STARLING - Since my counteroffer of $105,000 was not accepted by the bank, I cancelled the utilities that I had turned on for the inspection (and for the future, I thought). I also cancelled my insurance binder with Richardson Insurance. Now I wait for the return of my earnest money deposit. I worked and reworked the numbers, but it would have meant rehab costs totally out of my pocket, and that isn't within my business plan, unless the cash flow can return by OOP in at least 12 months or less. That wasn't going to happen, so time to move on.
TALISMAN - My offer of $70,000 has not received a response, I assume because of the holidays. Next week should let me know more.
These days you must move quickly. I found a condo close to Richland College that was 1,300 sf selling for...$17,000. FNMA foreclosure. Rent was around $900/mo. I called the listing agent to see about availability. Already under a cash contract. Too late. This one I would have paid cash for it. ARV would have been around $55,000-$60,000. Lesson is to always be looking, and to start calling and making connections and relationships with listing agents. The listing agent on this property may have had a couple of investors in line when the property became available. This is how you get "lucky" with the properties. I myself need to do a better job of this. Lifestyles unlimited had some pretty good techniques for finding listing agents using Zillow and then following up on the agents with a lot of listings. It's a good system. I will also begin this week emailing all of the realtors I've known as a loan officer. Time to let them know that I'm back in the game.
Dan, we need to get together in the next few weeks and set up an "interview" time to review your property as a case study that the rest of us can learn from, once you've successfully closed on your property. I will visit with Dan and visit his property so that we can have an intelligent conversation about this. I'm not sure how we'll do this. Maybe via phone, or using go-to-meeting of Skype voice. I'll be letting you know.
I hope your Thanksgiving was plentiful and joyful. Christmas is just around the corner. There will be a lot of distractions, which is understandable. But keep your antenna's up and your conversation going. I was at my grand-niece's 2 year birthday party yesterday when a gentleman related to my niece's husband sat down next to me. After intro's and how we were both "related" to my grand-niece, we got on the subject of retiring in Costa Rica, and how, with passive income streams, you could live comfortably the rest of your life in a caribbean paradise like CR or Belize. With passive income from, say, real estate. Then he asked me "so what do you do?" I started slow with CPA, mortgage consultant, licensed LO, and real estate investor involved with helping individuals obtain a return at least 6 times greater than average "safe, guaranteed" rate of return, especially with retirement money, like an IRA (self-directed, in other words). We visited about 5 minutes, then I purposefully left the table and move to another table. About 15 minutes later he came over and sat next to me and said that he'd owned some rental properties before, was out of them now. But wasn't sure about how the SDIRA worked. I explained it, discussed how it would work for him if his SDIRA was either my lender or my JV partner. We spent the next 30-45 minutes talking. At the end, he asked for one of my business cards (hint: get a business card. Nothing fancy, just a method of someone being able to remember you with, so they can call you later). We'll see if I hear from him or not. Point is, you never know who you'll be talking to that will all of a sudden be interested in what you do. I got several of my private investor from the casual conversation, 10-second pitch. Others I've gotten from just having a "meeting" of interested people at my house with beer and snacks to discuss real estate. Discuss. Not arm-twist. If they're interested, they'll ask you. All of my people have asked me how they can join in doing what I do. I've never asked someone to loan me money or be my partner. I would suggest you do the same. Once they see you know what you're talking about, and you're somewhat passionate, without being like a used car salesman, you have a better chance of them coming around. And if they ask about your experience, tell them that you're "partnered-up" with someone who has extensive experience. That would be me. And set up a meeting and we'll go from there.
Until next time...
Mark
