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!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
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!!
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!!
Monday, May 10, 2010
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!!
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!!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
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!
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!
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