Damn, I was stressin, been sending out tons of post cards and only getting a few calls and they were from grouchy old ladies saying their house was not for sale.
Then yesterday while cleaning out some of the tons of hoarding stuff my mom left, I get the money call.
It’s A good solid rental near Palm and Shields, seller just evicted the tenants and he is living in Newport Beach and just wants out of it.
He tells me he wants 150K.
It has an ARV of 200K, since it needs paint and hardwood floors refinished, and has an old shake roof and the old crank windows I didn’t think anybody wud want it.
But, holy shitsky, I sent it out to everybody for 160K and in 5 minutes my phone was ringing and my buyer John wants it.
It’s interesting how fast things can change, my bird dog Bob is collecting a nice $2,000 finders fee.
Now what’s really crazy is, I’m going to meet seller in a few hrs and point out all the s–t wrong with the house and try to get it for 140 or less. Oh the insanity.
I think I jinxed myself by bragging about it, house was chewed, seller lied about the condition, needed 40-50K in Rehab, seller told me 8-10K, buyer backed out, seller cudnt lower his price cuz of what he owed.
No Deal.
I’m back to stressin.
I had a nice deal going on a junk house, I showed up at the house with my buyer and the tenant tells me the house is already sold. I told him I know, were buying it. He says you better call the seller cuz she told me not to let you in.
I called her right then and she tells me because I was advertising the house on CL she was not going to sell it to me. I tell her we have a signed contract.
I found out later that one of my buyers I had pitched the deal to was pissed off that I was making $6,000 assignment fee and contacted the old biddy and went around me.
He was happy paying me 4K finders fee, but then I had renegotiated a lower price with seller and his testies got in a knot, even though he was getting the house for the same frikin price.
This buyer was an excop. I also got ripped off by a preacher that was also wholesaling houses.
So yea, I have been getting an education on human behavior.
That happens a lot less now. Now if only I can learn to keep my mouth shut on my upcoming deals till they are in the bag.
I was just reading an email from a fellow investor that was explaining why she refused to sell to newbies. She said she only sells deals to proven buyers. In fact, if you couldn’t prove at least a dozen completed deals, you couldn’t even buy the first deal from her.
She added that inexperienced buyers were the ones that over-spent the rehab, and then complained publicly that she was marketing ‘overpriced turds.’ That’s when she told me she only sells to proven buyers, that know what they’re doing. I completely understand that.
BTW, anyone mentioning their religion is automatically on probation. That is a blinking, flashing red warning light for me. I don’t ask, and they shouldn’t be telling.
Are you talking about sellers? I occasionally get sellers that mention they are Christians.
Am I supposed to give them extra money for that? That puts me on guard & I actually punish them and give them less.
I wont go into all the bad experiences I’ve had with religious people.
I mentioned to a buddy about the problems I’ve encountered with those people.
He summed it up perfectly, when he said, " they can lie, cheat, steal, back stab, gossip etc. cuz on Sunday they are forgiven".
Oh, the insanity.
I’m talking about ‘anyone’ that wears their faith on their business card, sleeve, car bumper, etc.
I would say, they feel forgiven, ‘so’ they lie, cheat, steal, back stab, and gossip, etc.
I assume all sellers are liars. It’s just natural for sellers to lie. They have something to gain, and once they’re into the game, they just start lying about whatever. This includes ‘not’ telling me everything.
As as a professional negotiator, I’ve learned what to say, and what not to say, and every so often it’s enormously difficult to admit a defect in the property that I know exists.
In 2003 I sold a house in Sacramento that was a structural wreck, but it looked cosmetically acceptable.
An agent pulled up while I was in the process of renting the house, and asked if I wanted to sell it instead. Considering the structural disaster this place was, I quoted him a ridiculously high price, but lower than any comps around. I didn’t expect him to stick around. He came back, and said “I’ll buy it.”
Well, not having just dropped off the turnip truck that morning, I assumed he was a tire-kicking, property tying-up, wasting my time, kind of investor person, and said, “Great. I want a two thousand dollar non-refundable deposit, or I have a renter in mind, that is ready to move in, and I’m not losing them, for you.”
He came back with a cashier’s check, and in the meantime, I wrote up at least three pages of single-spaced, yellow-lined, notepad paper list of defects. He looked them over, didn’t flinch, and pulled out a pre-written net offer to me for my asking price. We closed two weeks later.
I believe if I hadn’t produced that grossly long list of defects, the buyer would have been suspicious of me, and thought of reasons he was blowing it. Instead, my ‘honesty’ affirmed the deal.
Mind you I listed things that I didn’t know were bad, but thought they could be sometime, so in they went.
Since then, it’s been profitable for me to list real and imaginary problems with the property. Buyers will look at the list, and look at the house, and try to find the defects, and discover they’re so minor, that they assume everything is minor …and there aren’t any surprises. That doesn’t mean every buyer closes, but they don’t use the excuse that they were surprised by ‘x’ being broken or defective.
Frankly, I don’t know how that’d work with wholesale buyers, since I only retail, but… it’s been working well enough for me, that I keep doing it. Never mind I really hate selling to ‘nervous’ buyers who are afraid I’m gonna rip them off. So, I just undermine that assumption right off with as big a list of reasons not to buy as possible, and sift for the ones that want a house, more than they want to be home inspectors. If that makes any sense at all.
I wasn’t giving advice. I was attempting to close. While in escrow, they came here looking for a reason not to close with me.
Well, they found one.
Never mind, my deals are 110% trust-based, and when you’re second-guessing a trust-based deal with ol’ javipa, you don’t get to do business with ol’ javipa, after all.
And that’s what this seller found out.
After reading their post, I called them up; told them that I read their post; and was backing out of the deal. They were shocked that I recognize them. However, more so, that I beat them to the punch.
It doesn’t matter what the reason was.
Meantime, when you registered yesterday; your handle contains the first names of you and your spouse; and you’ve described the exact deal you’re doing with the javipa; then it’s not to hard for the javipa to figure it out, and realize that javipa needed to better qualify that seller, so he wasn’t reading about his deal on reiclub, during escrow.
I’m not sure, but I think the fastest way to lose a deal with javipa, is to post details of that deal on a forum that javipa reads.
That said, I know MANY people I’ve done business with, that have come on here to learn more about how I do deals.
:beer
I recently sent a post card to the owner of a little 2/1 800 SF house that was built in 1925.
The fair market value is about 120K which is slightly outrageous & ridiculous.
Photos of the inside show a dust bowl kitchen that looks like something you wud cook your possum belly and grits in.
The house still has the original wood framed windows with the weights and ropes. It sits on a brick foundation.
Seller calls and tells me its listed for 129,000 I told him, Joe, that price wud be OK in another dimension, but your realtor overvalued the property just to get a listing.
I can offer you a fair price based on the current value and the 40-50K needed to update this property.
I can do $45,000 cash.
Haha, you can guess how that went.
If you want to severely punish me for all my past and future sins, put me in a room with realtors and sellers with old houses and tell me I have to get a wholesale deal and then lock the door.
I try to laugh these off, and have fun with it.
Let’s make some Money…