I’ve gotten some good deals in the past, but what happened today was just plain crazy! I put a 6 unit apartment building under contract today for $30,000. Yes, that’s right, thirty thousand dollars. The building is in good shape and doesn’t need anything other than an electrical upgrade. In my area, this building would retail for about $230,000. Getting it for $100,000 would have been a great deal. At $30,000 - CRAZY! The building is full. One tenant has lived there 25 years and another 9 years.
That truly is crazy!
Can you give us the basics on how you found someone so desperate to unload a property that sounds pretty solid - for such a ridiculous price?
Congrats.
Here’s the story. A little over a week ago, I was at one of my apartment buildings doing some work. My building needs a new roof over one section of the building. There just happened to be a roofing guy working next door, so I went over to talk to him. As it turned out, he had one rental and asked me a couple of questions about evicting tenants. While I was there, a neighbor came over and started talking to us. We were talking about bad tenants and general rental property stuff and I said that I would like the see the apartment building next door get painted (it is pink). She said that the owner was fed up with dealing with tenants and offered to sell it to her for $30,000. I thought she must have misunderstood him, but I asked her if she knew his name. She did. When I got home, I did a little detective work to determine where he lived and then found his phone number. I called the guy. I told him I had the building next door and that I heard he might be interested in selling his building. He said that was correct and I asked him how much. He said $35,000! I asked him when I could see it. He said he would set it up and call me back. He never did.
So, on Friday, I called him again and left a message. No return call. I called again Sunday. I had about given up thinking that he was dodging my phone call. Then, this afternoon, he called me. I met him at the building this afternoon. After we spent a few minutes looking at it, I asked him what was the least he would take and he said $30,000. I had him sign the contract right there on the spot.
That was about it. As usual, I got this deal by talking to people. No advertising. No flyers. No bandit signs. Just talking to people.
I was going to post here and ask for letters that members use to approach owners about buying thier property, but after reading your success story, I think I’ll call instead.
I found the owners of a vacant house next to a property of mine through the County GIS website and intend to call see if they want to sell.
