What was your best deal out of your RE career? & why?

Question

To all BP members,

I been reading LOTS, LOTS of info on this website, it's been a HUGE help. Especially when you guys post all of you "personal" experiences with RE. One word to describe "priceless"

ok, here goes. Out of your whole RE career, what was your Favorite/Best deal of all time that you ever did? or been apart? & why?

I know there are some great ones! =)

Steve L. · Answer

My favorite deal we did was 2003 built 4,200 sq ft house on a 1.5 acre lot with a view. The previous owner who I met after I purchased it told me he paid 600,000 and put 600,000 into the backyard... it had a flinstone style infinity edge pool with a spa that had a waterfall and a cover tv section. The house had a human size chessboard, koi ponds, sand volleyball court, view. When he figured out he was losing the house, he trashed it... cement down toilets, broke shower pipes in the wall, threw paint on the cabinets, etc. Everything went well, and we sold it to a cash buyer out of China 90 days after we bought it, for almost double what we paid.

Geoffrey Murphy · Answer

Awesome Craig!!! Was it a nice size deal that you uys developed? what was it? multifamily, office, retail ect..

Craig Grella · Answer

Cool post/question: My partners and i did a commercial development loan on a piece of land that was tied up in litigation, and needed funding to clear the way for the transaction to be closed. It involved two very big developers, the FAA, and the City of Las Vegas. It was really tough to do, and required hundreds of pages of docs, a few site visits, and countless hours on conference calls, but in the end it was well worth the work. We got to deal with some pretty savvy investors, some great RE attorneys, and make a new connection to a lender with which we'd later fund over $20 million in commercial hard money loans.

Geoffrey Murphy · Answer

Julie & adam: Those are two great opprotunities you guys jumped on! Rich: sorry to repost the samethings, is there anyway some can tell me how to use this site proficiently? Im very good at researching old topics and post, i guess it didnt go far enough. That was an incredible deal though rich, especially back in the 70s, i know you were so thrilled at how things turned out Mike: Thats a great return in a short period of time! Sheyanne: I know you completed unexpected for that deal to turn out the way it did. I happy to see that when the opprotunity came you capatalized on It because i sure did past up alot of them Patrick: That was a great strategy that you had for that first property. However, was it hard for you to refinance in such a short period of time? Guys i love the post, so much knowledge!

Patrick Snyder · Answer

My best deal was a house that I purchased for $17,900 and refinanced for $49,000 two months later. I used that money as down payments to buy 2 more. For those three properties, I have none of my own money invested. Fun!

Sheyenne Schultz · Answer

My best deal was one that happened super fast. Wish they ALL went this way. :) I was sitting at my desk on a fri afternoon when my broker called my name. She told me an aquaintance of hers had called and wanted to write up an offer on an REO home right away and they were coming into the office to sign the papers. She told me to write them up. I saw the house was already in backup position. The listing agent had accepted another offer. I knew them and they said they would move my buyer's offer in 2nd position if this one fell out. I told the buyers not to put their eggs in 1 basket and to go looking. We looked at houses the next day and found one they wanted really bad. I put an offer in on it and got it accepted that day. We opened escrow on Monday. These buyers had been looking for a home for 1 whole year with no success. Sometimes, things are just meant to happen. I came along and we found them what they wanted in 24 hours. Go figure...I wish they all went this way.

Account Closed · Answer

I heard about an amazing high end deal done during the boom on Maui. An investor reserved a $5 million unit in a new condo development. Waited 2 years for it to be built and immediately flipped it to an end user for $10 million when it was ready.

Rich Weese · Answer

Geoffrey- I have noticed that as a new member to BP, you are entering threads that have been previously discussed many times on BP. I would suggest you go back through the archives on BP and look for threads that cover the same information that you are requesting. There is a continual turnover of posters on BP and you will receive much more information on your topic if you look back over the year or two or three where this item has been discussed before. Just a suggestion. I believe I have posted before in the same type of thread that my best deal was one early on in my real estate career. I purchased a brand-new commercial office building in Fullerton, California. It was 30,000 ft.² and the acquisition price was $1,475,000. It required a 10% down payment and the developer was willing to take care of the rent out up to one year. I was able to use my $40,000 commission towards the 10% down payment as well as getting the seller to take a second and a third mortgage on an additional property that I own. The balance of approximately $50,000 was raised from my parents, my in-laws, and the final 7% from a partner in my real estate business. I had no cash of my own in this transaction. In less than one year the property was rented 90% occupied and we took over the management of the building. Within that same one year. I was approached by the title company owner that rented in the building with an interest to purchase. I even chilly accepted a sales price of $2,200,000. This represented a $700,000 profit in less than one year. My percentage of ownership was 57%. I received a $70,000 commission upon the sale +57% of the net profit which amounted to approximately $400,000. It is hard to determine my rate of return since I had no actual cash in the deal. I did walk away with approximately 1/2 million dollars on no investment in less than one year. This happened in the mid-1970s when the amount of return would be equivalent today to somewhere around $2 million. Again, hard to determine an ROI on no I. You will find many more rate returns listed on previous threads if you research the archives. Good luck. Rich

Andrew Jones · Answer

Happy New Year to all. My best deal is my only deal so far and I am happy to just get started and continue learning.

Jason S. · Answer

It was just a sign of the times, it was not that I was or did anything special, just riding the market at the time - I am not even certain that was our best deal.