A Good thing and some not so good things...

The good thing... we ended up getting that other HUD under contract. I told you I was going to submit an offer a week until I got it for what I wanted? I resubmitted on Monday and they came down another 10% so I got it at the $55k I wanted. This one definately needs to be inspected though. Not as nice of updates at the others but in a good area.

The bad thing... my husband Dave's brother in law's mother passed away this past Sunday. She had a severe stroke a couple months ago but she seemed to be doing okay. On December 8th she went in to hospice and then passed on the 20th. Very sad. She was a lovely woman and many, many people will miss her. I know she is much more comfortable where she is now though!!

Another not so good thing... I bought the book of the month club book "Million Dollar Habits" by Brian Tracy. Do you think I cracked in open? Uuhhh, no. However I did read the third book in the Twighlight saga (don't give me any crap, it sucks but I need to know how it ends - and DON'T tell me).

Yet another not so good thing... I have not even thought about my goals for 2010. Well, I've thought about how many houses I want to flip but that's about it.... Not true. I know I want to do the triathlon again and complete it at a better time than I did last yeart. There, that's 2. I would also like to be more organized. Easier said than done...

Well, I've got some things to work on don't I??? I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a HAPPY/prosperous New year!!

We closed early!

The bank was able to close our HUD property even earlier than we had hoped! Ya gotta love those local banks!! I pre-signed Weds night and the buyer closed yesterday morning. My realtor told me the buyer was sooo excited he couldn't sleep the night before - ha, ha. She said she thought he was going to cry he was so happy. Makes me feel kinda warm and fuzzy! The profit we made off this property pre-tax is $18,680 ish. WOW! This is the most I've made off a wholesale deal yet. I'm sure it's peanuts compared to what others are making but, boy howdy, I am thrilled! We are going to pay off 2 credit cards in FULL and pay another $2k on another card. We will only have 1 CC left... WOO HOO! After that is paid off (with any luck our next HUD will pay it off) we start tackling the car loan. At this point we still will not have any extra cash laying around : ) It's all for the greater good though!!

What a great Christmas present!!

Okay, back to business. We did not get that HUD I've been watching FOREVER! They will not budge on their price. Sooo, I'm going to make an offer every week it is available until the price is reduced again.

Another HUD came on the market today in a great school district and a great price great. We're going to take a look Sunday. Unless it is a POS we'll be able to bid close to asking. It looks pretty nice from the outside but it does sit on a busy road. It's always something with these houses.

Next year I want to be able to have 1 accepted HUD offer per month, or any REO for that matter. I'm thinking I might try to focus more on HUD since I have so much luck with them. The issue is that I will have to go outside my area a little bit more. This means I have to do more studying of towns. I'll have to think about this a little more. If I want to get to my ultimate goal I need to close at least 1 property per month which means I need at least 1 accepted offer per month. It doesn't sound too hard, does it? Ha, ha. I laugh b/c this was my goal last year. I will keep making this goal until I have been successful!!

Everyone have a good weekend!!

Closings, contracts and Christmas

We are set to close our HUD property next Monday which is about 2 weeks earlier than our contract states. Yeah!

We got another HUD property under contract. Yeah! This is the one my husband went to look at a week ago. Apparently it has new vinyl windows, new siding, new high efficiency furnace, newer roof, etc. Sounds like just some carpet, paint and appliances on the inside. We will probably close on this one next February.

We're also looking at another HUD (you're shocked, I know) and just trying to get our price. I've been watching this one for quite some time and they are just not coming down to where we need to be... My agent just sent me some updated sold comps and the two lowest are $60k & $73k, then go from $118k - $173k. We are looking to get the property for no more than $55k.

I did not go to Steve's event last week. Jodi, if you're reading this did you go? The snow was insane by me on Wednesday and I didn't go to work. Thursday I was concerned about the wind/drifting/ice on the expressway. Urrggh. Another one missed. Hopefully there will be another one soon!

I got most of my Christmas shopping done this past weekend. I always say I'm not going to wait this long to shop and inevitably I always do... and get frustrated! It's crazy out there!

Quick updates

Everything for the HUD closing is moving along nicely. No snags as of yet.

There is another HUD we are looking at closely. My husband went to look at it yesterday and liked it a lot. We submitted a lowball offer yesterday and are waiting on their counter. We're not sure we'll be able to get it at the price we need so we may have to wait for the next price reduction (which should be in 2 weeks).

We submitted another offer this week. There are some other properties we're still looking at but I need to re-organize my thoughts/properties.

I'm still waiting on mls access. I guess it was all smoke and mirrors until I just forgot about wanting access : ) Next year may be the year I'll be a licensed realtor?! I will ask this broker if I can hang my license with him though since he is so investor friendly (he is a rehabber himself).

Tomorrow we are headed to Chicago for our yearly visit to Santa at Macy's, ice skating in Millenium Park, dinner/drinks/good times with family, etc. We are ALL looking forward to it. I just love seeing my kids so excited!! They have been looking forward to it for WEEKS! ha, ha.

Everyone have a great weekend!

The universe WAS listening!!

Yep, we have an accepted offer on the HUD house so, apparently, the universe was listening. Or was it my positive thinking : ) At any rate, the offer was accepted on Friday. We were not sure about his credit but I just found out his score is a 770 (WOW!) and he is going through a local credit union so seasoning should not be an issue! Our closing date is scheduled for Jan. 4th but the guy would like to close before Christmas. I guess we'll have to see how fast his bank moves. They already have the appriasal set up for this week or next so00... maybe?? If all goes well and we close successfully this will be the biggest payoff for us to date. I am not going to post any numbers until we close.

My husband checked the oil tank and it (drum roll please!) was full of oil. Dumb HVAC company. When I called the co. and told them it had oil the guy said, "oh, maybe there is a plugged line?". Hmmm, did you think of checking that a week ago?!?!?

Two HUD properties went down in price but are currently listed for o/o's. We cannot bid on them until next week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one snatches them up. However, I'm bracing myself for the letdown since it's happening quite a bit lately! I'm pretty confident I can get the 1 at the price I need and the other is a condo in an area of high priced condos. So, we'll see.

Still didn't hear back on the other REO's. Yeah, I guess they rejected. I'll keep an eye out. Also watching other properties and going to submit on a few short sales.

I think I'm going to Steve's event in the WI Dells on the 10th. I haven't signed up yet but already took the day off work. It's a little over an hour from my house so it will be a 1 day deal for me.

Updates/HUD House

None of the HUD properties we put offers on last week had another price reduction (even though 2 are past due!).

One of the REO offers we put in accepted another offer. We're still waiting to hear back on the other 3. Since we haven't heard from them I'm assuming they rejected our offer. I'll keep watching.

We have a lot of activity on the HUD home we listed. Again, no contracts but a lot of interest which makes me happy. We are hoping for 3 showings tomorrow which is good since it's the day before a Thanksgiving. At least I think it's good! Sooo, I am trying to get the furnace up and running since it is getting quite cold here in WI. I set up an appt for the oil to be filled last Thursday and an appt for the HVAC guy to go out on Friday. Friday I get a call from the HVAC co. saying the oil tank is empty. After I get that message I call the oil company and they tell me they filled the tank the previous day. I made sure they had the correct address and told them I would look into it. I personally checked it this past Sunday and it looks empty to me (but I am no professional). I called the oil company today and we basically got in to an argument on the phone and she accused me of calling her driver a liar. ha, ha. I told her I was just trying to figure this out b/c I need to get my FURNACE WORKING! Urrrgghhh. How frustrating is that? I think the driver filled the tank of the wrong house even though they have the correct address. Our address is 261 South Monroe and I think they went to North Monroe. Just a guess.... I'm rambling, I know.

I'm hoping to go look at some properties Sunday morning to try and get another property under contract. I WISH we could get some consistancy with this whole flipping thang!!

Still haven't heard about my mls access even though I bring it up about every other day. Are you all getting the same feeling as me... he's changed his mind?

Everyone have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!

Not much going on

As expected we received counters on our HUD offers. None were good enough to accept so we are waiting for another price reduction and hoping no one buys in the meantime! Here are the numbers if anyone is interested (By the way, the 1st list price is true. Do you love it?! 1-2-3-4-5-6 They really thought about that list price!):

Listed Price Our Offer Counter from HUD
$123,456 $65k $98,900 (80%)
$94k $50k $65.8 (70%)
$98k $78.4 $60k (80%)

HUD is great b/c you almost always have an idea of what they will counter with. Not always but most of the time. Sometimes they come in even lower. It seems to me that they follow a formula for when they lower the % they will accept. I have found that a new listing will never go for less than 90%, if a property has a "Price Reduction" they usually take 80%, the 2nd price reduction is 70% and "Significant Price Reduction"(s) usually start at 60% and go down from there. I know other people will argue with me that there is no "formula" and they can get HUD properties for much less than what I am saying. This may be true but from what I've seen these numbers hold true. And, I'm sure the house itself/location makes a big difference.

Anyway, enough of boring everyone. We also got out the 4 REO offers I talked about in my last post. My husband went to look at one and he really liked it which is rare. This is the one in a higher price range. When he and our realtor were looking at it another group came to look at the same time. We're pretty sure we are not going to get that one. As for the other 3 offers, we are about $30k apart on price... heehee. One is actually $40k now that I think about it. There is 1 out of the 4 that may come back with a decent counter but we shall see.

Okay, there have been a few showings on the property we just closed on and a lot of good comments but no contract yet. I'm thinking positive thoughts and telling the universe that we WILL have a contract by next weekend!! Are you listening? ha, ha.

I think that's it for now. Everyone have a great weekend!!