I went to the bank yesterday and put in a bid of $22,500 on one of their repo listings at $35,000. Ancient cute adobe casita fronting the park, but it needed 10K of work. I had repair bids.
The bank wouldn’t budge off of $30,000. Said it had an appraisal of 35K from Jan. 2009.
Then the bank V.P. caught me by surprise.
BANKER: “We have 7 repo’d houses here and we don’t want them. We have 500K in them. Why don’t we just sign them all over to you with no down payment”.
ME: “Unhh…”
BANKER: “We will charge you 6% interest for 15 years on those houses. You can sell them on carry-back loans, charge 10% interest, and earn $250,000 over the next 15 years.”
ME: “Unhh…!”
Banker: “Heck, okay then, we’ll even forgo interest for 6 months until you get them all sold. Here’s the keys, go take a look. We’ll work with you on this. Come back to us with a proposal. You’ll make lots of money.”
ME: “Unhh, don’t know… Okay, I’ll take a look.”
I took a look. All the houses seemed over-priced. One had been gutted. Every one had a Realty sign lying dead in the 2-foot tall grass in front.
What to do with this “gift horse”? One of them seems possible, but it needs an AC/heat system, plus the usual rehab. I am not a flipper, but…
Should I try to come up with a plan, or do what Allagash just wrote: “I focus on what I know and keep refining it”? I know furnished rentals. But I could grow.
I could use your thoughts on this.
Furnishedowner