesting sh-t is coming.
My buddy Bob found a burnt 2/1 in a desert town called Taft, California. Now this is pitiful, we are on our bellies with the vermin wasting time on this. Seller wants 25K for it, Zillow says the ARV is about 100-110K. Imagine this old 1956 house, it will cost a minimum 60 Grand to repair, 50% of it is burnt down w roof caving in.
I told Bob, if we can sell this, I’ll eat a bug.
I’m trying to stay positive on Bob’s deal he found. Cuz its all we got going, except for small deal that’s kinda going, with the tweaker son that wont leave.
So anyways I wrote up some smoking ads and plastered them on Craig’s List in every nearby city. The little town of Taft Cal has some nearby mountains and it is picturesque. Some people like the desert, and I can see the attraction, and just 4 months ago I sold one of these fixers in Taft, but it was a better deal and had a grandma setup in the back. .
I want to sell this thing and go camping and kayaking.
I got a guy named Anthony that txted me last night that he wanted our burnt fixer in Taft. I emailed him the Assignment this morning for $7,000 I’m waiting for him to sign and return it, I might have to eat that bug.
One response I got was from a black guy named William and only asking if I was the owner. I replied I’m a wholesaler and the property was for sale.
Then he calls and leaves a long recording that he usually only works with wholesalers in his group. And he knows of wholesalers that have ripped off people and hes been ripped off 2 times. So if I want to work with him I have to get a contractor’s estimate on repairs, and if they match or are similar then he will allow me to sell to his group.
His message was redundant as all get out and he went on and on and he actually ran out of time.
I txted back that’s not how I play, my buyers do their own due diligence.
Holy moly, then he txts back 2 long replies that I must be a nigga out for myself and I probably only sell to jews and went on and on how about the nigga this and that, WTF?
I’ve often had interactions with blacks and 99% of the time, it’s off the wall BS and I’m the one that got the short end. I really try not to be raciest, but I do avoid these investors.
The burnt house that Bob found seems to have some pending actions from the city of Taft. Our Title girl Rosa seemed concerned and was asking for us to sign some kind of addendum that we understood. I asked her for the lien amount and she says there are no liens and told me to contact the city to see wat they wanted done b4 they came out and bulldozed the property or fenced it and boarded it up. Just boarding up a house can cost 5 Grand. I tell Rosa we know wat needs to be done and will sign.
I told Bob to re negotiate our 25K deal down to 17K Bob says he dont think they will do it, I explained to bob the city situation and pending liens and they will lose a lot more if they don’t sell fast.
Rosa is asking us to give her our spouses names and our mailing addresses. I tell Rosa that our funding partner is not stepping up on this project and we need find another buyer or to re negotiate w seller or cancel.
Chasing these deals and all the BS and renegotiating and trying to get things on track is kinda fun.
But I might have to get more aggressive, deals are elusive, or maybe I’m not trying.
I told Bob to call seller and explain that if we cant get property for 17K we have to cancel, which means, Mr. Seller, you got the city breathing down ur neck and ur only hope of selling this craphole from hell is walking.
An hour later Bob calls and says sellers agreed to 18K and were going for broke, writing up new ads, sending out txts on a fire sale with a happening investment for only 22K which will bring in 8-900 monthly. We need a crazy investor buyer.
Even crawling and slithering around w the scavengers for a minimal fee of 2K each is exciting.
5 years ago I made up some 4/8 plywood signs, painted then yellow with big black lettering I buy houses, I put them together with 4/4’s and 2/4’s and placed about 6 of them around town, some were smashed, some were missing and just disappeared. 1 is still standing on a busy corner, all faded, the tractor driver that tills the lot moves it out of the way and then puts it back afterwards. I actually got 2 calls recently from this sign, 1 guy asked if I cud buy him a house, I laughed and told him, I buy houses for me, he says oh, I misunderstood.
The other caller was from a wholesaler named Mike, asking if I wanted to buy an over priced fixer that had zero chance of profit, but then this morning he txts me with 2 fixers on 1 lot for 110K that seems to be a possible deal.
He offered to show it to me tomorrow morning as he’s showing it to another potential buyer at 9:30. I’m thinking I can sell this for 122 and I tell him we’ll take it and I asked for his email to send him my contract.
Then he tells me he is getting other offers and will get back to me in a few hours.
Its in a nearby small town about 20 miles out.
Just throw out some rotting meat and let us wholesalers fight for a bite.
Some excitement on a cold rainy Sunday.
It got even more exciting, my buyer/competitor John says he already got the lead & has a showing at 9:30 tomorrow morn. And another wholesaler named Jason says he already got this on contract for 110. I immediately txt seller Mike, he txts back that its still available. I tell him lets do 115 & put this dog down. Oh crap, he wants to know how soon can I close, and mentions there is a 3K earnest deposit. I txt back, I’ll do $1,000 and I can close in 14 days, oh crap, he says ok, that’s my gas & grocery money. I’ve done these b4 wher I tell seller I will deposit my earnest in escrow and kept delaying and he hawing till it was sold.
Then he wants to know if I’m the end buyer. This can get tricky. Do I admit that I’m slithering wholesaler out to make money on his dime?
I txt back that one of my buyers will want this, has profit potential and looks good as buy and hold.
Any minute I think he’s gona say, hell I got ur number off a faded plywood sign in the weeds and u want to wholesale my deal? And put my profits at risk if u cant sell it? You think I’m nuts?
Then Mike calls, he’s driving, he’s got kids yelling and screaming, he’s yelling at them. Mike is saying he wud send me the contract with DocuSign. I tell him, alright dude, send it over I’ll be waiting.
I’m slobbering all over myself, but even now, any other grubby wholesaler cud grab it out from under me.
There’s only one bone on the table, and I want it.
Mike the wild and friendly blak wholesaler emails me his assignment with DocuSign. I glance over the numbers, shows Mike making 15 Grand, my hope is to flip it for 122-125K I hurriedly sign and send it back.
This is getting serious, and I’m a bit worried. Here’s the deal… Two 2/1 houses on one lot, my price 115K, one is rented to a long term tenant for 12 yrs. Second house is boarded up, but its a good looking house, needs full interior rehab. The rented house in back looks a bit depressed. Its rented for $550 and rent shud be at $850. My guess is the after repair value cud be around 185K
Zillow shows 1 house on lot with a value of 97K
I bet the second house is off tax records.
This deal cud go down in flames if I can’t find a buyer frikin fast. Will my buyer/wholesaler/competitor John be pissed, he’s meeting up for a walk thru in the morning. Maybe he will pay 122. My wholesaling buddy Bob wants in and if he can sell it he makes 50% on top of the 115K. The wholesaler Jason that said he had it on contract, wats up with that?
Tomorrow morning, its gona be a frenzy and free for all, John be there, Bob be there to take photos and Mike seller be ther. I’m gona stay home & try to keep it together. I got to write up some ass kicken ads to put on Craig List,
My life wud be really boring cept for these occasional poopahs. Let’s make some Money…
Haha, and the sh-t storm is brewing. With the wholesaler Mike being black, I knew there was going to be some drama and confrontation. And I knew this deal was going to smooth and too fast.
Seller wholesaler txts me he was concerned about this deal being daisy chained and wanted to avoid that, I txted back that I did a deal with 5 wholesalers in the mix and I know how to get this deal sold.
Now hours later he txts and says, at this point I want you to close at 115 and after that if you want to resale at 122 you can do that.
I havnt replied to him yet, but he’s gona have to let me play with this for 14 days, my way.
Bob calls this morning from the site. He’s usually positive on these fixers but he tells me, “it’s bad” He says the rented house in back is not too bad, but the main house that’s boarded up is beyond bad. I had noticed in the pics I got, this house had its exterior remodeled w a porch cut into the front w new entry and the house was wrapped in newer wood siding. It was looking good. But Bob says that half the house has no floor and u can see down to the dirt w a bad foundation and that’s just the good points. He says others wer there looking at property and they looked more interested in it than Bob.
Bob is supposed to send all the pics he took later today.
Then, I’m guessing here, nobody wanted this hellhole at his price and soon I get a txt from Mike our wild and friendly but stressed out wholesaler. It simply says, “Escrow starting today”.
I txt back that I’m waiting for photos from Bob, but he says it’s bad. You may have to renegotiate w seller, I’ve done that many times. Soon, he txts again and asking if Bob was my buyer.
This deal has gone down in flames but it sure was fun till it hit ground.
The wholesaler Mike was getting a little pushy, he txts me, “Well Price is firm, can you perform”?
I thought for a few minutes, I didnt want to be cruel and tell him again that he has an overpriced fixer with foundation issues that nobody with half a brain wud want.
I txt him back… After inspection of the main structure, it shows it will need substantial repairs. The projected cost of repairs and rehab out weighs any profit projections for any investors that we know. Good luck.
He replied back, Thanks.
More opportunities coming, I feel it.
Bob txts me yesterday that we gotta sell the burnt Taft house fast cuz our time is running out.
I txt back. Nobody wants this.
Call sellers and ask if they want to dump this and be free of it for 10 Grand cuz I got an offer for 15.
The city will be there any minute with liens for clean up or demo and they risk losing it all.
Bob sounded hesitant, he says let’s give it a few days. I say, it has to be done, do it tomorrow. It is a bummer to call sellers with this kind of news. If we get the new improved price drop, I’m going to advertise it as the cheapest house in California for the low price of $15,000 .
Actually I just got a call from an investor in the nearby city of Bakersfield. I told him we need 22K He was a Mexican guy but he seemed very qualified, asking about any liens, are the walls still good and if Taft houses held their value.
I laughed and told him I never been to Taft, but looking at google photos it has those nearby mountains and was very picturesque. Thats the only good thing I cud think of. I was thinking the other day, this is a desert hell hole where even the lizards and snakes leave town.
Our burnt deal in the desert is almost dead, no buyer wud commit, I had Bob contact sellers with a 12K offer, sellers told Bob that they had it sold for 19K We cud hav protested that we hav it on contract but I just wanted to bury it,.
Meanwhile my wild and crazy bird dog/Partner Enrique emails me a mobile home park by owner.
I got zero experience with commercial properties but this is interesting as all get out.
Imagine this, 13 gorgeous acres w hills & oak trees, overlooking the scenic Pine Flat Lake and lower valley. 22 mobile home spaces w 6 older existing single wides. Also a big newer double wide w deck and canopy for the owner or caretaker.
Only 45 minutes from the big city w fishing, hiking, boating yada yada.
The owners sister stays in Los Angeles, the owner is an old guy named Doug and lives on an adjacent 5 acres. The sister tells me they tried to sell for 600K and now asking 350K It seems to my brain that the land alone wud be worth that and then u got the serious ass income potential. Wudnt it be cool as hell to own this, and over time bring in some nicer mobiles and start collecting ridiculous rents. I’m having Bob make an appointment with seller and get some photos and get it on contract for 325, and see if we can sell this.
I think Bob was perturbed that I sent him on this goose chase and I’m 45 minutes away and he’s bout more than an hour.
I wanted to go but I’d rather be gardening. Bob sends me the photos, he’s getting good at chasing these potential deals.
The photos show a gorgeous property, not near lake but bout a mile. The main double wide is nice but looks old w the pink tub an shower and dark wood paneling thruout. All the single wide trailers need work, been vacant for years, I wud say a few wer worth rehabbing.
There are 22 spaces for trailers w power and septic.
I was imagining the main house as a newer mobile with amazing decks. Instead I see this humongous project. I wud need a buyer from the big city and got to get price lower.
Now time to formulate an offer.
I mailed an offer to the mobile home site near the lake for 250K Bob was pressuring me to call her and just go for the jugular. My offer was 100 Grand lower than asking price, I didnt want to insult her and get angry. Bob is in a hurry and in dire need of some deals. I mailed off the post card last Monday and today Friday our Seller Debbie calls to say she got our offer but its way too low and she will giv us the opportunity to increase the amount if we wanted.
I explained the mobiles are in bad condition. She then tells me a house nearby recently sold for 400K with only 4 acres. And she was selling the land only and the old mobiles were thrown in for free. I tried to explain it wud cost a lot to have then hauled off. But she wasn’t listening. I told her I wud get back to her, so I got another postcard going out for $269,500
Having her call me back after giving her a ridiculous low ball offer is encouraging.
Then I had a realtor txt me to ask if I needed help selling the burnt house. I told him I cudnt sell that house and lost it. Then I told him to find me a fixer, he sent me a 2/1 800 SF built in 1928, and its listed for 60K I told him to offer 35 and I’ll take it for that, A short time late he txts me that they liked my offer and will send the purchase contract.
Oh crap, I better look at the photos and do some due diligence. It’s bad, never been upgraded, I wonder if it has any kind of foundation besides some bricks.
Zillow says its worth 58K fixed up, I’m gona retract my offer and go lower,.
This property the realtor sent me is in play, realtor tells me the after repair value is 90K and that seems to be accurate in my opinion. The realtor is needing this, and he’s aggressive. after explaining I may want to retract my offer and offer 25K to make it work he wants to know exactly my proposal. The new terms, Price 25K I pay closing, seller pays listing commission and I pay my realtor finder 2% He’s agreed to put that new offer in. Maybe the listing agent will also pay him.
Then a few hrs ago I txted Randy the main wholesaler in the city the property is located. I simply asked if anybody wud pay 40K for this house. He calls and wants to know if I will split the 5K fee, I tell him, “hell yea”.
Also another wholesaler named Alan says he wants it. Haha, Wait till he sees the photos. I got these 2 involved cuz I’m curious if maybe I got a deal cooking here.
Now for sure the seller wont go down to 25 but very well cud drop price to 30K
This part is the most fun, the feeling of putting these deals together is awesome.
And finding a realtor willing to submit these low possibly offensive offers, is amazing. House is listed for 60K
I’m going insane here. I sent out info an price on this old house and nobody wanted it at 40K So I never signed the purchase contract the realtor had sent. Then I got one wholesaler say he wanted it after a week or so and after I gave up on the property. I txted the realtor and he tells me the broker is now only accepting offers over 60K cuz they hav a 62K offer. I told him to let them have it cuz the price is ludicrous…
He starts txting me that its a great deal and I shud buy it, and how its a great deal and I better hurry yada yada.
I asked him, if the house is worth 90K after repairs and the purchase price is 65 and it needs 40-60K in rehab, what in ur opinion makes this a great deal?
He tells me because his mentor that has 10 yrs experience says it is and so does he.
I told him ur job is to present the property and not make financial advice or you cud be held liable and if there was such a thing as realtor malpractice you wud be charged with that.
Oh crap, now he says I am threatening him and he was going to take action.
I tell him oh really, the Sacramento realtors board wud be interested in how your spewing financial advice and trying to rob ur clients just for a buck.
He says go ahead, I’m gona tell my broker about you.
I shud file a complaint against this newbie realtor dipwad but I wont.
Did I mention how I dislike realtors?