No jinxing now

Well, my first deal is almost official, as I noted in my response to Shae's comment on my previous post. It is for the Mill's Mill House, the one where it's the gentleman's childhood home. He gave me the key when I went out to see him on Thursday, and I put the option contract in the mail to him yesterday. There's not a lot of spread in this deal (he wants $35k, and I'm going to try and retail for $42k), but even so, the educational value is priceless.

My plan of action is to sell to an owner occupant. My town qualifies for USDA Rural Housing Loans which offer 100% financing and no seasoning requirements, so I put out a request on my REIA's Yahoo Group for recommendations for lenders who are familiar with this program and received a lot of responses....so I'm going to be emailing to ask about further requirements (credit score, etc.) I also am going to be contacting the title agency referrals that I received from the group, to line up an agency that can do a simultaneous closing. Marketing will be setting up a printed flyer to leave at various businesses around town, advertising in the local paper, and using postlets as well. I don't plan on doing anything with the MLS at this point. I'm hoping that I can this deal under contract with an end buyer before the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit runs out, and if I do, I'll give them a gift certificate to the local tax preparer in town to get their taxes done and file for the credit.

I'm also going to approach a local landlord who also does property management in town and see how much rent would be on this house and ask if he has any interested parties that would want to pick up another rental in the area. There is no work that needs to be done to this place, with the exception of putting in a shower head in the tub, but that wouldn't require much work.

So, we'll see how it goes!

I didn't get to meet with the other seller from Spartanburg, but I'm going to put an option contract in the mail to him to see if they might take it....that will be a tougher sell, for sure.

Still nothing from the one realtor (I bet I'm off his mailing list now, too, Haha!), so I'm definitely pursuing the agent route. Will have to wait until the tax refund in order to register and pay for a class. I was hoping that I could get it done before the First Time Homebuyer Credit runs out, but that doesn't seem likely, given the class schedules I'm seeing.

Anyway, no jinxing the deal now that I've written about it! LOL

Shortest blog update so far....

:)

Can you guess why I'm smiling?

I'll have to keep you in suspense for a couple of days.....sorry! :)

Keeping me on my toes

This probate stuff works!

Another call, kind of a tire-kicker really, just trying to get an idea of what my services are. After croaking a "hello" when the call came in (having a cold and allergies), I really was on the spot - what are my services? Who in the heck am I?

I explained that I am a real estate investor (-1 point for using the term "investor", I guess) and that I work with other investors (-1 again) to buy real estate. We can close quickly, etc. The guy was really nice and was interested and said he would keep my letter and that if he felt that we would be the best option, he would give me a call.

Also, when he asked what price we buy at, I gave him my Carmax analogy - if you have a car you want to sell, you can take it to Carmax and they'll give you an offer on the spot, but it will be lower than if you go and get it detailed and repaired and try to sell it on the retail market, because Carmax will make all the repairs and detailing to get it in marketable shape and buy it from you right then, i.e., Carmax buys from you on the wholesale level, but they can close quickly and you don't have to make repairs.

Now, I don't like comparing myself to a used car dealer, but in this case, it worked. The Personal Representative (PR) completely understood where I was coming from.

So anyway, there you have it, folks! Another call from my probate marketing, and that's after only about 30 letters mailed. This is good stuff!

Itty Bitty Update

Still haven't heard from the agent that I emailed...so I've decided that I'm going to look into getting my license for sure. The local community college has an agent's licensing course, so I'm going to see what the next date is and the cost, and hopefully I can use some funds from our tax refund to take the course.

I think the lead for the Spartan Mill Village is a dead lead for now. With the amount of work that needs to be done, it's just not going to work. I'm going to call the seller on Monday just to let him know that as of now, I'm not able to present an offer, but to keep in touch.

I also need to follow up on my lead with the two houses here in Woodruff. I've really been preoccupied lately, as my mother's friend passed away this week. This is the one who my mother was taking care of as a kind of live in companion, so now my mom needs to get her own place, and she wants to move up here. There is a senior apt complex in town so I got my mom the application and mailed it down to her. I'm hoping I can find something for her ASAP....her friend's family said for her to take all the time she needs to get herself settled, but I know my mom wants to get settled quickly, and I do, too. I miss my mom!

Anyway, before I forget, I'll be doing some more networking with the one guy from the local REIA....he works with some wholesalers and I can farm out my leads on a bird dog basis, and we'll split the fees.

Have to go run to the store to get some things for dinner. 2010 is definitely starting off on a good note!

Quick update

A quick update before I head to bed --

I did manage to call the seller and leave a message on his voicemail -- at least, I THINK I left a message. I heard background noise, then a beep, so I took that to mean to leave a message. LOL Anyway, I posted a note on my REIA Yahoo group, kind of like a bird dog lead...got two responses; one wanted the lead and said he would pay me $500 or 10% of the deal, which ever was more if he could get it done. Sounded good to me, so I sent him the info, and will let the seller know that this gentleman will be contacting him.

I emailed the agent I spoke about in my last post, and he emailed me back and said he would get back to me by the end of this week. I'm hoping that this will work out - so far I'm batting .000 as far as getting an agent lined up. If this strikes out, I will focus on the probate leads and work on getting my license ASAP.

Tomorrow is going to be an "in" day, so I will check the probate notices from before Christmas and get some letters out. I also need to work on the private money aspect of things as well.

Should be a busy day!

Happy New Year!

Ok, time to get started on 2010!

I am still in the process of working on the goals and the action plan. I'm having a really tough time putting things down on paper, but I did get a rough outline going. The way I started was what I wanted things to look like at the end of 2010 (organized home, Molly reading, etc) and now am working backwards at how to achieve them.

Anyway, one of the first things I want to tackle for 2010 is MLS access. The agent that I met with back in September/October never got back to me after I emailed her. Her website is no longer active, either and I no longer receive updates from the searches that I saved on her site. So, then I remembered that the agent that we worked with when we bought our house, still keeps in touch with us, through cards and newsletters. I'm going to email him and see if he can set me up with some searches, or if there is someone that he can recommend that would be interested in helping me out.

I'm still considering getting my license, but need to figure out the monthly costs of this, as our budget is going to be a bit tighter this year because we are participating in my husband's employers Flexible Spending Account plan in order to cover the out of pocket costs for Ruth's cardiac cath procedure this summer.

I still haven't called back that seller. I feel bad about it, but my house has been so chaotic with the kids being home and with my mom visiting, I haven't really found a quiet time to call. I am going to make a concerted effort to call him tomorrow morning, regardless of the background noise volume. LOL

Once I get the REI action plan finished, I will be sure to update. :)

Motivated seller - EXTREMELY motivated

I hope everyone's holiday is going well! Mom is really enjoying her visit, despite the noise and chaos that is part of my daily life. LOL

I'll be resuming my probate marketing on Jan 5th, when the kids are back in school, but it seems as if Potential Seller #2 is EXTREMELY motivated. I had not gotten back in touch with him, due to getting wrapped up with my Mom's visit, but he called yesterday and left a message, and called TODAY but didn't leave a message. Oy.

I will try and call him tonight after dinner. I really can't make an offer because I'm just not able to come up with a value, because of lack of sales in the area. The ultimate would be for someone who had a lot of $$ and wanted to rebuild this area of the city to go in and do a mass negotiation with all the owners of the condemned properties, buy them all up, rehab them, and rent them out....but unfortunately, I'm not that person at the moment.

Anyway, if I don't update beforehand, have a Happy New Year!