These are the results of the Eighteenth week of opening up my house flipping business for you guys to see how my wife and I are building back up to 30 deals a year. If you missed the first post explaining what I am doing, please visit this page: See How We Are Flipping Houses.
These are the things I did this week:
Def Leppard House Staged and On The Market
The Def Leppard flip house has been rehabbed, cleaned and staged and is on the market. We did not have enough time to put together the ‘after’ page for this week, but we should have it ready for next week’s post.
I want to thank my wife and our Realtor for doing another outstanding job on staging the house.
More Probate Letters Mailed
Mailed out about 75 Probate letters yesterday and have not received any calls yet. Too early to really tell but I might need to split test my letters and try to find a better performing one.
Still Working Hidden Iron Closing
Not much to say about this. We have things ironed out (pun intended) and are just waiting to close.
Frustration House Closed Yesterday
Closed on the frustration house yesterday. I will have before pictures and scope of work details up during this week. We met with our contractor there this morning and are awaiting his bid. Should be a quick rehab and we should be able to have it on the market within 2 weeks.
Expensive House Tenants Moving Out
We closed on the expensive house a couple of weeks ago and gave the sellers a temporary lease so that they could move out by the end of the month. To get a head start on the rehab, we met our contractor there today to get the scope of work figured out. I will post pictures and details on this one after they move out.
Tools Page For The Blog Is Now Posted
A tools and resources page has been added. It currently just has some of our favorite house flipping tools and resources, but we will be adding other resources as time permits. The link is on the top left of the page.
Best For Last – Closed On The Historic House Wholesale
Finally, bought and sold the Historic House. I’ve decided to not share the details. Just kidding! Check them out here (Trust me, you will want to see this!): Historic House Wholesale Details
Marketing
Total Motivated Seller Leads This Week: 16 🙂
Lead Source | Leads This Week | Notes |
---|---|---|
Bandit Signs | 5 | 40 bandit signs put out last weekend. |
Yellow Pages | 1 | For a picture of my ad, visit the ‘The First Week’ post. |
Buying Website | 8 | For a link to my site, visit the ‘The First Week’ post. |
Drive For Dollars | 0 | Mailed about 50 out last week. |
MLS | 0 | Did not look at any listed properties this week. |
Wholesale Deals | 0 | Nothing – Come On Wholesalers, where are you? |
Referral | 2 | I love referrals. |
Probates | 0 | 75 more mailed out. |
Total Leads To Date [259]
This is the total number of leads for each source since I started posting about the leads.
Lead Source | Total Leads To Date |
---|---|
Buying Website: | 134 |
Bandit Signs: | 50 |
Yellow Pages Ad: | 31 |
Driving For Dollars: | 16 |
REO Realtors: | 6 |
Absentee Owners: | 5 |
Referrals: | 5 |
Wholesalers: | 4 |
Realtors: | 3 |
MLS Search: | 2 |
Probate Letters: | 2 |
For Sale By Owner: | 1 |
Leads Analyzed
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2000 sf house in a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $Make Offer |
Amount Owed: | $63,000 |
Repairs: | $unknown (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $105,000 |
Max Offer: | $68,000 – repairs |
The seller submitted the form on my website. I tried to call her to ask some more questions and gauge her motivation. She sounded strange and asked if I could call back at noon. She never did pick up the phone again and I’ve tried several times. Will keep trying.
Got back in touch and found out that they want to move back to Vegas. I mentioned that I would need to buy around what she owed and she seemed to be taken aback. The problem is the competition with foreclosures in the area, which has brought the value down. She was under the impression that Texas was doing really well real estate wise and I had to inform her that we are doing well “compared” to other markets. She wants close to market so I will have to pass.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1000 sf house in a so-so neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $32,000 |
Amount Owed: | $20,000 |
Repairs: | $unknown (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $60,000 |
Max Offer: | $35,000 – repairs |
Seller is behind on payments on his own house (out of town) and his rental house that is in San Antonio. He has tenants in it that are supposed to be out by the end of the month. He is hesitant to send anyone in to see the house as the tenants were his “friends” and they were wanting to eventually buy the house (even though they’ve always been late with their rent. Go figure. Why is it not good to have your friends as tenants? Hmmm.) He is two months behind on his payments. He mentioned that he has contacted several people and will schedule with them to show it after the tenants are out.
I’m not interested in this house but passed it on to someone that I informed of the situation. My investor should be able to work with the seller to contract this house before the tenants are out and avoid the competition that is likely to be waiting until the tenants are out because the seller absolutely refuses to show it while they are there. I suggested to contract the house if he is confident and put a clause in it that makes the agreement subject to inspection of the house.
Homeowner wants to sell a 5 bedroom, 1 bath, 1200 sf house 30 minutes outside of town.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $Make An Offer |
Amount Owed: | Nothing |
Repairs: | $probably a lot (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $50,000 |
Max Offer: | $25,000 – repairs |
Seller wants to sell his house in a small town outside of San Antonio. I don’t buy houses outside of town unless they are super steals because the time wasted traveling to them costs far too much in missed opportunities. The seller wanted to know how much I would pay and I just threw out a ballpark of about 20k and he seemed interested. So, I passed this one on to a wholesaler that expressed interest.
I mentioned that the house may be functionally obsolete due to the fact that it has 5 bedrooms and only 1 bathroom. Not really a big deal for a rental.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1900 sf house near the Gulf Coast.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $105,000 |
Amount Owed: | $97,000 |
Repairs: | $minor (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $??? |
Max Offer: | $??? |
“Investors? Maybe you!” See if anyone knows what that is from.
House is in Texas City, which is close to Galveston. If you invest in this area, please contact me if you are interested. I do not buy that far out of town.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 1 bath, 900 sf house is a so-so neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $69,000 and Listed |
Amount Owed: | $5,000 |
Repairs: | $none (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $60,000 |
Max Offer: | $35,000 minus any repairs |
Seller has this vacant house listed with a Realtor. Based on the pictures, it is clean and freshly painted. Doesn’t look like it needs much. He seemed like a tire-kicker but I made him a ball park offer anyway in the low 30’s. He was not at all interested. Next.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2500 sf house is a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $300,000 |
Amount Owed: | $200,000 |
Repairs: | $none (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $300,000 |
Max Offer: | $210,000 minus any repairs |
Seller is moving out of state and wants to sell. She seemed really snooty on the phone and difficult to deal with. One of those people that acts like they are above selling to a real estate investor (even though they are calling you to sell). She was adament about not selling below $300k, which is what it is worth. Next.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1500 sf house is a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $80,000 |
Amount Owed: | $80,000 |
Repairs: | $AC and Cosmetic (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $109,000 |
Max Offer: | $70,000 minus any repairs |
Seller cannot afford the house anymore but is not behind on payments. Need to see if willing to consider sub2. I checked and she will not consider sub2. They are not behind and so a short sale would not be very likely. This one has some equity and I will try to birddog and see if someone will buy with a more narrow profit margin.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1600 sf house is a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $105,000 |
Amount Owed: | $65,000 |
Repairs: | cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $89,000 |
Max Offer: | $58,000 minus repairs |
Seller is moving out of the country and wants to sell the house quickly. The garage is converted and I’m sure it will affect the resale value on this house. Because the garage was converted to a den, I determined the ARV with a 1200 square footage. We’ve found that this will give you a more accurate estimate than including the square footage of the enclosed garage. There is too much owed, but this could be a sub2 for someone. Called him back and he is not interested in anything below market value. Not motivated at all. Next.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1300 sf house is a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $65,000 |
Amount Owed: | $45,000 |
Repairs: | cosmetic (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $95,000 |
Max Offer: | $62,000 minus repairs |
Seller got divorced and needs to sell this house. They are also behind on payments. Sort of a perfect storm.
Homeowner wants to sell a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 400 sf house is a not-so-good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $21,000 |
Amount Owed: | $0 |
Repairs: | cosmetic (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $30,000 |
Max Offer: | $Not For Me |
Husband had a stroke and can no longer work. They need to sell this house that they have a relative living in so that they can make ends meet. A 400sf house is not something I’m interested in, so I birddogged this one. When asked what repairs it needed, she told me “just where the dog chewed on the porch board.”
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1500 sf house is a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $75,000 |
Amount Owed: | $50,000 |
Repairs: | cosmetic (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $85,000 |
Max Offer: | $55,000 minus repairs |
The seller had two houses as rentals and no longer wants to be a landlord. Both houses are vacant. This is the first one she told me about. I had just looked at a house down the street from this one a couple weeks ago. The area is really “hit or miss”, meaning that there are decent pockets and real dumps.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1400 sf house is a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $79,000 |
Amount Owed: | $60,000 |
Repairs: | cosmetic (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $100,000 |
Max Offer: | $65,000 minus repairs |
This is the second vacant rental from the same seller. Once again, this one is would need to be bought for about what is owed depending on the actual repairs.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1100 sf house is a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $55,000 |
Amount Owed: | $0 |
Repairs: | $10,000 |
After Repaired Value: | $90,000 |
Max Offer: | $48,500 |
Seller bought another house and is moving out of this one. They said it needs quite a bit of repairs, but were asking a reasonable price. I went to check it out.
The house was in decent shape just needed bathroom updates, flooring, paint, new water heater, drywall repair, new light fixtures and some other small things. I ended up offering $45,000 on the spot. The seller’s ex-husband, which was who met me there, said that that would not work. They wanted to walk away with $55,000. I told him the most I could do would be $47,000. He said he would talk it over with the ex-wife and let me know. I need to stick to my figure because the days on market in this neighborhood are high and this house is a little smaller than most.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1500 sf house is a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $80,000 |
Amount Owed: | $80,000 |
Repairs: | quite a few (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $100,000 |
Max Offer: | $65,000 minus repairs |
Seller recently married and wants to sell this house fast and to avoid any hassles with the house sitting on the market for months and having to do repairs. He had called another investor before me and he said the guy was extremely rude and really just an @ss. Competition is really not as bad as most of us believe it to be.
After some research, I determined that I would not be able to buy the house because too much is owed. Next.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1400 sf house is a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $47,000 |
Amount Owed: | $60,000 |
Repairs: | $20,000 |
After Repaired Value: | $90,000 |
Max Offer: | $38,500 |
Seller bought this rental last year and has been slowly fixing it up. He had not been there in a while and lost interest. The house has become a drain on him and he just wants to get rid of it. So much so, that he is willing to come to the table with money to get the deal done (being that he owes more than he is asking for it). This is still not enough and so I am passing this on to another investor that has more buyers.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3000 sf house is a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
Asking Price: | $200,000 |
Amount Owed: | $145,000 |
Repairs: | $cosmetic (unconfirmed) |
After Repaired Value: | $210,000 |
Max Offer: | $136,500 |
Seller wants to downsize and wants pretty much full market value. No thanks. There does not seem to be any motivation either, was just curious. That’s understandable. Next.
Hilarious update: Seller called me back this evening when I was taking our twins to dance class. I had her on blue tooth to my car and she was very hard to understand. She has an accent which is mostly why it was difficult to make out what she was saying. She went on and on, the kids were looking at me funny trying to understand themselves, and when I finally got a chance to say something, all I could say was, “could you please repeat that. I did not understand one word you just said.”
She repeated everything more slowly and clearly. Basically, after our conversation, she got on Zillow and looked up her house value. She was shocked. Zillow showed $140k. She mentioned that a Realtor had just told her to list it for $230k only 30 days ago. She wanted to know what had happened to her neighborhood for the values to drop that dramatically in that short period of time.
Now an unscrupulous investor would have taken this opportunity to really work a seller. Not cool. I informed her that Texas is a non-disclosure state. Which means that sales of homes are not made public. Zillow can only guess at values based on loan amounts and whatever other random silliness they incorporate. I am really surprised that Zillow does not put huge disclaimers on their site for people accessing it from non-disclosure states.
She was relieved to hear about this. It felt good that she had called to ask me about this versus the Realtor she had talked to. Guess who built better rapport. Still no deal, but got a good story out of it. 🙂
Summary
Leads picked up again this week. Was dealing with a cold all weekend (thank God, for Zicam). The cold kept me from flying twice this week, so I was a little irritable. Lots of stuff happened this week with a closing and getting ready for a vacation soon (AirVenture and Chicago). I’ve slowed down a little on marketing and will pick that back up again soon after vacation (don’t want to get a ton of calls that I might miss). Of course, some of the time was doing fun stuff like coming up with the shirts and choosing which books to recommend.
Plans For Next Week
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Next: Follow Along As I Open Up My House Flipping Business
Comments (35)
Of Course! Another great Update!!
Congrads on your closing!
Danny..
I have a question…Very important question for me.
How are you funding your deals?
Ok….I have another…
I have none, zeepo, nada experience on having a website. What would you recomend? How can I start having people opt in and stuff like that? How can I get educated on this subject or are there already made websites I can use?
Danny thanks again for being my mentor…yes you are my mentor!
Lupe,
Thank you very much for the compliments.
We use private lenders that we have built relationships with. I intend to write a post about how to do this and will be a doing a video for Shae at GoodFaithInvesting soon. Those will walk you through the process of finding and working with private lenders, at least how we did it.
Are you talking about a website for buying houses or for blogging?
Danny, Thanks for the post!
I’ve got a probate campaign going as well. Instead of sending a ”condolence” letter, I’m just sending a professional ”we buy houses” letter on company letter head.
My theory is that they can put 2and2 together and call if needed, and possibly less angry callers (maybe not though ha)
Brooks,
That’s a good idea. I’d like to see the response rate you get with that and compare to mine.
I love snooty sellers… they say stuff like “I don’t have to sell, you know.” Then why the heck did they call???
Mikey,
Too funny. I completely agree. I think they like the feeling of power and control over something. You could always inform them, “I wouldn’t want to buy that house any way. Haven’t you heard about what happened to the neighborhood?” 🙂 Ahhh. The take away. 🙂
Thanks for the quick response…
It would be a website for buying houses…and you have inspired me to start blogging soo it would be both.
Lupe M.
Lupe,
There are investor websites that you can buy that are already set up with the pages you would want and a form for sellers to fill out. I wouldn’t be able to recommend any because I build my own. Just Google “real estate investor websites”.
You can use WordPress.com for a blog. They will even host it for free on their domain.
Will definitely keep tabs on my statistics on the general letter to probate leads and will let you know how I go!
Great. Thanks, Brooks.
Danny,
Congrats on the process. That tree didn’t just bear fruit on its own. Its great to see the many many small steps you must take to see those good deals.
You have got to be getting busier and busier by now, what do you outsource?
Jason
Jason,
Haven’t heard from you in a while. Glad to see you here again.
Yes, getting pretty busy. I outsource my letter stuffing and mailing.
My wife does the books and works with our Realtor to sell the houses. She also has to deal with my endless blabbing. I’ve worked with my contractors for a long time and don’t need to check on them very often (especially with the light rehabs lately).
It’s all still very manageable as long as I don’t take on any big rehabs.
Danny,
Gotta tell you that this is my first time to your blog and I absolutely love it! I’m so glad that you stopped by my blog.
Otherwise, it may have taken me a lot longer to see your blog. You’re doing an amazing job with your blog and from what it seems apparently with your real estate too.
I love all of the details you provide with your deals right down to your marketing. Great work! I’m going to explore your site some more now.
Carey,
I’m glad you stopped by and found it interesting. Thanks for the compliments.
Another great post Danny! Congrats on the ‘Historic’ Flip, too! That is just awesome!
Sometimes I wonder how you have enough time in the day to do all of these things week after week. Just running your business and posting your stats on this blog each week would take long enough, but you go and add something all the time! You have your investing stories, the Toolbar, the Lead Generator, and now T-shirts!! What next?!? Are you going to give us flying lessons, too???
Keep up the great work!
Bill,
You’ve ruined the surprise! 🙂
When I get excited about something I can’t help but go all out. My wife says I’ve got a bad case of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). If that’s the case, at least I am using it to be productive. 🙂
Great comment. I got a kick out of it. Thanks.
Fantastic post, Danny! Congrats on the closing too….I can’t wait for your video on my blog. All of my subscribers should be checking out your blog over here for some great detailed tips and a huge dose of motivation to keep hustling. 🙂 I must say that I’ve only twice seen a wholesale deal (that wasn’t a short sale) net that kind of profit, so way to go!
Thanks, Shae.
I am looking forward to making the video. Going to get started on it as soon as we get back. I’ve already got some ideas that I’ve jotted down.
Not to seem braggy, but this is the second time we’ve done this. The first one was to an end buyer that fixed the place up and lived in it though, so it was sort of a wholesale/retail combo. All we did was cleaned all the junk out of it. I think that is kind of like what Steve Cook calls a wholetail… or was it prehab? We did that one while still working with our mentor so we had the split the profit (ouch… that was difficult!).
No braggy at all…the facts are the facts 🙂 Makes sense that you could pull that off with an end buyer but it’s still rather impressive. Gotta love it.
Danny,
If I buy I house at a deep discount and turn around and sell it for a 40% profit to someone that needs an FHA or VA loan. Do I have to wait 90 days before I can sell the house? I have been told that if I am making more than 20%, then I must wait 90 days before I can sell. I can’s seem to get a straight answer, not even from a loan agent.
Buy the way, this blog is awesome.
Bill
Bill,
People are all over the board about this rule. This is because of all of the different interpretations of the rule and the recent waiver. The different interpretations are also coming from the lenders and investors that decide on how they want things handled.
To sum up the basics of what will usually be encountered, this is what I discovered after talking it over with several knowledgeable Realtors and mortgage brokers:
You can sell within 90 days of purchase IF there is not more than a 20% difference between your resale price and your purchase price (including repair costs, closing costs, but not likely your holding costs (grey area)). You will have to show receipts and might need other proof of you improvements (pictures, scopes of work, etc).
If the difference is greater than 20%, you will have to wait until after 90 days. If you find a FHA buyer before the 90 days you can work around it by going ahead and signing the contract with a closing date after the 90 days is up and having the contract redrawn and signed after the 90 days is up and then close. Before 180 days, you will likely have to have two appraisals (you must pay for the second appraisal), but will not have to show receipts and justify the increase in sales price.
Hi Danny
Great job on the Blog its really helping me get my business started the right way
I’m interested in the Texas City deal because I’m investing in the Houston and surrounding areas.
Kay,
Glad to hear it. I will try to get the info to you on that one when I get back.
Danny
I would really appreciate the info!
Thank you for sharing this site. I really appreciate it. And i’m glad to hear it. Good job. Keep up the good work.
[…] The Eighteenth Week – The $50,000 Wholesale Deal […]
Hey Danny – trying to get up to date with your posts. For your max offer that has “$ less repairs” – what is your methodology for figuring this out? Do you use a min profit $ amount or % of the sale price. Also, I’m assuming your factoring buying, holding, & selling costs in this? If so, how many months do you factor in? Thanks
Hey, Justin.
I just take 65% of the After Repaired Value or ARV (what the house will sell for fixed up). This percentage below market value covers all of those costs. If the days on market for the area, as determined by the comps, is very high (9 months to a year), I would probably use 60%.
Thanks Danny. I think that’s a great point that you account for the additional time on market. I don’t think many people do that and the holding costs end up eating into their profit or worse – create a loss.
Regarding your 65% ARV – repairs, I’m quite impressed at how well it works for you, with holding costs and your “minimum” profit and all that worked in. It seems too simple to be true, compred to what almost every other flipping Blogger I see is doing, using more precise figures instead of the old % ARV. For purposes of building my business plan/private lending packet, would you recommend this approach? Or the more precise calculations to determine value of a deal? Or maybe instances of both?
Great blog and thanks for all the time taken. As a father of 3 with a JOB and a wife I. School and working part time…and I understand how few hours there are in each day for anything other than work and family. Thanks for including your family in your work…and thanks again for taking time for us.
Thanks a lot for the compliments and appreciation, Shane.
For your lending packet you could include the simple percentage and just tell them that it allows you to quickly analyze deals because you know the other costs involved are wrapped into it. My thoughts are that they are really mainly concerned with the Loan-To-Value percentage you are buying at anyway. You could explain out every little cost, but at the end of the day it will never be exact as there are too many variables. Describing it in this way helps to show them what they want to know and it is to the point. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
As long as you act as though you know what you are doing and bring awesome deals to them for funding, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Wife IN school. Can’t edit posts from my phone.
Danny, the most interesting takeaway I got from this post was the fact that your probate letters have had the second lowest response rate from all your marketing efforts, but you got a huge payday from one of them! Just proves why it’s so important for any business to have many spokes in their marketing wheel.
Question: So the Texas non-disclosure issue.Does this mean all of these comp sites, like Redfin, Trulia, etc., are just guessing on solds? And when you get 17 or 21 leads in a week, does your realtor really pull all those ARV’s for you? Thanks!
Sharon
Absolutely! (regarding the marketing)
For non-disclosure states, those sites are using algorithms to try and guesstimate the values. Not sure how they do it, but they are usually not accurate enough for me to use them (or any other investor interested in reducing their risk).
Most leads will be non deals anyway and many can be quickly analyzed by being familiar with the areas and values from the county appraisal district. I do it myself because I have developed a relationship to allow me to do that.
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