on the refinement theme…
especially if the adobe has an authentic fireplace hearth…I think it’d be a nice addition to your furnished portfolio…
just downplay your interest in it with the banker…
-Mike <spent 3 weeks in Albuquerque/Santa Fe in '05…like that adobe design.
allagash,
Yeah, it’s got the original fireplace now with a gas log heating unit in it. It is cute as all heck. Also pink, with blue-painted windows.
My contractor, Lupe, lived in that house as a boy, with his 11 brothers and sisters! When it had a dirt floor. Now it has bricks. The windows are really low since the dirt has risen and house settled.
The back of the little house is an add-on kitchen, bathroom and world’s smallest bedroom. I think it will hold a double bed, and the flat-screen TV I can hang in the cut-out wall nicho.
You are making me re-think my offer to the bank…okay, just throw in the little adobe. Give me a package deal! Charm is worth big bucks and people will pay for that.
Furnishedowner
I just called up the bank and said, “Can you throw the 'lil adobe in there as well? I 'll go $80,000 for both houses if there’s no payments for 6 months, and no down payment. I’ve got to spend cash on fix-up right away so I can’t handle payments.”
The banker said, " Sounds good–I’ll take it to the board. It’ll have to be on a 3-year call as far as the interest though."
“That’s okay. I’ll be by to get the key again and I’d prefer 15 year rather than 10 on the term, want to keep the payments down.”
So, Allagash, I owe you a free little stay in that adobe if you ever make it out to the Southwest again. Your comment pushed me to make that phone call. Which I am happy about. Those 2 houses that I bid on are less than 2 blocks apart, so both can be worked on at the same time.
And it’s so darn cute! Maybe I can attach a picture here next week if someone in the office can figure that out.
And you others, your postings have pushed me out to where I am buying in this market. Hope they go through, it’ll be fun.
I’m picking up the key now so that no one else can get their hands on it. I always keep keys as long as possible if there is competition.
Furnishedowner
Good to hear. Good luck with them. And you can pull all kinds of money out of those places with your business model. There are some other people here talking about wanting to do what we’re doing, but most people are just that - talk. I’m happy we’ve been able to do what we have during this downturn. I really think these past couple years will pay huge dividends years down the road.
Let the others be scared. You know what you’re doing.
FO…
Best of luck with your offer…
Just the simple fact that the banker said he’d present your offer to the board…(after asking that he thrown in the adobe)…shows their desperation for getting these off their books…
Keep us posted…
-Mike
a href=“http://s910.photobucket.com/albums/ac304/cozycowboyrentals/Montana/?action=view¤t=AdobeCasita.jpg” target=“_blank”>
Hey, with great difficulty we got the above link up for the picture of the “Adobe Casita”!
I took the keys back to the bank today, and the banker said, “Keep 'em, they are yours, I talked the Board into the deal! It was hard, but I did it.”
Don’t know if it was hard or that’s just a story, maybe they were all dancing around the conference table. But now I’ve got 2 more houses, no money down, no payments for 6 months. Then 6% interest, 15 year loan.
I am off to a week’s vacation in San Diego, a condo on Mission Bay, right on the sand. With my husband. Ocean, waves, a little wine and some nice dinners. You all eat your hearts out.
Furnishedowner
Picked up the closing papers yesterday on the 2 repo’ed houses for $80,080. Don’t know why the bank threw that extra $80 onto the loan, their business, and it really didn’t matter.
No money down! No closing costs paid out of pocket! WALKED AWAY WITH A CHECK FOR $309.20! Kinda fun, I feel like one of those real estate infomercials on TV!
For you new investors, what the infomercials don’t say is that the $309.20 is pro-rated property taxes that come due next month. It’s the bank’s portion for the months that they owned the houses in this tax year. So I’m going to have to pay the several hundreds of the tax bills when they come due. So I can’t really go out and party on that $309, darn it. Even though the folks on TV seem to-- they are always being interviewed sitting by resort swimming pools.
My contractor is putting new wood (redwood) on the rotted-out front windows of the Adobe Casita today. The wooden front door is split in several places, there was duct tape covering the cracks. We are going to put wood molding over the cracks rather than replace the door. We’re going to add an old wood screen door to the front.
When you have an old house, you want to keep the character and charm. No metal windows. Nothing modern; I told the locksmith to dig up an old black iron door handle, no QuikSet this time.
I am having fun today, and I hope you all are too!
Furnishedowner
I’m with the posters that said you found an opportunity here.
What you need to do is come up with a plan to make this work out. If the places were worth wht they say they are they wouldn’t have seven properties on the books. Maybe you don’t turn all of them into furnished rentals. Maybe you pick the ones in the most desireable areas and furnish those, take a few in undesireable condition or location and sell them outright with no or minimal work. The remaining few you can do minimal stuff to and rent out with a year lease and unload over the next two or three years or finish fixing them up nicer as you have time. At least in the meantime you’re keeping up with the payments.
I bet the real number is close to half what the bank wants though. If they don’t want your terms it’s not the kind of deal you’ll stay up at night wishing you’d made. At least you tried though.
Seems to me that the bank wants to see if they can get an eager investor to get an overpriced REO portfolio off their hands. I would do some research on these houses, and offer the bank 20 cents on the dollar with a quick turnaround, 3 months max instead of 12 months: that way the bank might be willing to take a much lower price to get them off the books.
I would treat them as a Bulk REO. Actually ask the bank if they can give you a few more like them, possibly a portfolio of ten alltogether. While you are arranging the paperwork, contact an hedge fund investor and sell the portfolio to them at 40 to 50 cents on the dollar. They are quick cash buyers, and they know you would be flipping the portfolio to them, but they don’t care.
The bottom line is the bank wants to get rid of some assets, so make a business proposition to them. They give you a lot of these non performing assets very cheap and you will get them liquidated in 3 months or less at 20 cents on the dollar and you make some money without dealing with the houses one by one by flipping them in bulk.
laura,
Whoa…“Just flip those houses to a hedge fund?”
That is WAY out of my league. Why wouldn’t the bank have already done that, if it were possible? Prohibitions against it? Then the hedge fund would sell the block of repos to an investment fund? Then who sells them next?
I am missing a link here. Where is the end buyer who will move in or the investor who will rent out the houses? Where do they come into the plan? Those houses are still sitting there, remember, the Realtors couldn’t sell them at the old price.
I looked in my local phone book (1/2 inch wide) under “Hedge Funds” but there were no listings. Okay, I am being facetious, but I am impressed that you think in those avenues. Thanks for your input. Anyone else?
Furnishedowner
