Here is what happened during the Thirty Third week of documenting our flipping houses business on this blog. 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:
Audi House Wholesale Closed
The Audi house has been sold ‘As-Is’ and I couldn’t be happier. Less work for me and some quick cash in our pocket. My intentions were to rehab and sell this house, but just got too busy and I just couldn’t resist when the first investor to see it wanted it. 🙂
The before AND after (same pictures because we didn’t work on it) are also posted.
See the post wholesale flip numbers here.
Rehabs Going Well
The rehabs at the Honk Your Horn house, the Perp house and the Flatulent house are going well. The Flatulent house and Honk Your Horn house are almost complete. We should be putting in flooring, cleaning and hopefully staging both this next week. The Perp house is complete and up for sale with owner financing. Should be able to post the after rehab pictures for that one this coming week.
More Mailings Coming Soon
Didn’t have much time to put together any new mailings but fully intend to this coming week. The letters for the probate leads we got last week should be going out this week as well. We need to generate more leads. That’s all it really takes.
Almost Had a Serious Collision
Went to fly a couple of really cool older airplanes yesterday at a grass airstrip south of town. Just as I was a couple minutes from the field I noticed a giant buck running out of a field toward the road. He was running FAST!
I was doing about 55 or 60 and it seemed as though he was keeping up (sure it wasn’t but it looked that way as it happened so fast). My instinct was to hit the breaks, but as I quickly mashed them I realized that I would probably beat the dear to our fateful intersection and so I returned to the gas. As I passed I saw him leap up and over the back end of my car. I watched him fall behind my car and slide on his hind end a little as he lost his footing when he landed from his, what appeared to be, 20 ft leap into the air. He didn’t even wait a millisecond to transition from the slide back in to a 50+ MPH run. We were both very lucky not to have collided.
Caught Up On Follow Ups
Spent some time this week calling the follow ups reminders that I had due.
Anyway, I was calling follow ups and I had a lot. It’d been a while since I did because we’ve been so busy. For some of them, I was checking the county appraisal website first to see if a new deed had been recorded, signaling that they had sold the property. One of the ones I was really interested in had shown a transaction and I immediately became disappointed. Not as much as I did after I then found out that they just painted the place and have it under contract after 6 days on the market. Darn.
This goes to show why it is so important to use the follow up system and constantly be following up. You’d better believe that that put me back in the follow up mode.
Marketing
Total Motivated Seller Leads This Week: 12
| Lead Source | Leads This Week | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bandit Signs | 0 | Been over a month since some went up. |
| Yellow Pages | 1 | For a picture of my ad, visit the ‘The First Week’ post. |
| Buying Website | 11 | For a link to my site, visit the ‘The First Week’ post. |
| Drive For Dollars | 0 | Been a while. |
| Wholesale Deals | 0 | Made Offer |
| Absentee Owner Mailing | 0 | Have not mailed in a while. |
| Probate | 0 | Have not mailed for several weeks. |
| Craigslist | 0 | Just a basic ad saying we buy houses. |
| Referral | 0 | Word of mouth. FREE |
Total Leads To Date [475] Deals Under Contract To Date [11]
‘to date’ means from when I started keeping track of this information on this blog (late March 2011) to the present.
This is the total number of leads for each source and the number of deals put under contract from each lead source.
| Lead Source | Total Leads To Date | Â Â Put Under Contract |
|---|---|---|
| Buying Website: | 264 | 7 |
| Bandit Signs: | 64 | 2 |
| Yellow Pages Ad: | 53 | |
| Absentee Owners: | 29 | 1 |
| Driving For Dollars: | 18 | |
| Probate Letters: | 11 | 1 |
| Wholesalers: | 12 | |
| REO Realtors: | 7 | |
| Referrals: | 9 | |
| Realtors: | 3 | |
| Craigslist: | 2 | |
| MLS Search: | 2 | |
| For Sale By Owner: | 1 |
Leads Analyzed
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1200 sf house in a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $70,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $0 |
| Repairs: | Central Air & Cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $80,000 |
| Max Offer: | $50,000 – repairs |
Bought this HUD house a year ago and now wants to sell. He doesn’t seem to be interested in getting much less than what it is worth though. The problem with the house is that it does not have central air conditioning AND the pitch of the roof is such that it would be impossible to run duct work through the attic. It would still sell without the central air, just at a lower price.
I made him a ball park offer. We will see where it goes. Will follow up as there may be more to the story than I am being told.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1400 sf house in a bad neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $70,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $62,000 |
| Repairs: | Cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $70,000 |
| Max Offer: | $45,000 – repairs |
Homeowner was having trouble keeping up with his house payments and then got laid off today. Bad situation. He owes too much and the house is in a bad neighborhood with a lot of houses for sale. A lot of foreclosures for sale. I’m afraid I cannot help.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3300 sf house in a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $180,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $180,000 |
| Repairs: | Cosmetics and Plumbing (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $180,000 |
| Max Offer: | $120 – repairs |
Homeowner lost his job at the beginning of the year. He ended up having to take a lower paying job and now cannot afford the house they were living in. He mentioned low flow to several fixtures in the house and is not sure what is causing it.
They owe what it is worth but wanted an offer from me anyway. So, I made them a ballpark offer based on my usual calculation.
He didn’t immediately get angry so that was a good sign. He said he would have to talk it over with his wife. I will follow up with this one.
Homeowner wants to sell a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1200 sf condo in a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | Make An Offer |
| Amount Owed: | $40,000 |
| Repairs: | Cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $65,000 |
| Max Offer: | $35,000 – repairs |
Seller is moving in with his son and wants to be rid of this condo. Probably more to the story, but this is all I got.
The Days on Market were horrendous for the complex and so I made my ARV conservative and increased my percentage of ARV for the Max offer.
My offer would be lower than what is owed so I birddogged this lead.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 2400 sf house in a good neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $150,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $150,000 |
| Repairs: | none (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $135,000 |
| Max Offer: | $88,000 – repairs |
Seller relocating and wants to sell his house fast. He owes more than it is worth now due to foreclosures and short sales in the area selling for below value. This is a tough position for a lot of people. Wish I could help, but I cannot.
Owner wants to sell five one-bedroom apartments with a restaurant in front.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $120,000 |
| Amount Owed: | Nothing |
| Repairs: | Everything (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | Who Knows |
| Max Offer: | FREE |
Owner’s health has diminished and she needs to sell this property because the city is going to tear it down. The picture of it on Google maps was enough for me to try and end the conversation early. WOW. Horrible and I can see why the city wants it gone. The place is vacant and the seller had plenty of time to comply with the city but has not and it will now be the new owner’s problem. Not an impossible task, but a very time consuming one. I may have had some interest but not anywhere near the price she is expecting.
Homeowner wants to sell a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1500 sf house pretty far outside of town.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | Make An Offer |
| Amount Owed: | Don’t Know |
| Repairs: | Flooring, Appliances, Plumbing (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $100,000 |
| Max Offer: | $65,000 – repairs |
Seller cannot afford to keep up with the repairs required at the house. This is over an hour from where I live and is in a rather junky area. Not interested. Next.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1300 sf house in a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $70,000 ($65k is least will take) |
| Amount Owed: | $65,000 |
| Repairs: | Lots of Cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $85,000 |
| Max Offer: | $55,000 – repairs |
Seller’s niece moved out unexpectedly and did not give them time to put the house on the market to sell. She cannot afford the payment for this house and the house she lives in. She is not behind on payments and is not interested in a short sale at the moment.
Homeowner wants to sell a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 400 sf house in a bad neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $15,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $? |
| Repairs: | Cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $25,000 |
| Max Offer: | $5,000 – repairs |
Seller is pregnant and needs a bigger house. This house is tiny and located near a huge group of train tracks and a highway. The lot is tiny as well. Birddogged it.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1700 sf house in a decent neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $115,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $101,000 |
| Repairs: | None (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $115,000 |
| Max Offer: | $75,000 – repairs |
Owner wants to move out of town and needs to sell this house first. It is currently listed with a Realtor at the listing price. There is just too much owed for me to make this work. Better deals are out there. Next.
Homeowner wants to sell a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1400 sf house outside of town.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $35,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $0 |
| Repairs: | a lot (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | not sure |
| Max Offer: | not sure |
This lead is for a house in my Dad’s area so I just passed it on to him. Too far for me and I just like to be able to give back a little.
Homeowner wants to sell a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 800 sf house in a so-so neighborhood.
Here are the numbers:
| Asking Price: | $55,000 |
| Amount Owed: | $45,000 |
| Repairs: | Cosmetics (unconfirmed) |
| After Repaired Value: | $55,000 |
| Max Offer: | $30,000 – repairs |
Disabled seller cannot afford to keep up the house (repairs and payments). Too much is owed for me but I birddogged it to see if someone else could make a deal out of it. Next.
Summary
I’m glad that the rehabs are progressing and near completion. That will free up a lot of my time to focus more on marketing and leads. The payout on the wholesale deal was great for us this week. The front yard stink house is also being wholesaled and I will give all the details next week. I will be doing more following up this week and trying hard to finish up the rehabs, including the touch ups at our old house so that we can put it on the market.
Plans For Next Week
Please ReTweet and Like this post because it’s the nice thing to do and I truly appreciate it.
-Danny
Awesome quote this week: I really like this one.
Thank you for following along with us on our adventures in flipping houses. We hope you are enjoying it and that it is helping you to learn how to flip houses or improve your house flipping business, whatever the case may be.
Next: Follow Along As I Open Up My House Flipping Business
Comments (15)
Thank you for the great information. You mentioned that one of the houses you have for sale will be offered with owner financing. How are you providing owner financing? Do you make adjustments in holding costs based on the time of the year. More specifically, you are close to putting a few houses on the market in the middle of November. Is this a concern for you?
We provide owner financing by creating a note and deed of trust when we sell the house. When we have an underlying loan with a private lender, it has to be set up in such a way as to allow wrapping it (we would then be creating a wrap-around note) and should be set up to be amortizing instead of interest only. In that case we usually make it amortize fully in 8 years or less. When we sell, the new buyer’s note is set to amortize fully over 20 or 30 years (usually 30). They pay us and we pay our lender. After our note is paid off, the payments become nice and easy passive income.
Houses sell all year. It does get slower around the holidays so that the days on market get higher which results in higher holding costs, but we are not concerned about it. Houses still sell.
Danny,
I am interested in how you sell with owner financing.
What are the tax ramifications of selling a house and financing it yourself?
Say you spent $60k on ahouse and sellit for $100k. Do you owe taxes on that $40k right now? Or doyou qualify for installment sale treatment and pay the taxes as you collect the money?
If the buyer defaults do you have to foreclose? What does that cost?
How much do you try to get as a down payment when doing your own financing?
Don,
It’s is treated as an installment sale and you pay as you collect the money. You’ll want to talk to a CPA of course.
Yes, if they default, you have to foreclose. The cost varies and the time to foreclosure varies from state to state.
We typically try to get 3-5k as a down payment and work very hard to find and a good buyer. Some people will sell to the first person with the down payment and that is not a good way to go. Foreclosures can get expensive and take a very long time. It’s a novel idea, but we actually try to sell to someone that can actually afford the house.
It looks like a lot of the leads you get are for underwater houses. Do you generally not pursue short sales?
No I don’t. I used to but it was taking too long and a little bit more work than I wanted to do. In my opinion, spending the time to find the low hanging fruit is more effective. If I’m making an offer, I want to be confident that they are in a position where they can accept it and not have to wait for approval from a lender.
Yeah, the short sale process seems to be like planting seeds. You make an offer, get a negotiator to deal with the details, and then hopefully sometime months later you get the deal. We actually have three accepted short sale offers right now, but we’re waiting on bank approval. If any of them come through, they’ll be good deals for this area.
Glad to hear you are having success with it. My record is 50/50 but that is only because I haven’t done many and most of those were from 3 years ago or earlier.
Wholesale question for you danny. I am trying to find deals on my own but also trying to be in the loop to purchase wholesale deals in my area for rehab. There are several websites and networking groups that I have joined that could lead to some potential deals. I have also been approached by several wholesalers that want me to sign agreements with them (nondisclosure of the deal, payment, etc.). I understand the need to get those things agreed to but I am hesitant to sign what I have seen. They are very vague and IMO could be used to ask for a fee on deals that I find from other sources. Just wondering what your experience has been in this area. Thanks.
I’ve never signed anything like that. I guess they are afraid of an investor going being their back. There are plenty of wholesalers and deals out there to worry about signing something that could be used to cause problems for you. If the agreement is not for a single specific deal and/or is vague and confusing, don’t sign it. Tell them they will just have to trust you. You know investors that steal deals are stupid because they will ruin their name and lose out on a lot of other deals.
OMFG I made it through your blog yay! I’m uber motivated now. Working on my lender packet. I have an acquaintance with money to invest, but he’s gun shy about real estate. I’m trying to sway him. Wish me luck!
Good Luck!
If that doesn’t work out, don’t give up. Try looking for private lenders that are already lending to investors. Must easier to convince.
I have been looking for private lenders without much success. It seems that most recent investment houses I have found have been financed by local banks. But these local banks do not want to be involved in flips and they require 20% investment (based on actual cost – not value). I already use many of these for rentals.
I need to find a way to lookup houses that were actually flipped. I have been using our tax assessor’s site which is about 6 month out of date. I do not have access to the MLS. My agent just retired and I need to build a new relationship with another agent.
I have been recommended an agent who is a top seller in the area. I was planning to talk to her about selling the house I am currently working on. Do you use the same agent for offers (if you need an agent)?
I buy about 4-6 houses a year, but I make a lot of offers. I am not sure if a great selling agent would want to be bothered with all these offers. I am planning to contact one today.
A good agent should be able to find you a hefty list of recently sold investment properties so that you can then look and see if the investor received financing from a private lender.
I typically have the listing agent write up any offers I make on listed properties (which isn’t much anymore). That is not easy to do when you are making a lot of offers. So, I would find one that is hungry and willing to put in all of those offers knowing that only a small percentage will be accepted. Fill out a contract with all the information that always stays the same and sign it. Then, they can fill in the details for each individual offer and submit without all of the usual coordination required. Of course, you would only want to do this if you trust them.
I hgad been working with a single agent to make all my offers. So far, I have only bought listed properties. I did give him a ‘blank’ signed contract and he did nto mind making a lot of offers. But he has now left the business.
I am going to try to develop my own lead so I doubt I will use an agent that much for buying. I hate to bug someone for a lot of MLS data and then never buy through them.
Thanks for you help.