Just had to send another “thank you” for all the assistance I’ve gotten from this site. I have a purchase contract and a sell contract signed and escrow was opened today on another deal.
Had a friend tell me about a property that was WAY behind on taxes, and the seller would carry a note. Well, half of what he told me was true! It was way back on taxes, yet the seller wanted cash. This was the worse possible time ever to fall into something like this, since I hadn’t even made the first payments on my last two !
I spoke with the seller; she wanted appraised value of 40k. Actual value “as is” is about 30k, I offered 20k. She called back a couple weeks later said she would take the 20k, and she would pay back taxes out of that. I told her I would see if I could land the money, doubtful, due to recent deals.
I talked to my real estate agent/hard money lender who suggested we do a real for a 50/50 split of profits. What the heck, I figured, since I didn’t have time to do anything else with it.
He looked at the property last Thursday evening; asked to use the key over lunch on Friday; had a signed offer of 25k all cash about two or three hours later. So, that left the ball in my field–to negotiate down as far as possible to maximize the return.
I talked with seller Friday night, got verbal acceptance of 15k. With the help of , I pencil whipped a contract and faxed it to her this morning. She is a legal secretary and works in a law office, so I expected some flack over my home-grown contract. She signed it, got it notarized, and we opened escrow this afternoon!
The seller called me late last night, and after getting my assurance we had a binding deal, she went on to explain that she would have accepted less for the property–She is desperate and doesn’t want to worry about it any more. So, maybe I should have listened to a couple posts and emails I received and low-balled her worse than I did, but we put together a win-win-win situation, with nobody getting burned.
I’ll only come out with about $4,000 profit, but what a learning experience! I sold before it I bought it with at all, and I can add another notch to my belt.
As I’ve mentioned in, I would not be even thinking of doing these deals if it weren’t for the support and advice that is on your message board. I was afraid the interest on the hard money loans from the other deals was going to take a toll on the holidays, but not now. I have three little boys that will have a Merry Christmas thanks to this deal. A true, heart felt THANK YOU!