I don’t believe the realtor has an offer of $62k on the table. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be trying to hustle you. Agents are lazy. You know he’s blowing smoke up the seller’s butt, too.
The seller’s sister Debbie on the Mobile Home park called and thanking me for my $269,500 offer and said we were almost there. She tells me if we can do 275K they will include the large travel trailer that Bob liked.
I tell her that just might work. I got the purchase contract off in the mail for Doug the title holder to sign and mail back which cud take a week or 2. The old guy don’t have email and still using a land line.
Bob is jumping the gun and says he has a buyer going to look at property today for $325K I tell Bob he’s premature and we dont want buyer and seller getting to friendly b4 contract is laid in cement.
He says he thought of that and I better meet them there at 11 AM and get off my lazy ass.
I’m trying to stay calm here but this was like a poke in the eye and kinda pissed me off.
I txt Bob… I’m thinking, I found property, I did all the negotiations, I got contracts ready and if you want your 20 Grand you do the leg work. Now Bob seems a little more agreeable.
Anyways it’s too early to count our chickens, but holy crap, a 50K assignment fee, Bob wants to do a double close to hide our fee. Seller is asking for a 10K earnest.
This shud be fun but I’m stressin here.
My partner Bob is txting and calling. He says he met our potential buyer at the Mobile park property along with Doug our owner. He tells me Doug wanted to send contract to his sister Debbie to look over b4 he signs. According to Doug his sister is quite the real estate investor and owns some high dollar rentals she rents to celebrities in the Los Angeles area.
Anyways, Bob says the buyer is ready to roll and buy this.
Bob says he knows a Title company that will do a double close using the buyers funds. So, I’m doing some preliminary calculations here, We’ll pay the bird dog 2 Grand, Pay for a double close and walk away with bookoo buks.
I can’t let myself get too excited cuz I know the crap cud hit the fan any minute.
The words I like are cautiously optimistic.
Our sellers sister Debbie calls this morning, she says my purchase contract is unacceptable, haha, I was expecting it.
She dont want us assigning the contract and went on about how they lowered the price just for us. She dont want the 10K earnest to be refundable, she dont want inspections and she only wants to use Chicago Title and holy crap, she wants proof of funds and 30 day escrow and wants us to wear pink tutu’s and dance a jig thru her rainbow hoops.
But for 50 Grand we will do all that and more.
Gona get with Bob this morning and get this baby ready for bed.
It’s stressful but its fun too.
Can you imagine if they knew we are making this kind of money on their property they had for 20 some years, can you imagine the buyers paying out 50 Grand to some grubby wholesalers with their tongues hanging out,
We def need to do a double close for buyer and seller.
We are in a frenzied state, Bob says seller is ready, & he will provide proof of funds, & also the 10K earnest and his LLC so we dont have to do a double close, and what’s really insane is, he says he don’t care what the assignment fee is and will sign it.
He wants to do a well inspection is the only clause. And he will provide his purchase contract.
The only problem is, it sounds too good to be true…
Let’s see how this plays out.
Its gets more exciting and scary. What if this happens and then that?, what if it all comes crashing down b4 you can say whoop de do snake poop?
Buyers are asking for info on the 3 renters, how much they are paying and how long they been there and are they month to month. I didnt realize there were 3 mobiles rented, I thought the place was vacant for a few yrs. I estimate they are paying at least 500 buks times 3, dam, that’s more than half the payment on a 325K mortgage. It really seems like a great deal. Imagine 13 acres up at the lake, 22 mobile spaces w power and septic and water to each spot. A big doublewide for caretaker or owner thats older but in nice condition. Also a spot for a custom home with outstanding views of lake and mountains and the city lights below. and generating income from 3 rentals, In California for 325K
Bob is busy editing the buyers purchase contract, but he’s not good on a PC and I’ve suggested he do an adult night class.
So Bob’s main concern is to get this purchase contract ready, the biggest deal of his life and mine too, and it’s been 2 days, and now Bob says it shud be done this afternoon. I shuda done it.
No reason to rush things though, but the not knowing is stressful, can we get this deal done or is it gona explode.
This deal is on track, it cud actually happen. Bob and buyers are doing the new revised contract, Our sellers sister Debbie called and has all the info buyers requested like rent rolls, taxes and operating expenses and even cost of garbage pickup monthly. She even told me personal info on the 3 renters and one is a mailman for the area, one renter passed and his family keeps the rents paid and use it for a vacation getaway.
When Debbie called she was pleasant and friendly, she’s on her way up to the mobile park to stay a week to get this deal done. She wanted to fax me the info but my fax machine quit working 40 years ago and then I found I liked email much better.
Bob and I are desperate to get this deal, the buyers want it, sellers I’m not too sure if they have the desperation we like, but Doug our title holder and owner is wanting to sell and get his butt to Montana, not sure why, he actually owns 5 acres next to the mobile park where he resides.
My job is to stay out of the way and let the pieces fall in place. Bob is all hands on and he will prob make several trips to the mobile home park to get sh-t done.
It’s fun, exciting, stressful and scary.
The drama is thicker than I don’t know what. Bob calls, they all met up ther yesterday and just as I thought, a huge cluster frukas. Bob says Debbie the seller’s older sister is unreasonable, I’m sure he was thinking of another description, she wanted to eliminate this and that. She wants to know all names on the LLC were flipping this to. This is potentially volatile.
I tell Bob, this old gal is used to having her way for so long and is as stubborn as… We may have to appeal to the title holder Doug, her little brudder, and that’s going to piss her off cuz she’s the boss.
Do we go in as mamby pamby pushovers or as the bad ass Investors we are?
I told Bob, this is how its going to go down, were gonna ask her to sign the new revised purchase contract and we may have to walk.
I actually am scared of this old gal, and losing this deal. I know bob needs it. She specifically says she dont want us to assign it cuz she lowered the price just for me an Bob. Are we snakes for trying to flip this with out mommies permission?
She wants us to take out the inspection clause, but our buyers are insisting on inspecting the wells. If she wont agree to that then something is awry.
Anyways, now its getting more fun. I’m meeting Bob and Doug and Debbie ther tomorrow, I’ll put this puppy to bed or watch it go nuclear. I told Bob to keep the buyers away till we got this mo fo signed.
The seller’s older sister Debbie got ahold of some purchase contract and hand wrote and crossed out and holy crap. Luckily I decided to not go up there till we got this in a fax from the dragon lady herself.
This contract was butchered, things crossed out, she states, and it’s funny, Earnest deposit of 10K is only refunded at sellers option. And no inspections. You have controlled your husbands and kids and business interactions for eons. but you’ve gone too far this time Miss Debbie.
Bob is trying to keep this together and got me and buyers involved in a 3 way txt. I spewed out that that it looks like it cud be doable, there is a way to keep this going.
I sent this to them….My plan is to tell her tomorrow or Saturday wen she calls that I mailed a new purchase agreement to Doug stating wat we can do an won’t do, then let the title holder Doug, grow som balls & after a week or 2 an sign.
We heard he wants to go to Montana in August. This crazy devious old lady is sweeter than pie till she’s got you on the ground with her fangs in ur throat
And that’s not all, she wants everybody’s name on the LLC and asking more info on it. Holy frik, How bout all our Social Security numbrs and finger prints and blood and semen samples? you crazy lady from LA.
Maybe I shud just admit to her, beg for my pittance, wer wrong, were gona slam bam this deal and make money off you.
Did Bob and I get too greedy, is their life out there.
Doug has had his diapers changed and bottle fed by this manipulative overbearing bossy sister for 7 decades, now she made this trip here to manipulate us and she’s leaving without her contract signed, she is pissed.
She left Bob and I messages, we been avoiding confrontation and didnt return her calls, she wanted it signed and escrow started yesterday and called this morning that the contract was null and void once she leaves for LA and negotiations wud have to be renegotiated.
I suspect that she used to be a realtor. Only they can turn an easy cash deal into a frikin nightmare.
Doug is old, has a beard, in his 70’s, he just wants to sell his property for 275K and go to Montana.
But no, big sis wants to run the show and thats the law.
Everything is on hold till Doug gets the new purchase agreement today or Monday and then more BS from Debbie, I’m sure of that.
But Bob and I and buyers are chillin, we all want to negotiate directly with Doug and it sounds great, but I know, as soon as we leave he’s on the phone to sis & she will go rampage Jackson on us.
Were gona have a show down and then maybe if we don’t come off as bad guys, & we suck up our frustration and pride, there is a chance of a good outcome.
It’s been over a week since I sent the new purchase contract to Doug and we havnt heard a thing. Bob and I and buyers are climbing the walls. We are demanding an inspection and a refundable earnest if wells dont pass inspection or if sellers back out. I’m thinking there may be something wrong with the 2 wells, and I was told we better check septic systems also.
Bob actually called Doug and the dragon lady answered after she was suppose to be going back to Los Angeles, and he hangs up, I told him that he was a bigger wuss than me.
Not sure what is going on but I’ve got some serious concerns, our buyer is txting, Bob is txting, I’m trying to hold down the fort and get them to be patient.
It’s possible they got another buyer, or they decided to not sell now. or they don’t like the terms, we better get off the can and rustle up some new deals.
My plan to make the seller sweat backfired. Bob had called and not sure if the seller Doug or the dragon lady sister told him it was sold. I’m depressed and Bob is angry, our buyer is disappointed.
Bob wanted to call the seller up and plead and beg and crawl on his belly, I told him to just use that anger to find some more fixers.
I just sent another offer for 300K, that shud get them thinking and we hope the other buyer gets hit by a truck.
Time to find some more fixer properties, and this time we need motivated and distressed sellers.
I sometimes get some interesting deals coming across my plate. My buddy Rich, he’s a bird dog turned partner tells me he has a line on an 18,000 SF warehouse zoned for cannabis cultivation. He tells me there is a realtor involved that says the average price of this kind of structure is 180 buks a SF.
He also says the current lease/tenant is to be out in 180 days and owner wants to sell and is looking for an offer.
Wudnt this be fun to find a start up company or established one that wants to expand and put this deal together?
This sits in a small town called Farmersville, it is out in the boonies between Fresno and Bakersfield I believe, this town is looking for the tax revenue to boost their struggling one horse economy. It’s smack dab in the prime growing belt of the San Joaquin Valley with zillions of acres of cotton and fruit trees and hay and grapes ect.
Now to work on an offer for seller, get this mo fo on contract and start advertising the hell out of it. Gona be fun.
I tell my buddy Rich that we need more info, we need to find out how motivated seller is. The pie in the sky realtor says a similar warehouse sold for 180 buks a SF, which equates to 3.24 mil, well I’m thinking that might have happened in the nearby city of Visalia, but not in frikin Farmersville where the biggest excitement is the new Dollar Tree. Looking over the google map photos it shows a huge tin building that sits in a nice commercial area w paved parking and a Mcdonalds and Taco bell across the street. The building does look low key but wudnt these buyers want a concrete bloc building that looks more modern and secure with a traditional roof, these corrugated tin buildings can reach the core temps of the sun on these 104 degree California days. Some cannabis investors are spending the money, we got high demand here, pun intended. And these investors will prob do their own upgrades if the price and location is right.
A cannabis company wud need to have an insulated building with a security fence and gate ect. right? It sits on almost 2 acres.
Rich says the seller owns a window business in the building and is not distressed at all. I’m thinking, a window business out in the boonies? this guy hired a realtor, I get the gut feeling he wud cut his losses and run.
I’m thinking of offering 800K seller is asking for an offer, might be a starting point.
I forgot how difficult it is to work with Rich. He txts me and asks if I have any interested buyers for this warehouse. I tell him no, we need to get a price and it on contract b4 I start advertising. He says you got a price, the comp of one that sold recently for 184 buks a SF. I txt back that that warehouse is more modern with offices and has concrete block walls and multiple air con units on top with window awnings and covered parking, and our building is just a huge corrugated tin shed.
He started getting testy, saying he wasn’t going to offer my 800K cuz it wud piss off the seller, and I said maybe but its a good starting point.
He tells me if I dont find a buyer he’s going to find one and I relinquish my 50%.
I tell him let’s talk to seller, listen to his life story, become his friends, ask what he wants, negotiate, get photos, then get it on contract and then we got something to work with.
But Rich wasn’t having it. I tried to giv an example of how ludicrous his position was.
I got this house for sale, I got address. How much? No price yet. How much wud you pay? Wats the condition? Don’t know? Is it under contract, no I got nothin, only a comp of another house that was much nicer an more modern, well call me if u ever get ur sh-t together.
Sounds to me like your ‘partner’ is a more of a liability, instead of an asset.
So, far it seems, that he’s just there to screw up deals, create drama, and waste your time…???
I ask, “Why push a chain?”
What’s really maddening is his insistence that somehow you advertise a deal you don’t have a contract on.
If I wanted someone to do the legwork, I would want an understanding about ‘how’ the legwork was carried out, and that wouldn’t include dragging anyone around by the collar, to get the legwork done the way I wanted it done. Hmmm
I txted my testy friend Rich that I was going to write a letter directly to the warehouse owner and listen to this guys story and bond and negotiate. and I tell Rich he will still get 50% even with his stubbornness and misdirection, cuz,he found it.
If there’s a chance Rando can get a deal happening. The owner actually calls, seems like I just sent the frikin letter a few days ago, he tells me he’s already got rid of 2 realtors and sent info to a potential buyer in OR. He’s asks if I’m looking for a grow operation or a dispensary, I feel like I’m in the middle of a drug deal, I reply just a grow operation, he say oh ok cuz there is a dispensary going in next door and that might make a difference. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
The owner is Todd, he tells me there are offices and a showroom for his windows business, he has a secretary, it must be a happening business.
I tell Rich I want to offer 3 Million and we put up 5K each and we get it on contract for 6 months, and we lose our money or we score. I’m thinking, I can put ads in some of these big cannabis mags like High times and these magazine ads can take a few months to publish. While still running Craig’s List ads in the big cities.
They have worldwide readerships. And I’m seeing on you tube the big operations springing up, There are millions to be made. I’m drooling right now.
Got to the lake yesterday at about 10 am, gorgeous, and the weather was insanely perfect. Jim an I took those Kayaks and we went all over the frikin lake, and stopped on islands and sandy beaches and climbed boulders smoked weed and went swimming 3 times. We paddled across the lake and followed the shore to the dam. Out in the open water had some wind and speed & party boats going by, the frikn water was rough w som serious waves, but they wer rolling waves and the kayak just went right thru them and dam it was fun. I had my go pro mounted to my hat and got 2 hrs of amazing video. We took Jim’s 1972 1/2 ton Chevy 4/4, he’s got it all cherried out w big engine and huge tires, sits up high & its a bitch getting in. He’s got an extra kayak, I cudnt get any of my old buddies to go. I’m only 68.
I wrote up a contract last night and finished it up this morning for 2.5 Mil and just mailed it off to Todd, our property owner. My wild and impatient partner Rich informed me that he dont got no $5,000 or even $500 for his half of the earnest deposit.
Rich told me last year that he just purchased a Bobcat tractor with rubber tracts to do junk removal and concrete work. I said that must have cost you 60 grand, he says try 80K and 120 with all the attachments. I said holy crap, your going to be stuck doing construction for the rest of your life and your children’s lives if you can ever find a woman to put up with the insanity.
Rich is in his late 50’s and never married. But he has that good looking tractor to sleep with.
Anyways, it’s going to be interesting when Todd gets my proposal Saturday or Monday, I’m sure he’s got pie in the sky profits in mind and who can blame him? He’s sitting on an 18,000 SF warehouse zoned for cannabis production. He’s got all these money hungry investors salivating like rabid dogs.
I’m not gonna second-guess your offer, but I write up offers that don’t even include a line for an earnest deposit.
Otherwise, I ask “Why do that?”
Earnest Deposits aren’t worth the ink used to write them. And the bigger they are, the less they’re worth.
I accepted an Earnest Deposit on a house I was selling, and the buyer blew past all the due diligence time lines, and then refused to close on the agreed date, and then wanted his ED back.
I refused. I spelled out all the reasons why, based on the text of the real estate agreement.
The title company held the deposit, and was unable to return the deposit without agreement from all parties.
The buyer sued me.
I went to court. I lost. It didn’t matter to the judge that the buyer was a flake and didn’t abide by the terms of the purchase agreement.
Meantime, I got my credit dinged for a judgment award in the amount of $2,500 …which stayed on my credit report for three years.
After that learning experience, I routinely require a deposit made payable to me, outside of escrow, with a price that is correspondingly lower. This way, if the deal doesn’t close, I’ve still got the deposit, and it’s not subject to a buyer’s flakery.
However, that doesn’t work, if I haven’t also presented to the buyer a comprehensive list of defects (known and/or just imagined) that a buyer could use to back out of the deal. That is, once my negotiations are done, it’s just a matter of confirming everything I’ve told the buyers, and not an opportunity for the buyer to discover something unacceptable.
One example of this, was with a house I sold in South Sacramento, that was a structural nightmare. The floors felt like you were walking over a relief map of the Rocky Mountains. The windows didn’t close correctly. There was a huge gap in the wall inside a closet with the exterior wall. The rest looked cosmetically ready to occupy. It was rentable …to someone with extra-good balance and a large sweater collection.
*** This guy drives up and asks if the house was for sale. I said, it was for rent. He said he had a buyer interested in it. I said, I am willing to sell, if the buyer is ready to give me a non-refundable check, outside of escrow for $2,500. (I was sure this would scare off this dreamer/looky-lou).
They guy asked how much I would take for the house. I told him.
The buyer’s agent took a tour of the house, and said, those terms are fine, and the price is acceptable, I’ll go get the buyer and give him a tour.
While he went to get his buyer for another tour, I wrote up several pages of perceived and real defects that the buyer had to accept and initial, before I was willing to sign the purchase offer. He did. I hammered his $2,500 check. We closed three weeks later.
Of course, the deal was, that I offered a good price, for a house in good condition, but was NOT a bargain considering the actual, effective repairs necessary to replace the foundations and interior floors; replace the windows; and repair all the cracks in the interior and exterior walls, etc. etc.
I never asked what the buyer planned to do with the house, and didn’t care.
The ‘secret’ was, I negotiated all the due-diligence out of the deal, before I was willing to sign the deal. That’s why I could get a non-refundable deposit in cash, in my hand.
Another thing I used to justify the non-refundable deposit, was the potential loss in rent, if the guy didn’t perform, or didn’t close …for whatever reasons.
So, I did my best to remove any reasons he could think of to back out of the deal. Also, the buyer said he was a cash buyer, and wasn’t depending on conventional financing to close the deal. The fact was, he was using an HML, and there was a formal appraisal required, which came out exactly at the price we agreed.
In this case, I was the ‘unmotivated seller with options.’
So, there’s ‘that.’
Finally, I make offers without offering an earnest deposit. If a seller asks for it, I share my experience, and let him conclude that it’s not necessary. If he still wants an ED, then I weigh my options and abilities to perform, and go from there.
Frankly, if the seller balks at not getting an earnest deposit, and I give in without some concession, than I’ve lost the initiative in the negotiations, and likely lose even more ground in the negotiations, since I’ve not insisted on a concession from the seller.
ED’s are as much of a negotiation gambit as anything.
That said, I’ve written earnest deposits that were only cash-able upon closing. So, no closing? No cashing.
*** Making offers through agents, and the ED issue becomes an issue. All conventional PA’s include a line for Earnest/Binder Deposits. So, that’s another reason I use my own contracts, or simply write ‘n/a’ on the line that lists the ED amount.
One visual ‘trick’ I learned from an agent, is to make sure no boxes/lines are left blank in a contract. They all need to be ‘marked’ in some way. Either with ‘n/a’ or ‘none’ or ‘something.’ This tends to make the reader ignore them.
Okay, that was a lot.
I havnt heard from our warehouse seller, I’m sure my 2.5 Mil offer was too low.
My bird dog Kenny sent me an address of a house in a nice neighborhood, this property is the only one on the block that’s in disrepair, dead bushes and overgrown, looks like it’s never been painted since it was built, owned by same single lady for 40 yrs.
I told my buddy Ken to go look in the windows and see if there is any signs of life, and if there are any bad smells.
I got a letter going out today, not sure wat else we can do.
Getting ready for another Kayak trip, orderd a nice rack system for my Honda Accord with extra tie downs, can you imagine a 13’ and 15’ Kayaks on this small car? The plan is to ride in comfort and get up to lake and back on 7 buks of gas instead of the 40 buks Jim’s truck takes.