Realtors...

Well the aspiring realtor/investor spoke to his boss who told him the following:

I talked with my manager and he said I can't do it unless:

1. I have a one party Listing Contract which at the mininum of $4000 commission.
or
2. I have a one property Buyers Agent Agreement with each Buyer you provide - I would need this signed before I even show it - with all terms stated within.

This is to protect me and my companies interest in the deal also this is the law that I need a contract to deal with for sale by owner fi not in the MLS as such (which you are).

At this point I cannot procede - sorry about that.

So now I'm back to square one with this property. Mother fucker. I wouldn't mind having a 1 party listing contract but I'm not giving a $4k commission. Did his boss pull that out of thin air or does he have an idea what I'm making on the property? Dammmmmiiiittttttt..............

Contacts, contracts, new offers, Dave Ramsey, etc

I have been advertising my new HUD property on craigslist and am getting a decent response, usually I only get spammed. I also have it in the paper but only received one call so far. That surprised me. One of my responders from craigslist just happens to be a realtor/aspiring investor. We got to talking and I asked if he would show my HUD property for a commission/bonus if sold by a certain date. He said yes. Soo, I'm trying to set up times for my interested parties to see the place. I hope he doesn't get "caught" showing the place b/c I left out the fact that they could get irritated by showing prior to closing. BUT, b/c he wants to be an investor I think he wouldn't care anyway. I guess we will see.

My Lake Geneva contract has not fallen apart yet. Of course as I'm writing this I may be getting a VM stating the opposite. I'm not trying to be negative, I just want it gone and I'm being realistic. It's a nice house, it still baffles me?!?! This past Wednesday I got a call from a gal who went through the property the same night that my current buyer went through. She wanted to know if it was still available and I told her no, we had a contract. She asked if it was solid and said she was very interested. Sooo, if this one DOES fall through at least I can give her a call. She wanted to be added to my buyers list too.

I'm putting another offer on a HUD property (why do they have to be my best deals?!). It is "All Reasonable Offers" we're going to see how low they go. But, if I can use this realtor to show the properties then I will be set... for now.

Outside of that offer and another one I'm watching, I have kind of backed off submitting offers b/c I want to be sure Lake Geneva closes and I also want to focus on finding a buyer for my current HUD. I know I need to "keep things in the pipeline" but I need to get back to a clean slate too (minus the rentals which are a whole other story I'm not going into right now).

I picked up my Dave Ramsey book again this week and am all pumped to get our budget together. I guess that would put us in the pre-Baby Step 1 stage. My biggest, biggest, biggest hurdle is going to be getting my husband on board. He seems to think we have that money tree out back that I find so damn elusive! If I can get him on board we will be good to go. I know this is going to take time and change so we'll see how he reacts.

My husbands sister is getting married next month and I'm going to bachelorette party tonight. It should be fun. We're going to Chicago and our first stop is a pole dancing club. heehee. I think it is a pole dancing fitness club that you can rent out for parties. You can bring in booze and food, much needed. After that we're heading out to the bars. I'm looking forward to it and can't WAIT to see my mother in law on the pole! I always say I'll post pictures but never do. If I get some good shots I'll put them up!

Everyone have a good weekend!

Not such a great week after all...

Well, the HML decided against lending to us b/c the property is outside of his area. He is very willing to lend to us w/in a certain area. I've now had contact with 2 HML's and they both are hesitant to lend at all b/c they both had to take back 2 properties each. Urgh.

I still have not heard from the local banks. One is just not calling me back at all which is totally unprofessional in my eyes. She can't even tell me I was declined? The other said he would call me this week. This one is to re-fi' my condos to pay off my unsecured LOC downpayment. I'm hoping to also build a relationship re: investment properties.

The REO we got under contract is not going to happen. My husband went there today and there is a lot more water damage/mildew and we found out the driveway does not belong to the house, it belongs to the neighbor (who is tearing it out - nice!). Sucks. I was hoping for 2 closings in August...

I'll keep plugging away... I need to find out how I can show these HUD properties w/o some pissed off realtor turning me into the HUD police.

Updates

It's been a pretty good week! I do not have a ton of time so I'm going to use bullet points:

* Working on more financing options. I have applications into 2 local banks and also trying to get a HML lined up. We have been playing phone tag.

* Got an offer on the 2/1 in Lake Geneva. I will be losing about $3k on this deal but just want it closed and gone. My fingers will be tightly crossed for the next month in hopes that it closes with no problems.

* Got another offer accepted. This is an REO we have been watching for many, many months. It had an accepted offer, financing fell through. Then it had another accepted offer and that person (an agent, I guess) "fell off the planet" so the listing agent said. I will be showing/advertising this property as soon as I get the signed contract back from the bank. I'm hoping to get a buyer before closing on this one (you know, the way it's SUPPOSED to be done : ) )

* I took the REL test Weds and passed. Too funny. I learned a lot over the past 2 years so that helped in my studying/test taking.

I think that's it for now. Hopefully next week will be just as good and productive!

Where to start?!

I'm back from a wooonderfuul vacation! It took me a while to relax and get in the "zone" but boy howdy when I found it I didn't want to leave : ) I just loved hangin' with the family, friends and especially my kids. Oh how I miss them now. Not that I didn't miss them before but we had such a wonderful week together I want it all the time now. Anyhoo, I'm back at work now and hating every minute of it. Not really, it's okay.

So real quick about the last rental property I bought... it has HUGE cracks in the cement in the screened in porch and add on dining room area. Of course I am livid and didn't see it b/c it was covered by carpet. I got my guy in there again and he said it is not the main foundation of the house (which is good, of course) but it will be expensive to fix in order to resell one day. Why do we now see it? Because the renters pulled up the carpet in the screened in porch and discovered the crack. Then moving into the add on dining area (where there is more carpet), you have to feel for the cracks and most of them were under the table. Was any of this disclosed? Naw, why would they. This guy owned the house for 18 years, don't tell me he didn't know. At any rate I have a call into a lawyer and am waiting to hear back from him. With my luck I'm just stuck with it since it's not the main foundation. I'm going to make a couple other calls b/c I haven't heard back from this guy yet and I'm anxious.

On to the HUD property. My HML fell through - no financing. Ha, ha, ha. I'm full of good news, right? I'm not sure what we are going to do? I told my insurance guy to put all on hold and then asked if he had any HML's and he does. This may be a good thing, we'll see.

We put an offer of $40k on a property listed at $59k (short sale) and the owner rejected. Funny. I always laugh when the owner rejects or counters. Leave that up to the bank.

I am doing my triathlon this Saturday. I think I am going to die. Well at the very least I am going to be so sore on Sunday I will not be able to move! Needless to say my training has been nonexistent.

I also signed up to take the REL exam next Weds. I figured I needed to just take the test. What is the worst that can happen? I'll fail. I decided I needed to take things into my own hands when I told my realtor about the foundation issues and I didn't hear back from her for 4 days. I had to call HER for an update (which there wasn't one). This is a B-I-G deal for me.

I'm sure there is more but I have to run. Hopefully I'll have some good news soon!

HUD Update #2

Well, I got someone to write up my 'HUD Specific' pre-approval letter. Damn they make things difficult! I actually think he had to re-write it twice to meet their approval. So who did I use? As I'm walking out of work Monday night, thinking I was going to lose out on the property, I thought- HEY - I'm going to call Ed Goggins. He is the mortgage guy I used last year for our pre-hab and also acquired another property (the duplex) with a hard money loan he referred. Some time last year the Hard money guy stopped lending so I've only talked to Ed a handful of times over the past year, mainly about rentals (he's been a big help in that area too). I thought maybe the HML was lending again or that Ed can just write me up a letter. I called him on my way home Monday and he called the HML but has not gotten a response yet. However, he did write up the pre-approval letter for me so we have the property locked in. NOW, I need to find a buyer. I just asked my realtor again if I can have a key but I'm pretty sure I know how that is going to go. She mentioned a while ago that they have extras around the office and she might just "misplace" one but I never got it. We'll see what she says. Otherwise my plan is to advertise like hell, set up a group showing and hopefully get a contract. Once again, another reason to get licensed! I thought about bringing my REL book on vacation next week but I decided against it. I just need time to relax and not think about work... any kind of work! All work and no play, right?

We are putting in 2 more offers. One is a HUD property and the other is a regular bank owned. We'll see how they go.