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!!