Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hello all! I hope everyone is getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow! For the past couple weeks, our family has been telling each other what we are thankful for in our lives. It's pretty funny what the girls come up with but it's a great exercise! Anyhoo, I just wanted to check in and give an update....

Tonight I have an appointment with a local broker about hanging my license with him. I spoke with him last week and gave him a quick "snapshot" of what I wanted. He seems pretty open so we'll see what he has to say tonight. I'm sure it will be quick because of the holiday tomorrow!

Next week I have a meeting with Brian, which I'm looking forward to. I told him I'm feeling a sense of "analysis paralysis"-Yuck! It's strange... I thought it would be easy changing markets but, boy howdy, was I wrong.

I found a few houses that may be good leads. One seems like a great deal but it's been on the market for 50 days? Hmmm... I did my market analysis and will be going to look at it on Friday, I hope. It's hit or miss these days on when I get the LB numbers.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have a property locked up in a couple of weeks for a winter project! I'll keep ya posted!

Again, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Finding a lot of "TOM"'s

The property I wrote about in my last blog, with the collapsed wall, is a "TOM" (temporarily off the market). I was just about to send my offer out last Monday and thought, "hmmm, I should see if it's still active?!". It wasn't... it was expired. I called the listing agent and she told me the house is TOM. There are a few others I've had interest in and then found out they were off the market too. I have been told that the listing agents are still taking offers but holding them until the bank is ready to move on them again. I'll be honest, I'm a little frustrated BUT I know it's just a matter of time before I hit something! I guess I'm just inpatient. It's been a while since I've done anything and I want some action, baby!

I've got a list of properties I'm going to look at this week, probably Thursday. More than 1/2 are vacant short sales that have been on the market a while. I have not looked at how close they are to auction but I need to get some offers out there!

I'm thinking I need to start my yellow letter campaign again but the thought simply overwhelmes me. Not sure why? I did it in the past and found a few properties? I don't know, not right now but maybe soon.

Pretty exciting stuff, huh?!?! Hope you all have a marvelous week!!

Quick update...

Good afternoon, all! Is everyone getting ready for the big Halloween weekend!?! My kids have been waiting patiently all week for the weekend. My oldest is going to be Hanna Montana (we have the wig!), my second daughter is going to be Spider Man (last year she was super man... she's into the super heros) and my youngest is going to be a fireman. They're so damn cute!

I have been plugging away over here looking for my first kick ass rehab. A property came on the market yesterday that looks awesome but not getting my hopes up too high. One of the basement walls has collapsed so we're having one of Brian's contractors give us an idea of the cost. The pictures show the rest of the house in excellent shape. I'm hoping to have an offer in by Monday if it's not a complete tear down. There are a couple other properties I'm watching too but nothing I've seen to "cherry pick" yet. Hopefully this will be my first rehab!! I'll keep y'all posted next week

For anyone who reads this blog on a quasi-regular basis, you know I set an "end date" for myself of next August. I'm still focusing on achieving that goal but, the reality is, I may not make it and I may have to adjust my dates. We will see what the year brings but I'm really working my tail off looking for my first Milwaukee deal. My hope is that having a mentor to guide me through the rehab process will subtract years off my learning curve.

In the meantime, I am going get some tips from the one and only Shae Bynes on how to leave my 9-5 with her "Financial Freedom GPS" roadmap! I can't wait to go through it, especially on how to get your spouse on board with budgeting. See, my husband thinks we have a money tree in the backyard... it died long, long ago : ) Click below on the link and you too can get Shae's roadmap!!

http://www.goodfaithinvesting.com/2010/10/27/financial-freedom-gps-is-here/

That is it for today! Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Breaking up is hard to do...

It's been, ummm, an interesting week here in southeast WI. Where should I start??!!? I'll start from the beginning but I'll try to condense the story. You all know I've been talking about our rental property and the lack of potential buyers? I thought it might be a good idea to list the property with a local agent in hopes to get more potential buyers through the home. I also thought he would have more insight into property values/rentals/sales in the town. In other words give sound advice on getting the property sold, and fast! This is where the problem started. Last Friday I called my agent and told her my plans. She wasn't happy, of course, and I can't blame her. However, because of all the business we've done together I truely thought it would slide by. WRONG! See, I was thinking of hanging my license with her broker so I could still use her to make my offers. Because of this she went to her broker to see if it was 'OK' for me to list with another broker. Well, in a nutshell, I got an email saying they did not want me hanging my license with them anymore and they wanted the HUD keys back (she actually left a VM about the keys). I will no longer be getting mls access either.

Hmmmm, I didn't think this out very thoroughly, did I? I can honestly say that I didn't think things would go in this direction... seriously! I guess you can call me naive!? I have purchased 98% of the properties through my agent and sold most of them through her also. It kind of makes me a little angry! Before I get blasted that they had every reason to be mad, I can absolutely see their point of view too! Even after all the problems I caused myself, I'm not sure I would have changed anything. I still think it is a smarter move to work with a local realtor?! Anyhoo, apparently my realtor didn't want to work with me as much as I thought she wanted to. I think too highly of myself! : ) Just kidding! I don't know, I made her pretty good money fairly easily so I thought she would fight to keep me around. Whatever... what's done is done. This will probably work out better for me in the long run since I will be focusing more of my time in Milwaukee.

So all this happened Monday and Tuesday. Today I get a call from my husband that AmeriGas declined me as a new client (we're switching our personal residence LP co's) b/c my credit score was too low. WHAT!?!?! Yep, it has somehow slipped to UNDER 500 (btw, I was in the low 700's last time I checked). I know my business line of credit has been pulling my credit score down but I didn't realize it was that much?!?! I need to get a copy and take a look.

So yeah, I just want to huddle in a corner and cry! It's been a really bad week for me and I'm only 1/2 way through it! Sometimes I just want to give up and throw in the towel just like everyone else.... but NOPE I have to keep pluggin' away with my head held high (even with a 400 something credit score - WTF?). Urrgghh.

Later gators!

Starting Over...

At least it feels that way. I'm taking about 10 steps back, re-evaluating and coming back bigger and stronger people!!! This past Monday I sat down with Brian and we talked about my goals and what I need to do to accomplish them. More specifically we talked about where I can start, today, to accomplish them. First thing I did was get our spending habits down on paper (or what I think are our spending habits). This is something I have been putting off for a loooong time, I mean years! I am also going through the same steps looking for properties to make offers on. I must say, however, that this foreclosure freeze and the potential title cloud problems make me a little nervous. It doesn't seem to phase Brian at this point so I'm moving forward with finding my first kick ass rehab!

The next "to do" is to contact the REO brokers in my new area. Ummm, I've been avoiding this too. Next week I will be gathering data and calling brokers to see if they will meet me for a coffee or something. This is something that makes me very nervous but don't know why?! They are regular people, right? : ) At any rate, this is something I'll just need to plough through and get it done even though it makes me uncomfortable.

HUD still doesn't seem to have their stuff together so not submitting any offers.

I am just going to sign off with this... To any current and future private lenders: I may be a little slow in using your money right now but will be killin' it in the near future. Be patient, please!!!

Have a good night!

And it's done, I have a coach!

Yaahhhoooo! I am meeting Brian Monday to sign up for his coaching program. I'm sure you were all introduced to Brian when you read through the launch of the AskTheFlipVIP's! He is an active member and I feel very lucky to be able to work with him one one one. I also think the AskTheFlipVIP's is an incredible offering and anyone interested in getting help in any area of REI should take a look! If I had it to do over again I would have asked for some type of mentoring earlier on. Even though I have come a long way and have done pretty good for myself, I wonder how much further I would have been if I had a mentor? I do not dwell on this, however. Things happen for a reason and I feel that now is the time in my career where a mentor will really kick things into high gear. I'm really, really psyched!!!!!!

We're almost done with our updates to the rental... My realtor is taking someone through tomorrow. I'm very interested/nervous in hearing the comments. The reason I am nervous is b/c they may say more improvements should have been made. I wanted to keep the cost down to keep the price down. We can always do more if necessary...

Still haven't heard anything on the A-Hole house. This will be the last time I post an update unless something actually happens : )

Apparently HUD is making some changes. I guess they are transitioning over to a new company (whatever that means?). I know they have a new website (www.hudhomestore.com), though and it doesn't look like all the properties are moved from the old website to the new website. This should be fun! One thing I did notice on the new website is all the "New Listing"'s have a countdown of 28 days. Does that mean the house is available to o/o's for 28 days instead of 10 days?? That would totally suck! There is also a new column called "Listing Period" with titles "Exclusive" and "Lottery". It looks like "Exclusive" means the property is only available to o/o, non-profits and government agencies. Then "Lottery" means the property is only available to non-profits and government agencies - what? After that it might go to all bidders? Jeez, I hope this new process doesn't make investors wait a month, or more, to bid on a property!! There is one that just came out today, possibly a cherry pick, in my new area and I can't bid on it for 28 days. Maybe?! I have to try to find the new rules!

Back to work I go....

Learning new market/coaching

Happy Friday! I'm happy it's Friday but I'm on call this weekend so I need to be prepared to come into work at all times. I'm cursed when it comes to call. Can you guess the last time anyone in our department was called in for an emergency while on call? You guessed it... that last time I was on call (which was about 2 months ago). Luckily we do not get called in very often but when we do it seems that I'm the person.

Anyhoo, I've spent all week learning my new market. I've been on the mls about 3 hours every day and feel like I'm really making progress. There is one property in particular that I am going to call about. It is not a cherry pick but still a potential deal, I think. I'll keep ya posted. I have also been bidding on a HUD in my current market. We are about $10k apart so it will still take some time I will watch and wait.

Earlier this week I connected with Brian about him coaching me. I told him a little about myself/what I wanted out of a coach and then he told me about his coaching program. It sounds great and, in my opinion, exactly what I need/want!! He sent me an application to fill out and now I'm just waiting to see if I am a fit for his program. He doesn't take everyone who applies so there may be a chance of this not working out. I'll keep ya posted here too!

Updates on current properties:

A-Hole House: Not much. Back in July I said I would fund the rehab and we were going to split the profits 50/50. Since then nothing has really happened and my financial situation has shifted a bit b/c of the rental. I feel pretty bad about this so I sent an email on Tuesday letting the broker/his asst/my realtor know what is going on. In the email I also suggested the broker take all the profits upon selling and the only money I want is my EMD as well as the money I have put into the property up to now. Of course I will still help with anything they need! That was Tuesday, today is Friday, and I still have not heard anything from them. Hilarious! I don't know if he's mad, happy, impartial, has questions?!?!

Rental: New roof is complete. Carpet is installed. Paint will be finished next week. Landscaping will hopefully be finished next week. New screen door, screens, outlet plates should be done next week as well. When all is done I am going to have one of the local realtors come take a look and see what they say. We'll either sell quickly or rent.

I think that's all my updates for now. Off to go research more properties.........

Roots and Fruits

Todays post is going to be about my 'take aways' from Bob's bootcamp last week. First let me say that it was awesome. Each and every day I picked up a new tip or trick to apply in my market. Throughout the bootcamp Bob would pick someone's city and go through the mls to determine the opportunity market. It was great to watch him siphon through all the information! One example Bob used was Milwaukee (which was great for me!!). In all of about 30 minutes Bob was able to, pretty confidently, determine an area he would be buying/selling right now. It was really cool to watch. Actually, just the other night I was involved in a conference call with Bob and Mark to record Bob going through Milwaukee's mls and determining an opportunity market. Every time I watch him go through the process I learn something else so I highly recommend you watch when posted. In fact I will post here if allowed.

Okay, the main 'take away' for me was to focus on my roots and not my fruits. I know many of you already do this but, for me, I have been focusing on the end prize - that elusive deal! For now I really need to focus on learning my new market. I already have confidence in my current market and will be watching that as well. I also want to focus more on my health and family. All that weight I lost a few months ago (which wasn't a ton but...) I have gained back. Crap! I just feel so "all over the place" and unfocused at times which leads me into my second 'take away'....

Well, not so much a 'take away' but a commitment to ask Brian Meidam to coach me through this next stage of my REI career. I am going to be calling him this afternoon so I will update later. As I stated above, I feel as though I am not as focused as I should be if I want my end date to be next August. I need to get my act together.

Some other 'take aways' were realizing that everyone in this field has their ups and downs and no matter how long you do this, you still can make mistakes. That was really good for me to hear. I feel like I make some type of mistake on every transaction! Of course, I learn from that mistake but sometimes I put too much pressure on myself to make things "perfect".

Outside of learning how to determine a new opportunity market, the above 'take aways' were the most important to me. Of course, I met some really awsome people along the way from all over the country. Some were newbies but most were experienced investors and all had great information to share!!

My flight took off from Las Vegas at 1am Sunday morning so we were able to spend Saturday night on the town in Vegas. It was a great ending to a great bootcamp!! I would highly recommend attending one of Bob's seminars. He actually has one coming up in November but do not know the dates. If interested, please let me know.

Okay, I'm off to call my new coach (hopefully!)...

Heading to Utah!!

Hello everyone.... today I'm flying off to Utah for my very first real estate seminar. As I said in a previous post, I signed up for Bob's KISS Flipping seminar and am TOTALLY looking forward to it. I'm hoping to learn skills/tips to consistantly find deals and take my RE business to the next level! Woo HOO!

Updates:
I pre-signed for the "auction house" closing last night. The buyers are closing today so all should be good. I think we will walk away with about $6.5k on this one which is pretty good, certainly no slam dunk, but decent nonetheless. With the KISS Flip training under my belt I'm hoping to locate properties with a MUCH higher profit margain. If I can close 5 deals/yr with a $20k - $30k profit margain vs. 10 - 15 deals with $5k - 15k profit margain my life would be a lot less stressful. I also want to investigate other ways to make monthly income. My 'end date' is fast approaching and I can honestly say that I am no where near where I need to be as far as situating my living expenses! Focus, focus, focus!

We never had any interest in our rental property so we are now in the process of putting on a new roof, fixing some siding, putting in some new windows, painting the inside/outside, new carpet and then doing some minor landscaping. I'm still not sure we'll be able to sell it so I'm thinking we're going to have to put a renter in. After we get the renter in I'll probably put back on the market because it seems rentals are easier to sell with a renter in place?! At any rate, when we the work is complete on the property I think I am going to ask the RE agents in the town where this property is located their thoughts on price and selling vs. renting. I'm not really sure how I am going to approach my current agent about this but I think it would be in the best interest of selling the property quickly to go with a local agent!

Another 2 weeks has gone by and only 1 thing has been done on the "A Hole house". 2 Weeks! I am really getting stressed about their lack of concern. I have told them time and time again that I would be happy to help get things done, organize/schedule work to be done, etc. and they always tell me they have it under control. URGH!

The bank ended up accepting our price of $45k on the property we were negotiating last week. However, after going over the numbers again, taking a look at the property/work needed we decided the numbers were just too tight and we didn't accept their acceptance. Maybe of we could get it for $20k? Ha, ha. I'll keep watching it, you just never know!!!

I think that's all the updates I have for now. It doesn't look like I am going to make Steph's 30 day challenge AGAIN! We'll see...

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week/weekend. I know I will!!!!!!

Property Inspection Report

Hello blogosphere! How is everyone doing on this rather chilly September afternoon?? I am doing peachy. I am on the verge of a long weekend and one of my co-workers took my call for the weekend! Yippy (as my 4 year old would say)!!

Okay, how did the inspection go on our new HUD property?! Not good : (
It ends up the foundation (it is a slab) is deteriorating and the cost to repair would be too great. According to my contractor it is basically a tear down. CRAP! This would have been a VERY nice payday. Oh well... on to the next.

Another property I've been watching came down $10k this week for a LP of $54.9k. We resubmitted our offer of $42k and they countered at $53.9k. WOO HOO they came down a whole $1k!! Nowe we're getting somewhere. Urgh. I countered at $45k, which is my best and final, and I have not heard anything yet. Quite frankly I'm pretty sure they will reject. I would be shocked if they accepted but I suppose stranger things have happened? Seems like the banks are really sticking to their guns around here. I know it's a numbers game but all the REO offers I've made get rejected on the 2nd counter. BUT, I keep submitting just to annoy them : )

I committed to having a property under contract by the end of August for Steph's 30 day challenge and I failed. I was damn close but failed nonetheless. I read her blog today and it seems to me that I get a "do over" heehee. I will have AT LEAST one property under contract by the end of September (and for personal reasons will be shooting very hard for 2 under contract).

For the past 2 months I have been trying to determine my target market according to Bob's KISS Flipping program and have failed at that too. I keep going round and round on the mls, researching different counties, trying to find trends and I am just not seeing anything. I'm sure they're THERE right in front of my eyeballs but I'm not connecting the dots, ya know? It's very frustrating for me! I'm going to re-listen to that module and hope something else pops out to me. I feel like I am on the verge of something big and WANT to take that leap! The bootcamp is in 2 weeks and I can't wait! Although I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about the travel part....

Gotta run. Everyone have a great holiday weekend!!

I've had an off week

Yep, it's been an off week for sure. My focus level has been waaaaay down. I am attributing most of this to reading Stephen King's novel "Under the Dome". Has anyone read the 1,074 pages of sheer craziness? I am on page 885... almost done. I need down time to relax and unwind (I love reading fiction) but when I get into a good book it's really, really hard for me to put it down.

With that said I have still been making consistent offers this week and one was accepted late yesterday afternoon. It is a HUD property that needs a bit of work - shocker, I know. I'm having my guy inspect it on Wednesday, I hope, so once all checks out I'll be happy! It was listed at $98k and we got it for $53k. It needs a partial new roof (over back side of house), one room gutted, a new water heater and repaired plumbing. Exterior, carpet, windows, kitchen are all in good shape. In fact, the kitchen looks like it was rehabbed pretty recently. I'll update after inspection. We'll call this the "lake house" since it sits down the street from a lake! I'm clever, right?!

The "auction house" is still set to close September 15th or sooner. Nothing new to report there.

My rental property has absolutely no interested parties whatsoever. Unfortunately for me, the sold prices in the area have dropped considerably since last year. Many, many more foreclosures... Sooo, I'm not sure which direction to take? Here are my thoughts, 1.) Drop the price another $10k and see if it sells in a couple weeks? I would lose money with this scenario. 2.) Put in some money to spruce up the exterior, carpet/paint, "pretty up" the inside and re-list for a break even price - IF it would sell. 3.) Put in some money to "pretty up" the joint, lease/option the property and take it from there. I think I will actually go in that order. Once the tenants move out next week I will list for $79k for 2 weeks. If no offers I will put in some money and list for a higher price with option to have seller L/O property? Urrrghh... I don't know? Something along those lines?

The "A-Hole" house almost had another buyer. Not sure what happened to him since no one tells me anything? I called the brokers "gatekeeper" (as Bob Norton would call her) and left her a msg basically saying I was concerned about selling the property, if there was anything I could do to help, didn't want there to be lack of communication, etc.... and I never got a return call/VM. Nice. The following day I DID get an email from her with a siding estimate attached asking what I thought. What I think?!?! I think I thought this was taken care of 2 MONTHS ago. As a reminder, 2 months ago the broker (co-owner) wanted a meeting to discuss the direction of the house. He wanted me to gather estimates for work that needed to be done so we could discuss. I did as asked and when I laid out my estimates he said he had "people" that would do it cheaper and he would take care of it. Fast forward 2 months and she's STILL gathering estimates?!?!? NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!! So we're having another meeting Wednesday to sort things out. Let's just all hope and pray that we get it sold soon for all our sakes!!!!!!!

These past couple weeks I have also put in some other REO offers that are 120+ DOM with terrible counters. On the 2nd counter they almost always reject. Frustrating. However, there was a property that came back on the market after 4 months of being in pending status. It looks decent but has burst pipes from winter. I put in an offer and they countered $10k lower... finally a decent counter. We're still pretty far off but I'm going to take a look this weekend.

What else? Oh... I re-signed up for Bob's KISS Flipping seminar next month in Utah. Looking forward to it! I'm really hoping I will find what I'm looking for... don't ask me what that is because I'm not really sure : )

'K all... I'll update next week after the inspection!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

The ink has dried!

The closing on the "water house" went smoothly last week while I was on vacation. I don't think anything beats making money while on vacation, right? I would like to do more of that : )

We also closed on the "auction house" last week to purchase. As a reminder I used a private lender to fund this deal. Yesterday we got a signed contract from one of my buyers to purchase this house. The closing date is set for September 15th but he would like to close sooner if possible. I guess it depends on his lender. This guy is pretty solid so if I have to wait until the 15th, that is not a problem. Again, this is not a slam dunk but it's still a decent payday for no work!

The "A-hole" house is being rehabbed - well - more like spruced up. It is being painted, hardwoods refinished, basement waterproofed, new carpet, etc. It's still not back on the market though. If I do not lose money on this deal it will be a miracle. Miracle. That's all I will say here...

The "rental house" is on the market with only 2 showings, which are tonight. Urgh. If I have to rent the place out again I will, or do a lease option, but I do not want to rent or LO if possible. Throughout this past year when I had problems at the house/concerns with my tenants I completely lost focus on submitting offers/keeping up with listings. In other words I either focused completely on my rental or completely on flipping houses. This is one of the major reasons I want to sell! It is not in my makeup to be a landlord (as I have stated a kagillion times in the past) but it is also because of my lack of focus on what is more important to me. We shall see what happens in the next month or two. I must say that I am really curious to hear the comments from the prospective buyers. Hopefully it will give me some insights on what I should do to the place to get it to sell.

I put in 2 very solid non-HUD offers late last week. One came back with a counter that was $500 under list price (which is $65.5k). WTF? My offer was $42k, no contingencies, $4k EMD and 2 wk close. The property has been on the market for 3 months and I'm not really sure why it hasn't sold yet? My counter back was $47k and $5k EMD. That is my highest and best so we'll see what they say? **UPDATE** I just got an email saying they rejected my offer. Wha wha wha... That really bums me out. I thought I had a good shot at this one!! It seems to me that having a cash offer/quick close doesn't mean diddly squat to the banks, at least here in my neck of the woods.

I still haven't heard back from the other offer. Last month I submitted an offer on the house and they flat out rejected the offer. Hrmph. This time I took out the inspection clause and upped the EMD. Again, haven't heard anything...

We also put in a bit on a HUD property that came back on the market. Haven't received my counter yet. There is another property (Fannie Mae) that is priced perfectly (unless the inside is all tore up) but it's only open to o/o's right now. I think I will be able to submit an offer next week if it's not gone?

I need to get another property under contract by the end of the month!! This is why I'm trying to make my offers as strong as they can possibly be!

I need to get going so everyone have a wonderful week!

Feeling like I'm in a good place

Hello everyone!! How is everyones week so far? My week is great and will get better starting tomorrow when I leave work at noon for a super long weekend! We are going to may parents cottage again to hang with the family (parents/brothers/aunts/uncles/cousins/in laws/etc). My Aunt is in from Portland, OR (my moms twin sister) for a month which she does every year and her daughter is also in with her 3 kids. We saw my cousin and her kids 2 years ago so we don't see them very often. At any rate I'm excited to get over there and visit with everyone. I LOVE summer!!!!!!!!! It makes me sad that we are in August already. AUGUST! I read Steph's post about committing to something by the end of the month. I am committing to getting another house under contract. I need to head on over and post that on her blog. There are a lot of other things I want to do but that is priority right now!

What's going on with my properties? Tomorrow I am closing on the "auction house" where I'm using a private lender. That all worked out very nicely on my end and I think it was pretty painless on her end too! Nice! Do you know what's even nicer?!? I may have a buyer! Last week I sent out an email to my buyers list and 1 guy said he wanted to look at it. He went out Saturday, called me that afternoon saying he was interested but it needed work (really?!). Honestly I did not think he was interested enought to submit a contract so my husband and I made plans to pre-hab the property and put up for sale in 10 days (which we will still do if this guy does not send over the contract). We got just about everything priced and people set up to do the work over the weekend. This morning I get an email from the potential buyer:

Investor:
I took a second look today and have to run some numbers - still have some interest... when do you close? The stuff that I think needs to be done will take some time to get done and lined up so I need to see if it's feasible or not... Let me know when you have a chance.

My response:
I close tomorrow but will need to know by tomorrow morning whether you want to purchase (sorry!). I have lined up some people to start working on it and want them to start asap. If you want it though I'll sell it to you. IMO, it's a great deal.

Investor:
We have interest in the property and are willing to write an offer (not sure if you still have Michelle doing those for you or not?) If so, let me know - haven't heard back from my lender yet, but probably could close in a month. If you accept, I would like to get in there ASAP to start doing improvements/work... let me know if that'll be an issue as well.

I will not bore you with the rest but I told him I needed my full asking price and he asked about what offer to purchase contract to use, etc. So, I guess I should know tomorrow morning. Part of me wants him to buy it and part of me wants to do the pre-hab. Of course I would make more money (hopefully) with a pre-hab but getting just under $7k for doing nothing is nice too!

What else? Tomorrow I am pre-signing for the "water house" close. The actual closing is Thursday unless the attny delays it. He is a pain in the butt. A nice pain in the butt but a pain nontheless. This has already been delayed several times so I just want it CLOSED!!!!!!

My agent asked me today where I wanted to re-list the A-Hole house. I'm going to set aside my comments on this until a future date.

I found out a couple weeks ago (not sure I mentioned it here) that my renters are moving at the end of the month. Crap. My husband and I decided to sell the property if we can. I overpaid for the property as it has a lot of problems that I did not take into account for re-sale. This totally sucks. We shall see what happens but this house is a thorn in my side. First and foremost I HATE being a landlord. Some people are great at it but not me. Our renters were fantastic but this side of the real estate game is something that puts a pit in my stomach. I'll have to figure out another way to make income. I'll keep you posted!

This post is getting very long so I'm going to end it by saying I got my RE License in the mail over the weekend. Once I'm in the system I need to start making offers directly through the listing agent so they can double dip (a KISS flipping tactic). I need to tell my realtor I will not be using her for these types of transactions and I am TERRIBLE at this type of thing. Any suggestions would be fantastic.

Okay, I need to run. Have a great rest of the week/weekend!!

Craziness!

I got an email today from my realtor stating we are clear to close on the property we got under contract. Would Friday at 4pm work for me? Uhhh, no. Crazy mode... get addendum I needed for close, get insurance guy information, call attny regarding private lender forms (note, mortgage), get private lender wire instructions, etc., etc. It seems to be all or nothing in this business, at least for me! So I felt like I was in panic mode all day. I'm waiting on some information in order to forward to my attny/insurance guy but otherwise hopefully we'll close mid-next week. I sent an email to my buyers list and one guy wants to go through. Hopefully this will be a fairly quick close for us! I'm also tossing around the idea of getting the outside painted if this guy doesn't want it. I had someone go out there today for a quote but haven't heard from him yet. We'll see where it comes in.

The roof at the "water house" should be going on today. The appraiser needs to get out there again and I'm hoping he will go tomorrow afternoon. After he gets out there the bank said it should take another 4 days and then we should be able to close. Hopefully we'll be closing next week! Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed.....

The A-hole house contract fell apart-CRAP!! The inspector told the prospective buyer that the basement would take $30k to fix and the buyer bailed. Can't say I blame him but the inspector doesn't know sh!t. The co-owner of this house runs a basement business and he said it should only take $5k to fix (which we are going to do but he hasn't been out there yet... yep, he really wants to sell this thing, I know).

What else? Going to look at a house after work. There are about 15 I need to look at but they're all over. I should have gone this past Sunday but after a very long Friday and Saturday I took the day to chill out. It was very nice but now I'm kicking myself b/c I need to see these places.

I think that's it for now... Have a great night!

It's been almost 3 weeks?!?!?!

It's been almost 3 weeks since my last post?! Holy crap. I'm usually good for at least one post per week, if not two! Well, I should go on vacation more often! First of all, we had a blast. It's always an awesome time when I can hang out with my kids with no other responsibilities on my plate. Soooo relaxing. The other reason I should go on vacation more often is because we got a property under contract! This one is NOT a HUD but was listed with an auction company. They did not allow any contingencies when submitting offers so it had to be cash and inspected prior to my offer. We submitted the offer one week before my vacation and we knew the following week that the bank was in the process of accepting it. Yippee! We are using a private lender to fund this transaction. This will be the first time we're using a private lender so should be interesting. However, our private lender has been through the process before so she will most likely teach me a thing or two!! Our closing is scheduled for August 17th.

We were scheduled to close on the "water house" today but it has been delayed. Urgh! The appraiser swore up and down that he would get to the house on July 5th but ended up not going through until a week later. I did not follow up with the appraiser because I thought that was the banks job since they ordered it. However, I found out that banks can no longer have any contact with the appraisers whatsoever. They order the appraisal through an online system that rotates companies and the lender never has any contact. Of course if I had known this I would have made sure he was in the house earlier. At any rate, he took pictures of the roof (which the buyer knows needs replacing) and the underwriting dept wants it replaced prior to closing. The buyer is still paying for it but now we're delayed at least 10 days. Not too big a deal but it would have been nice to get this one off my plate. The buyer reeeeaaally wants the house but he is a nervous nelly and everything gets him anxious. I just want it done! Hopefully the roofer will get out there tomorrow, the appraiser will hopefully get out early next week (I'll be calling for sure!), and then it needs to get commited through underwriting. So that's that!

We got an offer on the A-Hole house. I'm totally out of the loop but I think, if I'm lucky, I will just about break even on the house. The co-owner will make some money so that's good. I'll be glad when this one is off my plate too.

The KISS flipping seminar was cancelled... : ( I'm not really sure why? I think they only had a handful of people sign up so he is rescheduling for some time in September. I'm committed to going again and I'm really looking forward to it! I was given access to the KISS members area so I've been listening to the 4 modules on my way to/from work. They are awesome and when he explains his philosophies (on almost everything) he is stating my thoughts exactly. I think that is why I like him so much. Actually this is probably why I haven't posted in so long. I've been trying to study the mls the way he teaches. I'm trying to determine my opportunity markets. To me, it's hard. I haven't really determined mine yet. There are a couple areas I already know but nothing pops up too often in those areas and when they do I'm all over them. So I've been researching other areas. I haven't found anything all that appealing yet. I'm still searching though.

What else? Still making offers like a crazy person. Last Friday my son and I went through 8 houses (he was a trooper!) and submitted on only one right now. I'm really hoping to get this one and make it a KISS flip. The offer went in today so hopefully we'll hear something by Friday. I also submitted on 5 HUD's yesterday. One counter is getting really close so I may have my inspector go out there. Another is a property on a lake with a pier. We are still quite a bit apart but there haven't been other offers on it so I'm going to watch and keep at it!

Private Money... I have 2 more people interested in lending on my properties. Yeah! They are in the process now of moving funds to a SD IRA. Yet another reason to get another property under contract! Not to mention I still have to put my IRA funds to good use!!

Non-REI: No work-outs since before vacation and been afraid to get on the scale. See how easy it is for me to fall out of a routine!?!?! I'm going to start up again though. I'm feeling icky!

This Friday me and the girls are going to 6 Flags Great America. They are sooo excited and I'm looking forward to it too!!

Gotta run. Hope everyone has a good week/weekend and we'll talk next week!!

First Seminar BOOKED!

So I just booked my first ever real estate seminar.... KISS Flipping with Bob Norton. I have been wanting to attend his bootcamp for a while and I never seemed to make time. Well, this time I am making time!! I registered for the bootcamp, reserved my flight and hotel, I'm ready to go. And, I'm a nervous wreck - ha, ha! I'm really looking forward to the event and am hoping it will give me what I need to reach my goals. Thanks Kelly for the help with the event!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was hoping to get a deal under contract this week but it just didn't happen. Wah, wah, wah... Very frustrating!! Next week I am on vacation so I will be doing very little in the REI department, although I'm sure I'll still submit HUD offers : ) There are a couple houses I wanted to view this week but it ended up being a nightmare of a week. I'll give you one example: Wednesday night our St. Bernard ripped his WHOLE NAIL out of his paw and lacerated a blood vessel. Yep, good times. I took him to the emergency vet, got him all patched up and now he's okay. He's sore but okay. I may take a morning to look at some houses since I'll be in the area but we'll see how it goes?!

Working out has been, shall we say, non-existent. Well, I did work out twice and I feel like crap for NOT working out. I'll need to get back into it after vacation!!!!

That's about it for now. Hope everyone have a WONDERFUL Forth of July!!!!!!!! Talk to you all after vacation!

It's been a while

Long time, no talk! Unfortunately I do not have too much to add from my last post. We closed on the "water house" last Friday, thankfully there were no delays. This weekend my buyer is going to repair some busted pipes so we can get the water on/appraiser in for his loan. One step at a time.

STILL no new properties under contract... urghhh!!! I just know something is going to pop soon but it's been a while and I'm starting to get frustrated. Of course I will not stop until I get one (which will be soon) but it is still frustrating!! : ) I've been making offers daily, looking at houses but nothing is solidifying. I know, I'll end up getting 3 under contract at once. That's usually how it works, which is A-OK with me!!

We almost had an "as is" offer on the property I co-own. You know, the "A-hole house"? Unfortunately for us that never happened. The guy was showing all the signs of writing an offer but, for whatever reason, he never did and stopped returning calls/emails. Crap! Oh well, back to sprucing it up a little.

That's really it for real estate related stuff. It's been pretty quiet since my last post.

Insanity update: I took my measurements last weekend and did not lose as much as I thought. It was a total of 4 pounds and 3.5 inches. I'm still working out daily, well this week is off a bit b/c I'm on the early, early shift and getting up at 3:45am to work out is too much for me. I definately can feel/see a change so I'm not stopping until I get to my goal. It is just taking a little longer than I anticipated!! Oh well, I will get there.

Heading back to work.... Hope everyone has a great weekend!

WHEW... A little overwhelmed!!

The past few days have been a total whirlwind, in a good way. It started Friday night preparing to have a 4th birthday party for my daughter on Saturday. Saturday was crazy finishing things up, having the party. Sunday I set up a couple showings for the "water house". The one guy showed up with everyone he knew, I think. Actually they were the nicest buyers I have had in a looong time. He brought his electrician, plumber, HVAC guy, roofer, etc so they could look at everything. They were all his friends, they all live in town and they all knew what a killer deal it was. This is the buyers first time buying a home so he wasn't as casual as his friends. At any rate he decided he wanted the house, we agreed on price and I told him I would send him an offer to purchase later in the day (this was Sunday).

On Monday I got a brand new offer to purchase from his attorney and I thought the deal might be dead. The attorney lowered the price, asked for concessions, me to pay for gap insurance and a letter from the city regarding the zoning status of the house. I was so frustrated BUT I kept my cool and we worked through every issue to date. I sent off a counter offer yesterday and recieved the signed acceptance today. Yeah. He is getting conventional financing through a local bank and I spoke to the lender yesterday. He assures me seasoning will not be an issue but I lost faith in what bank people tell me. It's unfortunate but true. I've been told the exact same thing before and at the nth hour I'm told seasoning will be an issue. However, I'm taking him at his word for now. I'm a little more at ease because he is a local bank and I am not making a killing.

The next hurdle we will have to cross is the appraisal. I have no doubt it will appraise for what we agreed on BUT the bank wants the water on for the appraisal. We can't turn the water on b/c there are broken pipes. Yikes. Well, during the buyers initial walk-through his plumber told him they were going to do a full re-plumb when he moved in. On Monday the buyer asked me if they could do the full re-plumb for the appraisal instead of wasting money on minor fixes and then tearing it all out anyway. I told him that was fine and his lawyer is drawing something up for that as well. My thought process was that the buyer pay for the fixes and IF (if, if, if) he cannot get financed I have it inspected and then pay for the plumbing. I mean, it needs to eventually get fixed anyway. Side note: I just got a fax from the lawyer regarding the plumbing. It's basically an email in fax form, this guy is old school. He also "gave me permission" to speak to his client. What? I wish he had an email so we could correspond that way... Geez lawyers are a PIA!

Another (little) hurdle.... This buyer is going to want to get in there and pressurize the pipes right away. My closing with HUD is next Friday, we are actually closing 10 days EARLY!! This is an absolute first for me and is perfect for my situation. Well, perfect would have us closing this Friday... see I didn't exactly tell him that I didn't own the house yet. I don't outright lie, I just adjust my words a bit. I find that some people get scared off, think you're doing something illegal, confused, etc. Hopefully I can put him off until next weekend to look at the pipes. He has a LOT of time to get that done since our closing is set for July 21st.

What else? Oh, I am using private funding for the downpayment which is going to be about $23k. The private lender is my mommy : ) The agreed upon return rate is $2k so she will be making that much in a matter of 1 month. Not bad! I just found out yesterday that someone else wants to invest with me. My aunt's "gentleman caller" - heehee - was talking to my husband yesterday when he mentioned that he wanted to start investing with me. I have to give him a call. There are a few properties I am very, very, very close at getting and want to put this money to good use.

Regarding the 'A-hole house'... he wants to have "a meeting" next week to go over bids on the projects we will be doing on the house. That's all I have to say about that!

Non-REI: Still working out consistantly. I can really feel/see a difference in my body and I'm loving it! I actually think I'm going to do the P90x when I'm done with the Insanity program. This Saturday I will be halfway done with the program and I'm going to take measurements. I'm excited to see how I've done. For anyone looking for an at home program

Rolling with the changes...

Is everyone looking forward to the weekend as much as I am?!?! I'm glad today is Friday so this is going to be brief. Last week I mentioned we had the "water house" under contract and inspected. The inspections came out fine, foundation is fine, plumbing needs to be fixed (of course), some electrical, etc, etc. At that time we decided that we were going to rehab this house since the numbers are so nice. Fast forward to yesterday I get the following email:

Morning! Mike wanted me to ask you if you want to buy Dardis from him. He is getting the feeling that some work needs to be done to it and his crews are too busy in this area right now. What are your thoughts? I was going to advertise in the local papers. Maybe do a one day only sale. Then again if the home could get repainted etc. that may make a big difference.

Yep, the house where my realtors broker is holding the note (the one I don't talk about a lot) is not selling. Hmmm, is it because the picture on the mls has a foot of snow in it and no other pictures? No? Hmmm, did you advertise it on CL? No? Hmmm, did you advertise in the paper? No? After he basically took the listing from us, which we allowed b/c he was doing us a favor, did nothing and now wants to give it back to me. I can't buy it back from him since I still can't get financing in that area. I know this probably sounds all confusing but suffice it to say he screwed up, IMO. So instead of rehabbing the "water house" we are going to put some money in this house. The numbers are good here too BUT I have to split the profit with the guy who initially only wanted to give me 20% of the profit. Don't get me wrong, I'm ALL for sharing a profit when it is FAIR but I don't like getting screwed. I'm kind of irritated that he took control, couldn't sell it and now puts it right back in my lap and wants me to "take care of it". Just kind of jerky to me. Whatever... it shows that I have grown because I have not freaked out. Not sure if I'm just more laid back this week or if I've come to a realization that these things will happen. Maybe a little of both?!?!

Because of the short week and these problems I have not submitted any offers. I want to get another property under contract and, hopefully, put some private money to good use!

BTW, I put an ad on CL for the "water house" as a wholesale deal and have had about 10 responses so far. Hopefully it will sell quickly and we can focus on the "a-hole house". Not sure I like that name.

Okay, real quick, I worked out all week but didn't lose a pound. That's okay because last week I fit in to my size 10 jeans that I have not been able to button since my first child was born. WOO HOO! Now, the jeans were tight... very tight BUT I buttoned/zipped up so that's an accomplishment in my eyes. I will complete this goal and continue I'm sure.

Have to run hope everyone has a good weekend!!

It's been a while...

How're things going?! Well, we finally closed on the Evansville property that had the initial contract fall through, put it under contract again and then delayed 2 weeks till closing. FINALLY we closed! We made about $5k less than we would have from the first contract but I just wanted it closed and we netted somewhere around $12k, not bad!?! We bought this property waaaay back in February so we've had it for 3 months. That is too long for me, even though it was under contract most of that time - ha, ha.

No new properties under contract but I can just feel one coming down the pike. I mentioned in my last post that the 3 properties I've been watching had price reductions. One sold last week to an o/o. It's the one I loved but needed a lot of work. The other 2 I was able to put offers on yesterday and I'm waiting for my counters today. There are also 2 condos in a nice subdivision on the WI/IL border that had price reductions. I'm thinking of taking a look this weekend?! Since my other 2 L/O candidates were sold I'm thinking these might be something to look at? We'll see. There are a couple others I'm watching too but nothing close enough to even mention : )

Let's see.... we're still trying to get the water out of the basement at the "Water House". At this point HUD is supposed to turn on the utilities (I've never done this before) and I'm getting it inspected. Once the electric is on everyone says the sump pump will get rid of the water and we'll need to see if it there are any major problems. I'm not anticipating any! I have the plumber scheduled for Thursday so hopefully we'll be getting an answer then.

I think that's it for Real Estate. Seems a little slow but, again, I'm hoping to get at least one, if not two, properties under contract real soon!!

Non-REI related: I got back in the groove of working out. Last week I weighed in at 148.5, which I am happy with (at least I didn't gain again)! I did not measure myself but will be doing that this week. I feel like I can keep up with the dvd's better, I feel stronger, I've been eating better but I still have a long way to go. I'm keeping at it and am on week 4 of the videos (should be week 5 if I didn't get lazy). I'm shooting for being under 140 by the 4th of July... what do you think? I'm going to try!

Also, a couple months ago I brilliantly suggesting doing a garden this year. Hmmm, I've never done a garden before, have no idea what is involved but thought the kids would like it. Well it is hard work people. We had the area tilled this past weekend, last night I was clearing out the remaining sod and breaking up soil. My back is killing me. Who thought this was a good idea?? ha, ha. Actually, the girls are loving it so I just can't wait until everything starts growing!!

Okay, I gotta run so everyone have a good rest of the week!

Delayed closing... again.

Happy Friday everyone!! How did everyone's week go? Mine... not so good but not so bad either!

We have no new properties under contract but there were 3 that came down in price. I'm hoping to snag one some time in the very near future! I'm also planning on using private money to fund the transaction.

The closing that was scheduled to close today was postponed another week. Yuck! However, it looks like the closing next week is pretty solid. I can wait another week to get paid! Patience is key in this business, right?

I went into the property we got under contract last week (we'll call it the "water house" from here on out) and the water was still in the basement. Obviously they never got it pumped out. I told my realtor if they didn't get it pumped out I was bailing. I truly do not think this is a big issue but I can't have water in a basement for another 2 months and not know how much more is coming in (if any). Frustrating. According to HUD they are waiting to get an electric bill resolved, turning the electric on, getting the water pumped out and keeping the sump pump running. I also want them, or me, to get a dehumidifier in there to lessen the dampness. This is the ideal situation...

Non REI related: I only worked out ONCE this week. I'm so mad at myself! Monday night I got a stomach bug and literally could not work out Tuesday morning. This led in to Weds, Thurs, Fri, etc. I am a terrible creature of habit. But, I'm dusting myself off and starting again. This is a non-negotiable thing for me, I need to lose some weight. What did I lose at the end of last week (I did not mention on my last post)? U humm, I gained .5lbs so up to 150. This is the end of last week, before I stopped working out. That sucked. However, I did lose another .1" on my waist and .5" on my hips. I did not lose inches anywhere else... weird.

So, that's that. I need to push on with everything and get MOVING!!! Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Fridays Closing

Happy Monday everyone! And a happy belated Mothers Day to all you wonderful women out there who make the world go round!! I had a craaaazy busy weekend. Friday we worked around the house when I got home from work. Saturday morning we had to be up early to drive down to my nephews bday party in IL. Saturday night I spent the night at my folks which was very nice. We had cocktails with my brother and sister in law, laughed and had a good time. Sunday we had to drive downtown Chicago for Dave's family and sat in traffic for 45 minutes. Nope, I don't miss the city at all! Then we had to drive home from the city back to WI last night. Urrgh... lots of driving but it was nice seeing everyone!

Okay, on the RE front. We had 1 successful closing last week. The other closing is pushed off until this Friday. Quite frankly I'm not really sure if it will close this week either? We didn't have the signed cash offer for the property (which is our backup for now) so I didn't feel like I had a choice in signing the amendment for extending the closing. Again, I'm keeping positive thoughts and hope it will close for both the buyer and mysef. The buyer has put a lot of money out there for inspections/appraisals and I know she really wants the house. So here's to both of us getting what we want *fingers crossed*!!

Still putting offers out there. I have a feeling (whenever I say that the Black Eyed Peas start singing in my head) something more is going to pop soon. The properties I've been watching have been out there for a while so they should be coming down in price soon. The property I was initially thinking of L/O'ing probably would not be a good candidate - too much work. There is another property that I'm looking to get at $20k, put in $10k for fix ups, which would seem more profitable for a L/O. There is a 2nd property that has been listed for a couple months that I may go after for a L/O too. This one I will try to get for $15k, put in $15k and have another $30k loan. It all sounds good in my head/paper but we'll see how it plays out in real life.

I think that's it for now. Hope everyone has a good week!!

New contract and closings

On Friday of last week a HUD property came back on the market after about a year of being MIA. I was watching it for a while last year and then it was off their website, not listed on mls, etc so I forgot about it. I was surprised to see it listed again on Friday so I put an offer in and it was accepted. The house was listed for $129k, it's ARV is about $149k and I have it under contract for $66k. After work I took a drive over to see if it was still in the same shape as last year. Walking through the house I'm thinking, "this is better than I remembered" until I.......... got to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs I could see that the floor looked wet but it was dark so I wasn't sure how wet. Slowly I put my foot on the concrete floor and hit water. Yep, there is about 6" of water in the basement. My initial thought was, "Crap!" But decided water in the basement may or may not be a big deal. Of course we cannot have it there for the ETERNITY it takes HUD to close and we need to find the source. I told my realtor what I found and she must have mentioned it to her broker. He said he would take a look (he has a basement waterproofing co. on the side). He didn't see anything concerning and says we just need the sump pump on to get rid of the water for now. So, at this time, not a deal breaker. Should be a pretty good deal!

I have 2 closings set for Friday but neither are solid. Can you believe this? I'm not sure what is going on with the banks around here!!?!?!?! WTF? The one that seemed solid said she (the lender) was concerned with how much money I am making on the deal. She wanted to be SURE I put money in to the property because I bought it so cheap. What the hell is it to her how much money I make? Lucky for me this happens to be the property that I had all that plumbing work done so I supplied her with my invoices. In the end I'm only going to be making about $6.5k profit. The bank for the other property (that fell through last month) required a 2nd inspection that came back fine according to the buyer. The bank states that the inspector suggested seperate roofing, electrical and plumbing inspections. Again, WTF? I had a plumbing inspection and the roof and electric were new as of about 7 years ago. Neither go bad in that amount of time. Soooo, not sure what the hell is going on BUT I'm really trying to stay positive and have positive energy/thoughts that these properties will close. I pre-signed both sets of closing docs yesterday so I have everything done on my end.

I've been thinking how to avoid these problems for the next flip and here is my solution. I will be making a contact at a local bank in the same town the property is located. I will explain the situation to the lender and see if their institution/underwriters will have a problem with seasoning, my profits, not doing any work on the property, etc. If they do have a problem I will move on to the next bank. If they do not have a problem all of my buyers must go through them or pay cash. I'm not sure if this will limit my buyers or not but I just can't have these fall through days before closing. I just don't get it? Don't the banks look at any of the information more than 5 days before closing? I mean, why do we wait a month to close? It should be 5 days : ) Okay, enough complaining.

Still submitting offers. I hope to have another one under contract in the next couple weeks.

Still working out. I missed 1 work out last week so I did 5 out of 6. This week I will probably do 5 out of 6 again since I am going out of town for a birthday. I am measuring myself again this weekend too. Last Sunday I weighed in at 149.5 so 2.5 lbs lost (which is probably all water weight) and I measured my waist just to see and it appeared I was down .5". We'll see what the tape measure says this weekend!

If any of you follow Shae's blog and haven't read it recently, she has some outstanding news!!! Head on over to www.goodfaithinvesting.com and real all about it!

Have a wonderful day!

Private Lender Appointment/Closings/long term wealth/Workouts

I had another sit down meeting this past weekend with a prospective private lender. They are interested and want me to present my deals to them as they come up. This is GREAT! I'm not 100% sure they will commit to lending but they did not say no. That is fantastic in my book.

Both of the closings for our HUD properties are set for next week. We hit a snag with the same one that fell through last month. Of course this did not make me happy but we're working through it and I'm hoping and praying it closes successfully. I have all my money out again and am really tight financially until these properties close. I do not like being in that predicament. So far so good and you'll be the first to know if it falls through!

I have been analyzing our business again as I look towards making my early departure next year. As you know I have not had an accepted offer on a wholesale property in months which means I would not have a profit in... a while. I cannot let this happen when my sole earnings will be real estate. So as I thought about the properties I'm going after it occurred to me, "hmmm if my exit strategy on this property was a lease/option I would be able to purchase it, make a nice monthly cash flow and get option money". The more I thought about it the more I liked that idea. If I had, say, 10 houses with $300/mo minimum cash flow I would be come close to replacing my income. I would also have the option money and, finally, if and when the options are completed we would have a big pay day in the end. So, it all sounds great EXCEPT I hate, hate, hate being a landlord. I know this is a bit different in the sense that all the responsibility goes to the tenant but... I don't know. I feel like I keep coming back to the lease/option niche and really feel like this is the direction I need to go in order to make my future happen. Of course I would always wholesale properties between L/O's which would also add to our cash flow but I just don't think I can soley count on wholesale deals.

The property I am looking at is a 3/2 Tudor style house in a great neighborhood, near lakes & golf course, close to the IL border, etc. The house is mostly updated (kitchen, flooring, baths), had a new roof in '04. What is needs is a new well drilled, new windows and major landscaping. It also has a stucco exterior which I've read could cause problems. Right now I could get the house for $59k, I want it for $55k if I'm going to L/O and $45 if I am going to wholesaler. Back in '07 it sold for $200k+... amazing, huh?! There have already been some other bids on the property so I'm pretty sure it's not going to sit much longer. At any rate, I could lock up this property, get a new well drilled for $5k, update the landscaping and then L/O for $125k, I think. I love this house, it is really cool. This is all based on an inspection coming back clean, of course. Soooo, I'm thinking of trying it on this house and see how it all goes?

Received my Insanity workout over the weekend. I started it on Monday and have completed 4 workouts. I'm very, very sore and hate getting up at 4am to do the workouts BUT I am committed. My starting weight is 152 and I'll post my progression.

Alrighty then... another roadblock (shocker!)

Monday: So I'm making dinner when my mom calls with some questions regarding financing the real estate deals. She mainly wanted clarification on 2 things:

1. How many properties they can fund/year before getting taxed (I didn't know there was a limit, nor did I know they could get taxed as it could be construed as a business if they did too many).
2. The website states very clearly that ALL profits go back in to the IRA upon sale of the property and she wanted to know how I would be getting money in my pocket. Isn't she sweet thinking of me : )

I tried explaining to her that the note would spell out the terms and conditions regading how much they would earn from each property. So if we agreed that they would make $2k for a short term note and the profit was $10k after we sold the house, I would get $8k at closing. She wasn't understanding because, again, the website was very clear on where the profits went. So I said I would talk to Equity Trust the next day and get it spelled out for her.

Tuesday: I get my representative on the phone and start asking my moms questions. For the record, question #1 is 6-7 properties conservatively but more likely 10-12 purchases per year before a red flag is raised to the IRS. Okay, that sounds good - on to question #2. This is where things turn south. As I'm asking my question about my parents' IRA funding our purchase, how the terms are laid out, etc. he proceeds to tell me that that cannot be done. WHAT?! What do you mean it can't be done? Well, you are a "disqualified person" and your parents' IRA cannot lend to you it is against the IRS rules or some BS like that. I was soooo upset when I got off the phone. My mind would not stop racing on how I was going to get this to work without putting my parents money in jepardy of getting taxed, "A prohibited transaction can bring into question the tax-deferred status of the account, resulting in the disqualification of the self-directed IRA and severe tax and penalties". The first thing I did was send an email to my mentor at private money blueprint program. I'm currently waiting on his response.

In the meantime I started searching the web for an answer. It sounds like we can partner on deals where they put in 50% and I put in 50% (or whatever percentage you agree on) but they cannot fully fund a deal. I want 100% of the property purchased with private money.

So I'm pretty sure, not 100% but pretty damn close, that my parents will not be able to be a part of my program. All their money is in their retirement accounts and if they take any out they have to pay taxes. Not worth it and I completely understand!

Soooo, that's that.

Have not received the Insanity workout yet...

Headed off to listen to Steph's newest Wholesale success story interview. If interested head on over to www.flipthiswholesaler.net. You will get a ton of great content if you listen, I assure you!!

1st Private Money Meeting/New contract/Offers, offers, offers

As you all know I purchased the Private Money Blueprint Program about 6 weeks ago. Over this time I have been going through the program, listening to the modules, updating the presentation and mentioning it to people who ask how the "house thing" is going. Well after talking to my parents, they decided they wanted to learn a little more about investing their hard earned 401k money. This past Monday I sat down with them, presented my program and they were very interested. I'm hoping that in the next few weeks we'll be purchasing a property using their self directed IRA (which needs to be set up and funded, of course). I am also rolling over my 401k from a previous employer in to a SD IRA. The tax benefits are outstanding! From what I'm hearing this is the concern most of my prospects have is paying taxes on the money they would be investing with me. However, if they roll their money in to a SD IRA it is tax free. THEN, when they get their profit upon closing it is directed back in to their SD IRA tax free. Woo Hoo! The only draw back would be if someone wanted their profits in their pocket and not in their IRA acct? I imagine it would be doable but highly taxed. Sooo I told my dad that if he was happy with his return to just mention it to all of his friends that are retired with big 401k's! Hopefully this will start the ball rolling and I'll get more people interested in hearing about the program.

We got a new contract on the property that had the FHA buyer fall through. I emailed the buyer that was super interested when we accepted the other offer and told him the contract fell through. They went to see it 2 days later and put in an offer the next day. It is lower than the first offer but I want the house gone so I can move one! We are scheduled to close at the end of the month (4/30). Fingers and toes are crossed.

Since we are heading in the private money direction I'm putting in offers like crazy. I feel like I have a little more flexibility even though nothing is set in stone regarding the PM. There are a bunch of HUD's and other regular bank owned properties out there that I'm watching. Already this week 2 HUD's have been sold to o/o's and just today I got a multiple offer notice on another property. Urrghh.. frustrating! But it's part of the game we play and I hope we'll get one under contract soon!

Tomorrow we are looking at 2 or 3 properties and Sunday I am going to look at 2 more. There is a HUD that just came on the market today with a phenomonal list price. I cannot bid on it until a week from Monday but that gives me time to go take a look and be sure it has a back wall : )! If it's in good shape I will probably be offering full price. We'll see, I'll probably have an o/o beat me out anyway... I'm starting to get a little frustrated with no properties under contract BUT I just keep submitting them and know that I'll get one soon!

****Non real estate related**** I am making a commitment to do the 60 day insanity workout program as soon as I get it (just ordered today). I have to lose this extra weight, it is really bothering me!! I don't really have a lot to lose, maybe 10-15 lbs but, urgh, I just want it gone. I'll be the first to admit that I suck at sticking with programs, I love junk food, I love to sit around, I love my cocktails, you know all the stuff that's not good for me!! BUT, I need to make a change and I'm committing myself here, today, that I will do the 60 days to the best of my ability!!!

My FHA closing totally blew up!

Yep.... last Thursday night my realtor informed me that there was a little "glitch" with our closing. The buyers lender (a mortgage broker) said FHA changed their rules to reinstate the FHA 90 day non-flipping rule. I called him up an reamed him up and down. Not professional, I know... But remember, I spoke directly to him right when we received my buyers offer and he ASSURED me that the 90 day flipping rule would not be an issue. He also assured me that the profit I would be making from the sale would be a non-issue. Okay fast forward about 40 days to last Thursday. I was absolutely livid when I got the call that he could not proceed to closing. I was also livid that he assured me, the realtors AND the buyer that this would close w/ no issues. I was also confused that FHA would reinstate the 90 day rule after just over a month. So I went on over towww.flippinghomes.com to see if anyone had posted this change. Hmmm, no posts referring to the change. Weird? My first thought is that this guy is lying to us. Why would someone do that? Just to be sure I posted the question of whether this change was actually reinstated. Here is the answer http://www.flippinghomes.com/forum/replies.aspx?tp=1&tr=165244#m184494

Okay, can anyone say I was livid at this point? I call the broker up again and ask him to fax me the change. He then proceeds to tell me that he never said that FHA reinstated their 90 day rule it was just the lender he was using............. If I could have gotten my fist through that phone to connect with his face I would have been one happy camper. Anyhoo, we went back and forth and in the end I basically called him a liar and that I would never work with him in the future, ever.

So the buyer is now out $1,200 for 2 appraisals and a home inspection on a property she cannot buy. Man, would I be pissed if I was her. Now, I could wait the 90 days but I just can't hold on to the property and hope she can close then. I really feel for her. She is trying her damndest to get another loan but it doesn't seem to be working out for her. I told them that they have to go through a local bank for me to even entertain the extension again.

So what are we doing with the property now? Well this buyer still wants it but we are not waiting so we put a bump clause in their contract. This way if we get another buyer they are bumped out of place. I just found out this morning we have another buyer who should be submitting an offer by the end of the week. I got this particular buyer off CL and he wanted to go through it right when we got the FHA offer. Urrgh... should have taken him through. We also have a showing tomorrow night. I think it will work out fine, less profit but still something to pay down our last credit card (WOO HOO credit card debt free!!! Can't wait).

More to share later...

Organizing for Private Money

Hello All! Hope everyone is having a good week.

This week I am trying to focus on getting my power point presentation together in order to present our program to potential private money lenders. This past weekend I opened the PP presentation so I could modify it and found that I only have a PP reader on my home computer... WTF?!?! So, I've been trying to modify it at work but have not been successful at completing it yet. My "due date" is Tuesday so I'm probably going to have to download something at home, not sure yet. However, I am getting excited about the potential I have ahead of me. I have not taken my eyes off my the prize, which is my completion date of August 2011. This week at work has been very slow and I feel like I am wasting my time by sitting around and talking. It's nice to have a break but there is so much I need to do re: REI but cannot do it all at work. I do too much as it is! At any rate, I asked my realtor and one of my buyers to write up a testimonial for my presentation and both said yes. I have to say I was really, really nervous about calling my buyer but I literally said - out loud - "what the hell, just call him" and I did.

No updates on the FHA closing. Seems good to go at this point.

The inspection on the Wind Lake property (HUD #2) showed electrical problems (shocker after the plumbing!). We negotiated and that's taken care of. Now I'm just waiting on the well inspection report and I should get that back tomorrow *crossing fingers*.

I am going to look at a couple other properties this weekend. I picked 3 specifically b/c they were in the county my one bank lends. It has frozen/broken pipes but if the rest of the house is decent, there might be a deal? We'll see. Also looking at a HUD a little further north as it looks like a great deal! I NEED to get another property under contract and keep this momentum going!!

Wish me luck!

It's been a long time in posting!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! We did a lot of nothing and it was great! Well, we did decide to grab some burgers Saturday night for dinner instead of cooking so it took some effort to get everyone in the car : )

The closing for our FHA buyer was supposed to be this Wednesday but it has been extended. I guess she could not supply her lender with proof of child support? Not sure but her mom has decided to help her out so things should be good to go. The lender has pretty much guaranteed that this will close it is just a matter of when (and he wants it done asap!).

The buyers for our second closing have their inspection today. I'm hoping they do not find anything major! We had the furnace inspection checked and it was fine. We had the water turned on last week and plumbing was NOT fine! Urrghh... These are the worst plumbing problems I've had since starting! Honestly I couldn't even give you a list of things right now b/c there are so many but it is all fixed and ready to go. The well inspection is this week and I'm hoping and praying that it comes back ok. If the well inspection comes back with tainted water our profits are all just about out the window. Dave thinks that most of the neighbors are on the same well so it should be good (this is a private street with about 5 houses so he may be right?). We'll see but I'm keeping positive thoughts. This closing is not until May unless they want to push it up.

Tomorrow is the closing of our 3rd HUD this year. This is the one I am partnering with my realtors broker. I haven't talked much about this b/c I'm not really doing anything with it (not intentionally)! I asked my realtor what price she was going to list and she said $99k which I think is way too low. If I closed on it myself, I would start it at $109k and see what happened. When she told me I was shocked and asked her why. She said she doesn't want her broker to have to sit on it. Whatever!

We do not have anything else under contract. I have been submitting offers but nothing accepted yet... bummer! As always, it seems to come in waves so I'm hoping my next "wave" will crash soon! I've been trying to get my rental refi'd with another bank so it would free up my LOC but she hasn't been getting back to me. I am going to call her this week - again - to see what's up. I also have my 30 minute call scheduled for tomorrow regarding private money getting. If I can line up private money I think my business would definately soar to the next level! I feel like I am at a hump I just can't quite make it over... YET! I'm trying to put pieces of the ladder in place in order to get over that hump! Lining up private money would certainly help!

Okay, gotta run. Have a great week!

Offer/Taxes/Closings

Not much new to report this week. The appraisal for our closing (with our buyer) at the end of the month was submitted Monday. My realtor called the listing agent yesterday to see if she had an update and she hasn't heard anything. At this point we're hoping no news is good news. If for some reason this falls through there has been a TON of activity on the property since we got it under contract. I'm hopeful we will close successfully on the 31st though!

The property I am partnering on was delayed (b/c of me) until the end of the month. It was supposed to close on the 16th but now it is set for the 30th. I will be lucky if I make a whopping $2k on this deal. Woo Hoo. BUT, as my dad would say, it's better than a sharp stick in the eye. I have to keep reminding myself of that! ha, ha.

We got an offer on our Waterford property from the guys who emailed me late last week. We have been going back and forth but I think we should have it signed by Monday. There are 3 buyers on that deal so it takes them some time to get all the signatures & fax back. We are not making as much as I thought but, if all goes well, it should definately be a decent payday.

We looked at a bunch of short sale properties last weekend and submitted 2 offers this week. There were also a bunch of HUD's that were listed this week. I am eye-balling one that could be a great payday if I can get it where I need it. It is actually a re-list so I'm hoping they will be agreeable to the lowball offer I am going to submit : ) We can't submit for over a week though due to the owner occupants getting first pick. Anyhoo, we are going to see it this weekend.

This weekend I am dedicating most of my time to tax preparation. I have to organize all my documents from the properties I bought and sold last year. My appointment is set up for Monday afternoon so I want to have the majority of my documents ready for my accountant. I'm sure I'll be missing some things but if I have most of it, I (and she) will be happy. As we all know, I lack in the organization department so I'm going to TRY and remain calm through the paperwork!

Hmmmm, what else? Oh yeah, I never heard back from the private money blueprint people so I could set up my 30 minute phone call. I took it off my list of "to do's" because I sent the email and just realized this week that they never emailed me back. That's irritating. I just sent another email...

Okay, I guess that's it for now. Here's to everyone having a great weekend!!

Offer/FHA Appraisal/Private Money

I guess my week isn't as bad as I made out in my last post (but I did get stuck in the mud that night at work and had to be pulled out by a tow truck - $79 - nice!). Yesterday I received this email:

"Hi, My name is Jeff I looked at this House on Tuesday March 9. My brother Jim and Phil were present.
We would like to make an offer on this house. Were do we go from here? Feel free to cam Phil at 262-xxx-xxxx or email me back."

You know I woke up yesterday morning forcing the negatives out of my mind and saying positive thoughts. I didn't want to wait until next week for things to get better. I figured I was kind of bringing on the negative myself. Soooo, yesterday was definately a better day and I should be getting an offer from these guys by the weekend. They are starting the offer low but I'm hoping to get them up about $4k. Even if they didn't budge on price, which I think they will, it's still an OK payday for holding the property for less than a month.

The FHA appraisal was started 2 days ago on the property we should be closing by month end. There is chipping paint on the soffit and trim of the garage that needs to be fixed. This should be done this weekend. I also did not have the water on so that is getting turned on today and the plumber is going to de-winterize the place. Hopefully he is going to tell me there are no major problems. Actually they should both be there in 10 minutes : ) It sounds like everything else was OK with the appraisal. Once the water is on and the painting is done the appraiser will go back out and check to be sure everything is good.

I received my Private Money Blueprint program a couple weeks ago and have been diligently going through the manual and modules. I'm currently waiting to set up my 30 minute 1 on 1 phone call to ask some more specific questions. My husband mentioned to his friend that we are starting to look at finding private investors and he said he might be interested. He said we should have dinner and discuss. I'm trying to get through enough of the manual and talk to Trevor or Patrick prior to the dinner. Hoping to have that set up in the next couple of weeks!

Looking at a bunch of properties this weekend. They are in a higher price range, less repairs, have been listed for 200+ days and are short sales. We'll see how it all pans out.

Everyone have a good weekend and happy house hunting!!

2nd HUD closing of the year

Our second HUD closing for 2010 took place this past Monday, 3/8. I had many, many people interested in the house and told them all I would be showing last night at 5:30pm. I wasn't sure how many people would show but thought a minimum of 3 and a max of 8. Guess how many actually showed?? ONE! Yep, one person. Well, actually 3 people but they were together : ) I even had one guy from my buyers list say he would be there and no showed. I was pretty pissed off for more reasons than one. The guys that went through seemed really interested, said they would talk and contact me either last night or this morning. I haven't heard anything. This doesn't really surprise me since I am having the worst week EVER!! Not necessarily REI related but just a bad week. It is kind of whatever could go wrong will go wrong. Sooo I wasn't really expecting that call, "We decided to submit a full price offer, Eileen. What is your fax number?".

I'm just waiting patiently for this week to be over and looking forward to a better, more focused week next week.

Guess what I gooooottt?!?!

Two HUD keys and MLS access. WOO HOO! I'm using my realtors access right now but when I get my license I will get my own. Pretty damn cool!!

MLS Access & Buyer update & Funding update

Tonight I am getting my mls access, I think. I know we are going to go over my options, costs, if I will be an licensed assistant or actual realtor, etc. I'm very excited. However, I can see myself spending hours and hours on the mls checking things out... all the time. I'm sure it will be that way in the beginning but will taper off.

I spoke to my buyers lender and he seems confident that this FHA loan will go through. He said he's been doing this 8 years, knows his stuff and it's a solid loan. I told him I knew FHA lifted their 90 day rule but then imposed a cap on how much an investor can make. He said yes, some FHA lenders have that cap but the one he is using allows 50% profit. I will be making less than that so everything should be ok. I'm still a little skeptical because of everything you hear but it will be interesting going through the process to see, first hand, how it all works! One other thing I'm a little worried about is the appraisal. If you read my previous blogs you'll know that my appraisal for this property came back at $65k. But this took in to account a $25k POS house. Hopefully the next appraiser will be a little more mindful of the definition of "comps"... you know, comparable properties.

Next week we close on another HUD in a town called Waterford. I've had some interest from my CL ads and I just got an email today from one of my buyers. Haven't heard from this guy since I tried selling a short sale back in the day. See, never write someone off unless they ask to be written off. Who knows if it will work out but now I know he is at least reading my emails : )

The 3rd HUD we're closing 3/16 is in a town called Menomonee Falls. This is the one where we didn't have financing (my realtor found a lender that would send in our "HUD approved pre-approval letter"). I have been trying to get this thing financed by myself but was not having much luck. Two weeks ago my realtors broker said he would finance the property. Cool, right? Terms... I get 20% of the profit. YEP, 20%! Nice! You get totally screwed when you don't have any money. I've known about this for 2 weeks but was unable to type it out because it infuriates me so. I know, I know, I should be grateful he is willing to loan me the money. I should be grateful that I am not losing $1k of my EMD. I should be grateful that he is taking the risk. Yes, I should be grateful. And I AM grateful. But 20%, really? Oh well, something is better than nothing and I'm certainly not going to say no and let the deal fall apart!! Now with that said, I spoke to the lender today that changed their policy to only work in their county. I told him we have a contract on the Evansville house (they have the loan) and if they would consider lending on Menomonee Falls? I kind of asked tongue in cheek but he said it's already on the agenda to talk about at their Thursday meeting! I'm not counting on getting them to loan it but if they can that would be great! I am going to see the broker tonight so I'm going to talk to him about this and see if we can work something out if the bank finances me. Maybe I'll give HIM 20% for helping me out!?! We'll see how it pans out.

P.S. Remember... head on over to Stephs blog for my interview. I'm pretty proud of it myself. I didn't sound like a complete idiot!!

P.S.S. Everyone have a good day!!

You are NOT going to believe this!!!

We got an offer on the Evansville HUD last night for more than asking price. WOO HOO! They are asking for a lot in return but it is a more than generous offer, in my opinion. Of course there is 1 sticking point (it can never, ever be easy!)... the buyer is pre-qualified with a broker. Soo, we're in the process of determining if there will be seasoning issues. I told my realtor to just have the buyer get pre-approved through a local bank and it would be a non-issue. She is talking with the buyers agents to get things straightened out. Hopefully the buyer is easily qualifiable (is that a word?)! We also have a rural direct loan that this home would qualify for. IF all goes well we will be closing the end of March and numbers will be pretty good!

Re Furnace: Since we have a pseudo-accepted offer on the property we are probably just going to replace the furnace. We have a lot of wiggle room in our profit to just make the buyers move nice and easy. I don't want her to have a problem in the next year or two if we just replace the heat exchanger. Karma baby... what goes around, comes around.

Finally, Steph put the link to our interview on her blog over at www.flipthiswholesaler.net. Exciting stuff!!!

Interview, closing and problems!!

Hey all! Last week Steph over at http://www.flipthiswholesaler.net/ asked me do an interview for her "Flip this Success Story" series. I was thrilled that she thought of me and immediately said yes! This is a new addition to her already awesome sight and it will be a great motivator for new and experienced investors alike. We did the interview on Saturday and I should be able to post it here in the next day or so. We basically went over how I got started, the type of deals I do, how I close them, how I find my buyers, how they are funded and a description of my last deal. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to hearing the interview back and also hearing more success stories moving forward.

On to my updates... we closed on our Evansville HUD property this past Tuesday. Yeah! My lender had to get an appraisal of the property and it came back VERY low. BOO! We bought the property (4br/2ba/2ca garage) for $55k and it appraised out at $65k - WHAT!?!?! The most recent sales are in the $130k's. Late last year there were 2 houses that sold for low prices - 1 for $24.5k (that was a POS, literally) and the other sold for $68k. Okay, he should not have even included the $24.5k property in his analysis and if he added the $68k to the $130k's properties were looked at $99k which is what I would have expected. Hell, even $85k would have been acceptable but $65k?!?!? Oh, he also calculated in my purchase price, I think. I just hope this isn't a problem when we go to sell the house.

Making me more nervous about this property is the fact that we had the furnace guy out there and the furnace is a POS. Well maybe not a total POS, the heat exchanger is cracked and the blow motor (or something) "doesn't sound right" as he put it. He is suggesting we replace the whole furnace but, of course, I don't want to replace the whole furnace. Side note: I just did a search on http://www.flippinghomes.com/ and found that if the heat exchanger is cracked the furnace should be replaced... CRAP! So this will dig in to our profits by about $2.5k unless we can get one of our friends up to replace it. I know there is a government tax credit out there too that I just may take advantage of... IF I can. I always find that those credits don't apply to me : )

UUURRRHHH!!

On a brighter note, we did have a showing this morning. Will be interesting to hear what they have to say!

Will keep you all updated!! Have a good rest of the day.

Purchase/updates

The waterpark was great fun last weekend. My 5 year old went on ALL the watersides except 2. I was very proud of her. She loved the "roller coaster" waterslide that goes very, very fast. She'll be on all of them next year. My 3 year old just wanted to hang out in the baby pool. She didn't want anything to do with the waterslides.... she didn't like the water in her eyes : )

Anyhoo, finally got an email back from my first potential private money guy and, basically, he wasn't interested. I'm sure I went about it all wrong but I'm proud of myself for even putting it out there! I ordered the private money blueprint system today. It took me a couple of weeks to swallow the price but I KNOW it is what I need. I'm getting shot down right and left by the banks for more reasons than one (I don't have the energy to go through them right now). Since I already have 3 HUD's in the pipeline I cannot bid on anymore. Why? Because no one else will provide a custom HUD pre-approval letter for me. Frustrating. Soooo, I need to get some private funds lined up so I can start really moving along. I'm hoping to have the system before next weekend so I can have some idea how this works. My mom is coming up to visit and I wanted to talk about it with her a little, even though I know she'll tell me to talk to my dad. She is then going down to FLA to visit friends and I want her to put the bug in their ears too. Again, not sure about the approach but... I want to get moving.

I have been thinking about who I know with money and, surprisingly, I think there are quite a few people I know with some extra cashola. The main reason why I'm a little gunshy about asking family is b/c my brother had people invest in a couple of his ideas and they lost money. A lot of money. I know they will not lose money with me but I'll have to convince them, I'm sure!

This weekend we are going to see 2 REO's (non HUD). Both are priced extremely well so we need to check out their condition. I figure I can just use a basic pre-approval for these and hopefully have them sold prior to closing. What a concept!!

The HUD we are closing 2/23 has a few very interested parties. Three people from Craigslist want to go through and one of my buyers just called again today about it. Hopefully we'll have a buyer on this one quickly!

Looking to buy Sean Stephensons book for Steph's book of the month. I have not gotten around to it yet. It's on my "to do" list.

Okay, gotta run. You all have a great weekend!!

Interesting week...

So, I didn't hear back from the private money inquiry email as of today Friday, 2/5 @ 10:15 : ) I sent a follow up email to see if he had any questions/concerns so hopefully he'll send something back! I'm actually surprised he didn't respond b/c he almost always responds to every email I send out, even to just say he's not interested. Don't know? I also didn't hear back from the other guy at all. That's also interesting as he almost always sends some type of response back too. I hope my email isn't screwing up!

This week was pretty tough for me at my real job. I was just in a funk all week, crabby, hating being there (even though I don't hate my job), etc... It's really hard to go to work when you, at times, despise it so much. It's like I'm bitter at my JOB because I have to work. Isn't that pathetic? Like it's my jobs fault that I have to work?! ha, ha. It sounds pretty funny when I type it out though! In the end I'm always very thankful that I even have a job in these times and I know it will pass (which is what I told myself all week). Still, it's hard...

Real estate front... HUD delayed my Feb 11th closing 2 weeks. Yeah, someone forgot to pay a bill and closing is now delayed. This is going to totally SCREW up my timing for all my other closings. Urrrgh. Seriously? You've had 45 days to pay the bills?!?! Of course, that really pissed me off too.

Another HUD came back on the market last week that I totally wanted a month or two ago. This is the property I thought I had in my back pocket but it ended up being sold in the 1st day open to investors to an o/o. It looked like there was a type of bidding war in the o/o week so I didn't even have a chance. Anyhoo, it's back and I can bid on Monday. I'm hoping I have a shot at it this time since it wasn't re-sent out in the mls. It was just re-listed on their website. We'll see, I don't have my hopes up but it would be a phenomonal deal!

The BIGGEST thing that happened occurred yesterday. I sent my realtors broker an email with the FIRST sentence saying I hadn't discussed the following with Michelle yet. I basically said that I took my realtors test, didn't send in the paperwork yet and IF I decided to send it in could I hang my license at his brokerage? Pause: I didn't go to Michelle's broker to go around her back in any way I just wanted to get his thoughts before discussing with Michelle. It was very hard for me to bring it up to her b/c I enjoyed working with her so much AND I know I made her a lot of money... consistantly (or semi-consistantly). Continue: He sent me an email saying he discussed it with Michelle, no hard feelings and he wants to have a meeting with me next week. My first reaction was, "WHAT?! You asshole, I wanted to tell her I was getting my licese!" Why? Because I didn't want HER to think I was going around her back. At any rate, I know I'm rambling, everything is fine between everyone and I have a meeting with her broker next Thursday. Hopefully all will turn out well since I'll still want her to list most of my properties for sale.

We are headed to the Wisconsin Dells this weekend for a long indoor waterpark "getaway". I soooooo need it! I can't wait to spend some quality time with my husband and kids! I'm leaving work today at noon and taking Monday off - WOO HOO!

Everyone have a great weekend and we'll talk next week : )