Rina's DAILY JOURNAL: Chapter One - The Beginning

The house is listed through our realtor. Jon and the contractor (our brother-in-law) went in to look at it again this week. Jon already knew how he wanted it done, and knew how much it would have cost for us to do it ourselves. But I convinced him that, instead of passing it up because he's too busy, just at least let someone else give a bid on it. He agreed, and it wasn't as bad as what he was expecting. And since it's our brother-in-law he'll do the job exactly as Jon wants him too.
You can pretty much get in to view a vacant REO at your convenience. Makes it nice.
What do you think of the price? I've started looking at those websites. Haven't found any comps yet. All say n/a.

usual morning schedule

Checked new listings, time on Dg site, answered PMs.

I e-mailed Gail (my realtor) asking for comps on the Missouri Ave house. She e-mailed me back a short time later some comps that she had gotten recently. She is the best!! Looks like $80K is good (could even go a little higher). Oh, she also suggested offering $51,000 instead of $55,000 since there have been no other offers; then $55,000 will look good when they counteroffer. I told her to go for it. We can always raise our offer. (I just love her.)

Painted most of the day at the foreclosure house. We had a crew of 7 there today. Guys working on the outside (windows, siding, shingles), us girls on the inside (painting, cleaning). We're really getting close to done now!

4 more days of school (work). Looking forward to the summer.
Less than 12 weeks 'til our daughter's wedding. (Yikes! Time flies.) Really looking forward to that!

2 days 'til Dean's conference call. Really looking forward to that, too!

Oh my goodness, has it really been 3 days?

Tues, Wed, Thurs

work, volunteer at school. Done tomorrow.
Lots of DG site! Conference call last night was great.
Excited about stuff we're doing in the Inner Circle.
Picked up vanity, cabinets, hardware etc. for foreclosure house. Kitchen cabinets were installed. Picked up all light fixtures today.
Worked on some wedding stuff.

Realtor e-mailed that the bank had counter-offered $62,000 on Missouri house, she countered back at $55,000. Might have that locked in by the weekend.

Do respite care all this weekend, so it should be quiet. Have to go to nephew's birthday party in a few minutes.
That's about it.

Dg site, checked new listings on e-mail. Saw 3 I want to look at.
E-mailed realtor. She's out of town, but is setting it up for Monday.
Also, disappointing news. She meant to write $72,000 instead of $62,000 that the bank countered back on the REO Missouri house. That house has been on the market for over a year! I'm not sure why the're being so stubborn! They haven't had any offers. Lots of lookers, but no offers. They rejected our offer of $55K. I'm not giving up on it because it would be a really great place to get. I guess I'll have to wait longer. I just don't want the market to pick up and end up in a bidding war. That COULD happen.

12:00-4:30pm work at school

5:00pm Started respite care weekend.

Talked with some friends about REI. Very motivational.

late: a little DG. Bed

Rina, I hope you get that property. Please let me know how it goes. I have so much to learn from you.
Will you put your offer up given that they originally meant $72,000.
How does a bidding war start, do you get involved in that or walk away?

Last year we looked at an REO that had gone down to $13,500. It had been on the market for like a year, and the realtor listing it had showed it over 100 times. It was like a joke in their office. The house was actually pretty big, and in a fairly decent neighborhood, nice yard. But they were pretty sure there had been a meth LAB in that house, and there had been animals kept upstairs. So the upstairs floor stunk from urine, and I have HEARD that you have to gut or tear down a house used to make meth. It was also condemned. Anyway, it was way too much work and expense for what you'd have gotten back out of the house as far as we were concerned. Well, I saw this same realtor at a closing we did this year and asked him whatever happened with that house. He said funny you should ask. Nobody wanted it for so long and then all of a sudden there were 2 interested parties and it ended up selling for $25,000 becausethey were offering against each other. I know that's a very small amount still, but it all depends on who's looking for what when that determines what a property will go for. Thus, the fickle world of Real Estate.

Anyway, I'm not sure what we're going to do on this house. I would really like to get it. I'm really picky about neighborhood, and this is a perfect location.

2:30pm OK, this has nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to put it in. There were 2 bears walking through our backyard just now. I went out on the deck and talked to them, but they just looked me. Young ones. I bet Mama was in the woods.

Just don't feed them! "A fed bear is a Dead bear", they are advertising that here, because the bears tend to come down looking for food.
I have not seen a bear yet!
Lucky you, that is a real treat!

I have a LOT of experience with bears. I'll tell you sometime.

I would love to hear your bear stories!
And I can tell you some Funnel Web, Huntsman spider stories as well as Australia's deadliest snake, the brown snake and the time I picked up a rattle snake here in Bisbee and caused my husband to cuss me out a lot!
Gooooosssshhhhhhhhh......
The things we do. God is soooo.... GOOOOD....

We'll have to swap adventure stories next time we talk!

Well, something happened today. Inside my mind, in my attitude.
I'm writing this for myself to remember a turning point. I believe TODAY I have come to the place where I know how it feels to be a TRUE investor. Up 'til now I have enjoyed it immensely, have bought lots of properties, but have viewed REI with some complacency.
Within the last couple of days, I have felt a push from several different sources and actually started to get mad. Today that feeling turned to purpose.

I called the advisory line with a bunch of questions. Dianne was absolutely great. We discussed a particular house I’m looking at and she gave me things to consider I hadn’t even THOUGHT about. I took her advice right away. And, I’ll tell you what, her enthusiasm got me going too.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, auction day at the courthouse. I’m not up on what properties are on the block right now, but I’m going to go just for the heck of it.

My realtor got back to town about 3:00 this morning. I had spoken with her over the weekend while she was out of town and set up appointments to look at 2 houses today. We met at the first one and I told her I would take it, full asking price ($39,900 It’s ready to go, $300mo cash flow). There is one other offer. We’ll see. Second house, asking price $29,900. I told her to offer $20K. Then we had lunch together while she wrote up the offers.
I asked Gail if she had ever worked with an investor. She said no, I was the only one that had bought so many in a short period of time. BUT, she’s been around the block, been in real estate for years and KNEW a whole lot ABOUT investors, I found out. Not only does she know a lot, she’s excited to get involved. She said, “Now remember, you’ve got to look at this from a different point of view now. If you’re going to be investing, you have to make a lot of low offers and not worry about the ones that get turned down.” I was floored. I said, “That means more work for you. You don’t mind writing 10 or 20 offers a week?” She said, “That’s my job.” We decided she’s going to just keep a stack of pre-filled forms with our information in her car so if I call we can “look” and just fill in the address and sign. We then discussed everything I’ve been learning on the site and in my PMI class. Lease options, assignments, owner-financing, wrap around mortgages, sandwiches leases, everything I could think of. Some she had heard of, some she had not. She said to learn what I could and fill her in. She’s willing to try anything. We wrote an escape clause in the second offer I did today. (First clause I’ve ever done). We’re going to try an and/or assigns on another offer this week just to see what the REO banks say. I’ve got a stack of listings at home about and inch thick. I’m going to go through and pick the 10 best properties and she will write up lowball offers for each. We’ll submit them all by Thursday and see what happens.
Up ‘til now, she hasn’t asked for exclusive buyer’s rep status from me, just per house. I told her today she’s my gal. I haven’t called anyone else since I met her in November anyway. She’s been so terrific.

I put a call in to my bank about financing. I asked Nate for his extensive list of hard money lenders. I called a relative about moving their savings into an “investing account”. me.

SOOOOO to sum up my day, it wasn’t all that exciting as far as events, but it is a milestone in my REI life.

Thanks for letting me share it with you.

Rina

I am so impressed and this just means that I can pick your brain even more than I have been. You are really getting it together and I want to follow in your steps!
I hope I can find a RE agent as great as yours!
I am going to approach one I met very briefly at a BBQ a few weeks ago and I told him I would call to speak with him but I did not give him a clue as to why. I was still too new to this and thought it might be a bad approach to tell him that I was 'attempting' to become a REI.

So if I tell this guy and he agrees to work with me, I will be asking you a lot of question as well as asking him!

I had such a HUGE day yesterday, I worked from 6am through to 4pm on reading the book, posts and researching the local area's growth potential. Seems like I made no progress but I know I learnt a lot and I am going to have a huge day today. I did not even get to study my other courses that I am taking and that is bad, but I will get to it.

hi am new to this and i will like to know what kinds of properties should i focus on first

Sounds like I'll be picking your brain soon, and yes I do feel blessed to have found Gail.

Richboy,
Congratulations on getting started! If you haven't already, please read through this forum> http://www.deangraziosi.com/node/3355
There's so much info throughout these forums, and where you start on choosing properties is really your preference. I would suggest reading through all the different conversations that have already been had on the subject.

Best wishes,

Rina

can you please tell me how to navigate to my journal, so i can write in it, i know that sounds rediculous , but i honestly don't know how? SULLY.

Good resources for comps . . .

Have you tried getting comps for the title company you do business with?

My friend from CA said this is how she gets her comps. Because LV is starting to heat up again and Title Co's are ssssooooo busy with the increased sales/purchase activities, I've had to go to zillow and discount it by 10%.

Do you take zillow at par?

You don't know how confused I've been on comps! lol
I have had a heck of a time getting them, because there is just not much selling here. In the PMI course, they say to get comps from the same or same type of neighborhood. That is impossible when NOTHING is selling, so I've made my wild adjustments on what HAS sold to get my comps. ( Before that, I've just always gone with my gut.)

Now, Charpie. I wasn't sure if you were giving me advice or asking for it in the previous post. I'm guessing "Have you tried getting comps for the title company you do business with?" was supposed to say "from"? I hope. Because that's a really good idea.

As far as zillow, it doesn't seem to be very accurate for my area, and when I try to find comps for here, it always says n/a. The nearest comps are in the neighboring city, neighboring state and are NOT comparable to here.

Thanks for peeking in. Talk to you soon.

Rina

Go to the Forums, then Investing Journals and click on yours. I was wondering why you haven't been posting. lol

Also, here's the link. http://deangraziosi.com/node/4287

Rina

Good catch, girl friend. You are right, I mean from not for. You want the comps from the title co. not for them. Silly me, it was one of those times when I was rushing to get off the post done quickly because I have to get to my PT.

I am so inspired by your post. Thanks for sharing. It gives us newbies something to shoot for. Please keep 'em comin'.

cheers,

I am inspired by everyone here. I can't believe the phenominal growth I've experienced in my own REI life over the past month thanks to all the fellow posters on this site! Not to mention gaining some really good friends.

It's really exciting to watch each other grow!

Rina

Just popping in to say Hi. I've been SO busy REIing the last few days I've hardly been home! I miss you guys (Deb, Anita, D, Sully, Charpie, Elena, Lilie, Lloyd, and everyone) I only have enough time to read the new posts (early a.m. and late p.m.). I'll fill in my news this weekend.
WOW, there are a lot of new people posting in the forums! And so much progress for everybody!

Keep on keepin' on. It's exciting!

Rina

can't wait to hear.

lol... Hey guys I called Rina yesterday and she was signing a purchase agreement on the trunk of her call with her realtor.

Now thats what I wanna be when I grow up - RINA THEE REI MILLIONAIRE...you go RINA!

way to go for it Rina!

I am also so impressed. I know you got a bug now and it is sure firing you up girl!
I can't wait to hear how things are going and what new deals you have made.
Please stay in touch though. I need you!

Well, over the past few days I have looked at 7 houses and made offers on 3, (am planning to make 2 more tomorrow). 2 of my offers were on REOs, and one listed for an owner. One REO that was listed at $39,900 I was really hoping to get. I offered $40,000 cash, no contingencies. I really expected to hear back that it was ours! Another offer was accepted, so I’m assuming someone else gave much above the asking price. The other REO was listed at only $29,900 but wasn’t in a prime location so I thought I’d try lowballing at $20,000 just to do it. Another offer was accepted the same day. Now, just these two sales make me feel that the market is starting to pick up in my area. During the last several months they probably would have been mine, hands down.
I had a very interesting experience with the owner of the 3rd house! My daughter and I (getting her interested!) went with my realtor, Gail, to look at 3 houses on Wednesday. The second one I was very interested in. 3/1 in a very nice location, beautiful yard. The owner happened to be there, so as we walked through the house I had a nice conversation with him. Then I was brave (Anita, I was very brave, for me! ) and started to ask him questions about the house and his history with it, and also if he would consider doing owner financing. He had owned the house for 30 years, renting it out for the past 23. No mortgage. He also had had other rental property in the past and had done a land contract with a fellow. The other fellow had gone bankrupt and in the process, because of the wording in the land contract, a judge decided that the house had to be sold to pay off creditors and this gentleman (the man I was talking to) ended up losing about $23,000 because he wasn’t able to get the house back. I felt bad for him but still asked if he would be willing to finance at least the down payment on this one. He said he would. And sounded sure of it by the time we left. (Gail had gone downstairs with my daughter so as not to be a part of our conversation. ) I got his phone number and said his agent should be hearing from mine soon. I called a friend who said to try doing a lease option, just to try it. I talked to Gail. She was hesitant and then after talking to the listing agent she found that they wanted no part of making the lease option offer so this is what I did.
He was asking $79,900. I offered $75,000, asking for 30% owner financing with a closing date of his choice. Gail called me with the counter-offer. The $75K was good, but he wouldn’t do ANY owner financing. He told his agent he was afraid to. Well, I don’t know if I had read him wrong, but I was kind of upset. So we counter-offered back. I put $70,000 (note this is $5,000 less than my previous offer) with closing date 60 days out, so I could make sure to find financing. Gail called me back shortly after and said “Oooh, he’s ****ed!” He had countered back FULL price, buyer needed approval letter, AND closing date of June 30th. Well, I felt a “little“ shaken, but this was quite a learning experience. I’ll be signing the rejection tomorrow. Yikes.
Anyway, that’s 0 for 3. The other 3 I looked at with the realtor I wouldn’t want, so no offer. The 7th was the FSBO I looked at previously. I talked to the lady about a lease option. They REALLY don’t want to do that, and take the chance of having to sell again in the future. BUT, they are willing to do a significant amount of owner-financing. I’ll be calling her back tomorrow.
I went to see my accountant yesterday, got my EIN and opened a business checking at the bank. I am now official. Applied for a business credit card and talked to the business banker again about a loan for more rental properties. He said since we already had established a good history of rentals and could show the cash flow on our tax returns I wouldn’t need to give them any kind of business plan, and as soon as I had any properties locked up to just give them a call and he’s sure they can work with me.
Oh, I forgot, there was another FSBO I’m pretty excited about that I looked at on Tuesday. This is a retiring investor/businessman because of health wanting to sell off some property. He’s got a half a block of it for sale, which includes a 2bdrm/1bath with sauna, hot tub, 7 fenced lots, 2 garages. The rest of the block is zoned industrial, fenced in, with 6 industrial garages set up to be workshops or storage facilities. This guy has a TON of stuff in there, and would need some time to get rid of everything. I asked him, too, about owner-financing. He is asking $200K for the whole shebang and he will finance $50K, which means NMD! (If he follows through, that is. Little nervous on that subject now.) Anyway, I have to think of the best thing to do. It seems like a really good deal. Any thoughts on the industrial part? I know I could rent the house out for about $850 month. The garages probably $300-$400each, depending on the facilities, but I’m not sure what’s involved with industrial. I also could purchase JUST the house & 7 lots for $119K or best offer. I guess I’d better decide soon.
Looking at another place tomorrow.
Have been working this week also on trim at the foreclosure house and running errands for Jon.
And, yes, Anita called me yesterday while I was signing a purchase agreement on the trunk of my car. That was funny.
Well, I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but I’d say this is long enough. Wedding plans are going well, too, by the way. Getting anxious about that.

Hi to all, and good job on all your work and support of each other. (and ME )

Luv ya,
Rina

Thank you guys for sharing your daily journal. Iam so inspired to see what you do to run your investment business. Iam new to this but set my goals to become a SUCCESSFUL REAL ESTATE INVESTOR.

Icant wait to kick my job so that I could do this fulltime. I believe when I do this fulltime, I will get more accomplished rather than wasting time on a job that will not get me to achieving my goals and dreams in life.

Iam just keeping my job right now because it is paying my bills but once I repalce it with income from my properties, I will just gladly kick it.

You'll do it!

Rina

The past few weeks we've been working our tails off on the sheriff's sale house. We've had a crew working with us (HATE paying out that money!). It's FINALLY ready to rent out! And I might not need to advertise. A friend of the neighbor stopped in on Sunday and said he definitely wants it (for $850mo), but he needed to talk to his wife. I haven't heard back yet, so I'll probably call him tomorrow and start an ad on Thursday.

I'm going to have to write a Chapter 2 to my original Sheriff's sale story. lol There's that much more to it.

I'm waiting for the final purchase agreement to be signed by Fanniemae on the Brule house. I'm really excited about that one. Will be my first purchase under the LLC, Buyers Match. Plan to flip as soon as possible.

Met with the RE attorney yesterday. I don't know if they are the best ones for me. He wasn't all that familiar with what I am wanting to do.

I'm meeting with the VP/Business Banker this morning at our local bank to get the commitment letter they've written up.

As always, check new listings EVERY morning. Drive by ALL possibilities. I've learned to keep my eyes open more, too, for signs of vacant/neglected houses whenever I'm out and about. I've noticed a lot of people don't mow their grass often enough! lol

Moving ahead, slowly but surely.

Rina