Live & Flip

Pins and Needles

Quick update on our future home bid. The property is a short sale that requires both the sellers approval to move forward. Unfortunately the short sale is due to a divorce and job loss. The sellers are difficult to get together to make a decision. I have no news at the moment, which has me on pins and needles. No news in Real Estate is generally bad news. In this case we have been in touch with the selling agent. The sellers agreed to make a decision tonight. My buyers agent and I had to...

New Home, Maybe!

Gonna make a bid tonight on a possible new home. Its a SS that needs around 30k worth of work. Its in a southern neighborhood of my farm. Has everything were looking for. No other bids yet and I'm going to offer 12k less than asking. The BPO will take place on Thursday. If we happen to get that property, my current one will become our third rental. My current property will rent for $1000/mo. The mortgage will be $585. I'm looking at positive cash flow of $50-$100/mo. My combined cas...

Refi Madness

I got a call from my mortgage broker this week. He's one of those guys you love to have on your team. He'll make something work that 10 others didn't. I've have an opportunity to refi on all three of my properties (my house included) and reduce my mortgage payments by $328/mo. I've been trying to take advantage of these rates for months. I have one loan through his office (he underwrites his own loans). He is able to refi this one with minimal costs. Paul wisely takes the conservative a...

Talk to Strangers

I was riding the bus to the airport the other day and started a conversation with the lady across from me. Its nothing new, I love to chat with folks and hear their stories. I'll be the first to admit, this is very easy for me, but I know other folks have problems talking to buyers, sellers, strangers. As with anything in life, it gets easier with repetition. So here is a way to get better at your nemesis. Start talking to random folks you run into during the day. Here's how you open. Fi...

3 Looks 1 bid

I looked at three houses on Thursday. 2 were fairly new to the market and needed substantial work. 1 needs only cosmetic repairs. The two new properties had such a flurry of offers above what I was asking, it wasn't even worth pursing. For example one property needed 40k worth of work in my estimate. ARV would be 135-140k depending on results of this funky addition off the back. My offer price would have been 47.7k. They had 11 bids some as high as the mid 70k range. Makes me wonder...

You have a map, now drive!

Had a great coaching call tonight. My coach more or less helped me get things in gear. He noticed I'm getting a ton done. I have worked to get access to properties via my Realtor. I will be working with him so I prep and send out the offers. Ive zeroed in and looked at properties on the mls. I have 40+ letters in the mail to distressed properties. Yet in all that effort I have managed to find my car, check the tire pressure, check the oil, the mirrors, check the gas and start the car. I ...

Little Yellow Notebook

Do you have a little yellow notebook? I'm talking about that little book that you carry around with you everywhere you go. Its always within grasp and its a great companion towards success. I know most of you have heard about it. Want to utilize it to the best of its abilities and yours? Here's what you do. Take that notebook everywhere you go (make sure you have someway to write). For you tech savvy type, use your blackberry, droid or Iphone. Anytime and every time you have a flee...

Back from Napa

We got back last night from Napa Valley. We had a great time. Tried dozens of wines, cheeses and I even got to try some local beers. We ended up purchasing 15 bottles of wine before the week was up. Several were a bit above our price range, but will make great special occasion wines. We stayed at the Old World Inn bed and breakfast. It was my first experience at a B&B. If your staying in Napa its the way to go. Breakfast was great every morning, complimentary wine all day, cheese in the ...

Mush!

Ive been driving my neighborhoods for sometime now. I'm getting a much better feel for street qualities and areas with problems. I'm finding vacant properties and I'm recording the addresses. I'm looking up the owners of those homes. For some reason, I haven't gotten a letter out. Fear is a damned thing. I'm not afraid of phone calls, making offers, buying or selling houses. Its a fear of not knowing every bend in front of me. I am a very analytical person. I need to know all the fa...

Taking calls, making offers

I received a call on a probate letter last week. I took a look at the house and made my offer. It was 80k less then what the seller hoped for, but he was happy I was honest and straight forward with him. Its a small house a neighborhood where they are being scraped for 500k-1.2m dollar homes. I would have either had to scrape it or do an extensive gut rehab to make it sell-able in the area. I will send him a thank you letter and a follow up letter in 6 weeks. I have been scouting MLS pro...