TFC Chronicles (Chapter 2)

Karen,

you're right... mine was also tax liens/deeds...it was back in October

wish I had known you then, we could have partnered up and bought it... I'll look into it...I'll PM you.

Where in Texas? I lived there for 8-9 yrs... my sisters live over there so I go about once a year...

Hi Bill

valerie

That would have been good.

Abilene. My daughter and I went. The sale was on a Tues after a nat'l holiday on Monday. So in order to do our due diligence at the courthouse we had to fly in to DFW on Thurs, drive to Abilene and on Fri do the DD. Then we had to stay for three days until the sale. It was not a profitable trip. Three of the props we were interested in got paid at the last minute and another couple were bid over what we decided we would spend.

But we found some awesome restaurants and saw a lot of movies.

Bil Karen and Valerie don't care who's house they make a mess in.

Karen,

I'm sure we'll get to do something about it in the near future... we're only a hop away from each other.
You have to tell me more about the tax liens/deeds... did you watch the video?

with all those good restaurants, movies, and time spent with your daughter, who cares about the profitable part of it

I thought Jim said he was out with his wife celebrating!!?? he just can't stay away...he might miss something... like me missing all the exciting threads! anyway... I thought we were at Bill's??

valerie

I stopped by to see if Bill was home and who do I see....Karen and Valerie. Which is ok they are cuter than Bill

looking at local FSBOs today. I have made arrangements to go look at 4-5 FSBOs that were different publications. Always hopeful that I can talk with an owner who is willing to enter into a L/O. One says they are, but a lot of times other people talk the owner out of it because THEY don't understand it. Of course, that's just part of real estate. Just keep your focus and positive things will occur no matter how many stupid people you have to deal with on a daily basis.

Either the quality of these homes I saw today were terrible or the pricing was off the charts. I can't believe that I have looked at 16 homes this month and they are not within range of an offer. Maybe it is just Spring fever and people are hoping people just pay the asking price, but come on! I did the comps for a beautiful 3/2/2 and it showed FMV at $140K but she was asking $180K. A true disconnect. Asked why and she said, "it's what I need". Tried to educate her that FMV doesn't care about her need but I know it fell on deaf ears.

I wish we had those kinds of numbers here!

on this website to see if there are any L/O I can get from Realtors here who might have an expired listing coming up or a client that just needs to get rid of their property.

Also, there might be some RE investors here who have started their L/O but have run into trouble or have decided that L/Os aren't for them.

The link is: http://www.deangraziosi.com/classifieds/properties-wanted/73038/looking-...

LOL! I see it here also! Sellers wanting to pay off cars, credit cards, student loans, etc on top of an already over leveraged home. You can't help but think "man did you bump your dang head getting out of bed this morning"! lol I guess they are entitled to their right to wish for a miracle! next time think I'll just say 'sure and would you like fries with that'!

Bill,

I went to look at some houses in the area today... the cheapest I saw was a 2BD/1BA, needs updating throughout...asking price $495,000!(reduced from $525,000)
I was thinking to myself: what are these people thinking??!! ... must be spring fever!

valerie

of properties like that and I apologize to them for giving them a lower offer but explain to them in order for me to buy your property,try to help them with their situation and make money with it I can't pay more than my offer. Some people get mad others realize I'm really trying to help. If it's not a short sale situation then I just explain to them this is the real value of the property if necessary I bring comps to show them. I actually have 2 clients that are thinking about my offers, which could go either way. I told them the offer was good for 5 days the deadline is Thursday we shall see. Good luck

are you still coming to Florida in the next couple of months? Let me know I would love to hook up with you.

Today I viewed a home that was for sale by owner, but when I got there, he told me it was own by his REI company. To me, that's never a problem because I always feel they may want to make a deal too.

Anyway, I got to the house, a house in which he bought it in 2009 from a bank at 85K and transferred it to his corporation for 85K in 2010. He was asking 97K. The first thing I notice is a pair of train tracks next to his house on top of a little incline of the yard on the side. I also notice that the drainage is towards the house in the backyard that has a small creek at the back perimeter. He tries to tell me that you can hardly hear the train and the yard water never gets bad. However, as I was there a train went through and it was REAL bad. I stepped in the yard and my shoes sunk.

I went inside and noticed he had tried to do repairs. He attempted to turn a half bath into a full bath by bumping out into the garage. Nice thought but poor execution. You could barely get into the shower as he placed in the room incorrectly and there was only 14 inches to squeeze into it. The tile had separated from the foundation because of the water from backyard seeping through the foundation. The upstairs was fine, though small, and it did have relatively new carpet throughout. The bedrooms were too small and the full bath was okay. All the appliances stayed with the house.

I asked him how much he was asking and he said 97k but he could work with me. I asked him what his thoughts were to L/O the home and he said $950/mo plus a big down payment. I asked him about owner financing and he said the sale price would go up to $106K and he needed a $10K downstroke.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a clue how to market the home, how to rehab the home, or how to work with a buyer. No on in their right mind would pay over $675-$750 for the home. No one would pay more than $85K for the home either on a good day. The problem is that he bought it wrong and can't accept his fate that he need to cut bait and move on. That concept is alien to him, I could see it in his eyes.

He is working on the greater fool theory whereby he is hoping somebody more foolish than him will buy it. It could happen but I think not.
I told him I would think about it and email him with my thoughts. At this time, the only thing that I think I would do is to buy it from him at $65K with $0 down at 4.00% interest only with a 5 year balloon.

He won't do it, but he will probably keep my numbers and call me in September as we are going into winter again and he still owns the property. It'll cost him another $10K to wait that long with me.

So the moral of the story is to buy right because it is the single most important thing you can do to insure yourself of a profit.

Bill that is right I always make my profit when I buy at the auction. I never worry about it when selling the finished property, because I knew what it would be when I bought it.

As most of you know, I spend a great deal of time attempting to put sandwich L/Os together. It is always a mixed bag; some of them work and some of them don't. Anyway, I spent 2 hours with a couple on Friday of last week explaining to them how we would do a L/O with them (They have been transferred and need to do something by 4/30) Anyway, they are upside down but not by much. When I left them, we agreed that I would hear something from them by today. Well, I did and it completely caught me off guard. The husband said that they really enjoyed my presentation and hadn't ever meet someone that knew so much about real estate but......the concept of doing a sandwich L/O seems too new to him and he didn't like the fact that I knew all the answers to his questions. That's right; I got points taken off for knowing all the answers. So, I wished him the best of luck and told him to email me if circumstances change. Go figure!!

See even experienced investors can't figure out everything.

Sometimes you are just too smart for your own good!

I had a client refuse my trees because they were too big even though they told us the size to install so I cna understand your frustration. If we know the answers we are no good and if we don't know then we shouldn't be in business. Hopefully they will come to their senses and call you back.

I am personally making plans to remove myself from the day to day operations of TrustPoint effective at the end of March. I still have a couple more projects that I would like to complete (I put a classified ad on DG regarding these) and besides shepherding those, I hope to remove myself to pursue other activities for the short term. I expect a 6 to 12 month absence from my duties and plan to place the daily operations on autopilot (Is that even possible??). However, I still plan on completing some other projects that were started under my direction and are half done. So I am really still tethered a little bit.

I have a number of other projects that I am actively contemplating and will be giving my full attention to these ideas. Sometimes you deal with so much stupidity that you just need a break. I am at that point. Of course, it is always possible that I am the problem. Either way, I need a break.

Maybe then you will have time to work on getting a diamond for yourself!

Hey Bill,

Just saying hello and playing catch up a bit. Hoping the world has been treating you amazing!

God Bless,
Jen

Well Bill your my last stop so I guess I can get away from this stupid box now talk to you later.

Bill just stopped to say HI, so HI talk to you later.

Just cking in to see if there are any new words of wisdom but all I am seeing is Jim.

After being the driving force behind TrustPoint Financial Corp. for over 10 years, I have made a monumental decision to follow my dreams and become an investor that is going to broaden their scope and be involved with real estate investing at a national level. I have the contacts, experience and knowledge to become a MajorWave of real estate investing. Being on my own after 10 years isn't scary; it's exhilarating! I need to take a couple of weeks to regroup with my new style of investing but I hope to have everything ready soon.

As a little teaser: My focus is going to be the acquisition of homes via my lease/option and subject "to" methods and my goal is to have (or had) control of 500 homes by by 66th birthday (105 months to go!) This is going to be accomplished with new websites, new methods, new joint partners, new friends, new birddogs, new incentives, new energy and a new vision toward the future.

You have to start you future sometime and I am claiming today for my new beginning.

Noticed you have your diamond! Congrats! Will you be starting a new thread of posts or a journal? Best of luck!

Congrats on a number of fronts! First of all, your diamond. About time you got a deal (over 10 years!)!

I see you also changed your main name.

Good luck on your new endeavors. I know you will have much success.

Karen

Bill,

Congratulations! Best wishes to you on becoming a full time REI!

Cheryl & Dave

Congrats and best wishes !!

Thank you for your post and all your wisdom that you have shared with us.