Deleted blog/updates

I spent about 20 minutes yesterday writing about everything thats been going on and when I hit "publish post" my computer errored out. When I went back my post was gone - crap. I thought this blogger saved the post until it was published but I couldn't find a copy of it anywhere.

Anyhoo... I don't have a ton to update.

First, we got one renter in this past weekend. I was a nervous wreck ALL weekend wondering if I had all the paperwork, if it was correct, if everything was done in the unit, etc, etc. I have a major learning curve here and just want to push through it and get this done. I also ordered 2 landlording books online and are waiting for them to arrive. I'm showing it to 3 people tonight so hopefully we'll have the other one rented

Two, I have my appointment with the mortgage lady on Friday. Hopefully we'll have access to new mortgage loans.

Third, there may be another interested party in the 5 condo deal. We're supposed to know by end of the week. I guess I'll also know if we will have a loan for these by Friday too.

Fourth, nothing new on my 2/1.

Fifth, my realtor totally pissed me off this weekend. Can't get into it now but needless to say I read 2 chapters last night in my REL book.

I'm sure there is more but I have to go train now...

Quick Update - Thanks Steph!

The mortgage lady emailed me first thing this morning to set up an appointment. It will either be this week or next Friday. I'm shooting for this week.

I would have never thought of getting an email address. Thanks Steph!!

Completely absorbed with rentals

Okay I don't think I completed ONE goal from last week. I take that back, I did get the email address of the mortgage lady at the bank (suggestion from Steph). Yesterday I emailed her so I can set up an appt next week. Unfortunately she hasn't responded yet. My parents spend a lot of time up here during the summer so I have sort of a built in baby sitter at night if I need to do things. I'm really, really, really hoping to get in to see her. I just read Shae's blog and they are refinancing out of a HML to a 5.5% loan - SWEET! Since I am holding the condos this is what I want to do. I've been talking to my current morgage lady and she's telling me I need to hold my units, with leases in place, for a minimum of 2 months before they will do anything with the equity. I just need to talk to some other places and get a feel for what other banks will do. I've been thinking of just taking a day off work to walk in to the banks and talk to people.

As the title says, I have been so focused on getting the rentals filled that I have not submitted any offers. I think I have both condos filled but need to get the leases signed. I saw a HUGE increase in respondents when it was advertised as just a rental vs. rent to own. I didn't expect that. Anyway, I'm now trying to get some appliances in asap so these people can move in. The one side is a little dirty and smells like smoke so I'm going this weekend to clean and air out. We already had it painted and the carpet cleaned but it still smells. Any suggestions?

We still do not have an offer on the 2/1. I am lowering the price by $5k and if we do not have it sold by the listing contract end date I'm going to rent this too. This will be good cash flow.

The bank is standing firm on the 5 condo deal in Darien. They are sticking with $70k/condo and I am at $65k. This is still a smokin' deal at $70k but I cannot commit to this until I find a bank that will finance me 100% OR be willing to refinance me fairly quickly. If I can't find a bank to finance it 100% (which wouldn't surprise me) I'm hoping I can find one who will use the equity in my condos as the downpayment. This way I will not have anything out of pocket. My current mortgage lady said they would consider using the equity in my condos after the 2 months. So if I can't find anyone to do it prior to that I guess I'll have to wait. One of two things will happen...

1.) They will be sold to someone else - wasn't meant to be (I'm trying my damndest though)
2.) I may get a cheaper deal - sweet!

Okay, I gotta go to work but I'm not sure how much real estate I'm going to get done this month. I have to focus on filling the condos and I need to re-organize my current offers, get out to see some houses, just get my shit together. I'm shooting to June to get back in "the game" as far as submitting offers.

You know, it's amazing how much I relied on my husband when he was laid off. Just amazing. Now that he's back at work my life is complete chaos - not in a bad way - just constantly busy. I'm very lucky I have great kids b/c they do a lot of RE with me. They are pretty laid back.

Anyway, gotta go.

Thought I was going to have good news...

I had a few calls on the condo rental ad and a serious inquiry on my 2/1 in Lake Geneva. Last night I met 2 interested parties for the condos - one filled out the rental app right there and the other took the app with them. I have not received the 2nd app yet. I did an initial bkgd check for the first couple and the wife looked good. The husband, on the other hand, was not so good. It doesn't appear to be anything HUGE but it's a lot of little stuff, like driving under the influence and pot possession. I don't know... I liked the wife a lot but don't want trouble. They want it so bad I thought it was a done deal.

I still haven't received the other application. I'm also showing it again on Sunday.

Tomorrow morning I am showing the 2/1 to a buyer and a rent to own(er). The rent to own guy seems serious but we'll see when they get inside. Otherwise no other calls.

Gotta go.

Accountability Monday... on Tuesday

Goals from last week:

* Start wish board - Not done. I thought about it all week. Does that count? I'm getting the board when I'm at the grocery store this week.
* Submit 4 offers - Done - none accepted
* Work out 3x - Done - Worked out 4 times
* Place ads on Craigslist - Done - No response
* Secure financing for condo deal - Kinda Done - Never got in touch with the lady at the bank. I left another message with her and, as expected, she never called. Steph suggested I try and get her email which will be on this weeks goals. I do have financing through my bank but wanted to avoid the 25% down. If I have to go this route I am going to get a HELOC for the 25% after closing so it will be like 100% financing. Hopefully that will work.

This weeks goals:
Work out 3x
Get email for lady at bank
Work on vision board
Submit 2 offers - Done
Begin Dave Ramseys book (it was given to me by a special angel!)
Sign up for RE licensing test
Look into placing ad in Chicago Tribune for 2/1 in LG

REI will be a little slow this week b/c my realtor is going to Atlantic City. This sucks that I rely on her to even get me information. I just added signing up for the RE licensing test to my goals. I think I have to take it before August.

Our offer on the 5 condos was rejected by the bank... expected. We were told they would accept something in the $60's so I re-submitted at $60k/condo. We were also told that the bank is getting someone from Green Bay to do the BPO. The BPO is going to come in waaaaay higher than $60k so I'm not sure how this is all going to play out.

We still have no bites on the condos OR the 2/1 in Lake Geneva. This is not good. Even with the Rent to Own ad in the paper I've only gotten a handful of calls. No one seems to be the least bit interested in this house. I guess I totally misjudged this house/location. I truly thought the area would be the big selling feature on this house especially since it's summer but nope, I was wrong. What I SHOULD do is place an ad in the Chicago Tribune's real estate section. Yeah, I'm going to add that to my Goals. Maybe someone wants a cheap 2nd house up this way? Good thinking.

I have another For Rent ad in the paper for the condos. We'll see what I get for that. Sucks.

I think that's it for now. Everyone have a good day!

Condo offer accepted...

Kinda. We put in the offer of $50k/unit for 5 units and the seller accepted. However, this is a short sale so ultimately, of course, the bank needs to accept. We all know how much I LOVE short sales. Thankfully I am not the one negotiating this deal, it is actually the seller who, "does short sales every day of the week". Let's hope he is good. We'll see...

I have been working on my goal to obtain financing for this deal and it's not going that great. I can get financing through my current local bank but they are requiring 25% downpayment w/ verifiable funds. What?! I don't have $50k-$65k just sitting around waiting to be used! I have been using my LOC which they have been happy with in the past. She explained why it needs to be verifiable but I don't really understand so cannot explain to you. In light of this I have been calling around to see if anyone else had better terms. Can I just say I hate cold calling banks. I don't know if it is truly classified as "cold calling" but I feel like I'm selling myself each time I call. So I spoke to a guy yesterday who basically said they would not be interested in the deal. Hmmm... nice. Personally I think these are no-brainers. They are all occupied with a $950+ rental income/unit. I must get these. If/when I close on these my plan is to convert all rental agreements into rent-to-owns to cash out in 2 years. Hmmm... that might coincide with something else in my life? Back to obtaining financing - I've been trying to call that other gal who I've been trying to get an appointment with for two weeks. She is one very hard woman to get in touch with. I've found if I leave msgs she does not return the call but if I get her on the phone I get great information. At any rate, I've been calling every day, a couple times a day and she's out of the office or with clients or in closings or blah, blah, blah. I'm calling again this afternoon and also calling my bank to see if they might be interested.

I put in my 4 offers and may submit 2 more. Three of the four offers were HUD properties and they countered each but were not low enough to even go view the property. I'm waiting for them to come down in price again.

Oh, I did end up putting an ad in the paper for Rent-to-own (RTO) on my 2br/1ba property in Lake Geneva. In order to complete one of my 2 year goals I need a certain number of RTO's with a minimum of $200 cash flow/month. If I sell this first, great, I'll just look for another RTO they should be easier to find. But, otherwise I'll keep and keep chippin' away at my goals.

That's it for now. Hope everyone has a great day!

Reflection

Well, I edited my last post because there may be some potential followers to this blog who do not need to know my future plans. This kind of sucks too because I wanted to lay out my plans in black and white 12 pt, arial font for the whole world to see. I have been thinking about my plans all morning and wrote out a few things that I want to accomplish. I can tell you though that my date is August of 2011. This may be too long for some and not long enough for others but I feel like it's doable for me. It will be difficult but I am going balls to the wall to get this done. I'm already feeling a weight lifted. I am going to write everything up and create some type of colorful board to look at every day. What is this called? A wish board - no? I know there was a big ta do about this a couple years ago. Was the book called "The Secret"? Whatever, I don't know but that is what I am going to do. Okay, I guess that is a goal - to start my wish board.

Goals:
Start wish board
Submit 4 offers
Work out 3x
Place ads on Craigslist (I get almost no response from CL, not sure why I do it?)
Secure financing for condo deal

Gotta run!

Updates

I've been meaning to post all week but just didn't seem to carve out the time. I do not really have a lot to post but wanted to give updates about my goals.

I never did meet with the lady at the bank - crap. But this was not because I didn't try. Here's a little backstory... every winter my husband gets laid off work and I am able to work my REI freely. However, now that he has gone back to work I am finding that meeting with bank personal/looking at properties/closings/etc. is much, much more difficult to schedule since I now have to get the kids from daycare. I was right on the edge of getting a new contact and now I'll have to wait in order to schedule another meeting. Patience...

I have 2 potential renters for my condos. We do not have anything signed yet so of course it's not "in the bag" but at least there is hope here.

I did not put an ad in the paper for the rent-to-own on my 2 bedroom. I'm giving it a few weeks on the market before I go that route. I did get a bunch of calls on Thursday but nothing with good potential. The reason I am waiting to do the rent-to-own on the 2BR is because there are 5 more condos that are interesting me (in another town/another subdivision). These would be long term holds. I am looking to get them for $65k/condo and each are rented for $950 (one is rented for $995). They are 2 years old and look/smell brand new. I'm not sure how my mortgage lady will take this OR if she'll even finance it so I am going to talk to her Monday. I'll let ya'll know what happens.

Finally, my boss gave me a little nudge yesterday into thinking - AGAIN - about how much I want to leave this job. He is such an ass. Don't worry, if he ever read through this blog this information wouldn't be anything new to him. I'm going to think about this over the next week.

I'm sure there is more but I gotta run!