What was your best deal ever?

Question

How did you get it? Mine was in 2005 (shocking!). It took years of looking on and off for this type of property/deal. This time when it popped up on the mls, I went directly to the lister and had it UC in 2 days. I've lost other deals to other agents and/or their friends and relatives. I know that not having to split a large commission can affect how fast your offer gets ratified and even if other contracts/showings occur.

Anyway, in the worst buyer's market ever I got my best deal.

Bill Gulley · Answer

My best deal? Well, it's notthe biggest money deal I eve did, but it's the best.

A Realtor cam to my office and said "Bill, you have to help me"! She has a lady, retired art teacher from a university, who owned two log cabins, 2 houses and a large "A" Frame along the banks of the JamesRiver. The buildings were along the river and then a private single lane road flowed throw the property. On the other  side of the road was a large barn, a tennis court and further down was a small cabin. The Realtor took me out there, 3 miles out of town from a SAMs store.It was  a beautiful property! Then we went back to my office.

The Realtor then started telling me what the real problem was as I told a price I thought she might try for a listing as we had been talking valies.

Story goes, the teacher was gay. She had had a girl friend who was a tennis pro(reason for the professional court where she gave lessons). To help he girld friend years before, she conveyed a one half undivided interest to 2 properties so give her an interest to improve another credit situation. Well the properties were free and clear as they say, but this other girld friend was still on title and she would not sign or sell!

The teacher wanted X dollars for the whole place, so I explained that I would buy it with sellerfinancing, 100% long enough to get the property sold or she would carry the rest after one of the houses sold, giving her enough to head to the mountains of CO.

She sold me the whole place and on the individual parcels, sold me her one half undivided interest. Then I called the girld friend (I had fun with that call!) introduced myself and told her we were now partners! She hit the roof-LOL!

The girl friend, call her T.Ball, told me I couldn't do that and I assured her I could and that we should be friends, she said she was calling her attorney and hung up on me.

The very next day I get a call from an attorney and she says that she is a personal friend of T.Ball's and that she just acuired the one half undivided interest that T.Ball had held and now we were partners! I said great, we chatted and I suggested we meet at the property.

We walked the property while speculating, both of us saying we'd like to keep one of the properties if we could. She rattled her sabers saying she could take to court, or she would file this or that and I just agreed, saying yes, we could do that. Then we walked into the farm house at the end of the road.

Picture an updated 2/1 1/2 and detached 2 car, 
Pail yellow with white trim and we are standing inside looking out a large picture window at the river and she says; " I have decided that I'm moving in to this house for myself"  and I said "I hope you sleep on the left side of the bed because I sleep on the right!"

She just looked at me and then said "We have to figure this  out don't we" and I said "Yes, I think so"!

(Now, you understand why I mentioned they were gay)

We agreed that I would do a minor subdivision and replat the lots so that they could all have seperate legal descriptions. I provided a lot at the end of the road from the river to the top of the hill. I put the small cabin and the yellow house on the next lot with the road cutting through all the lots. The next two were log cabins and then the other ranch house, but when that lot crossed the road I narrowed the width so the next lot had the tennis court and large barn on one side of the road and the "A" frame on the river and there was a little dog leg that went behind the barn to the neigbors.

Well she ended up keeping a 600 sq ft log cabin, the other twin log cabin was leased to an adminstrator at the university who later purchased it from me . I sold the 1800sq ft ranch house ranch house was sold, well the Realtor got the listings. The 1500 sq ft. farm house was sold by the attorney and she bought the other cabin. I kept the lot at the end, the A Frame, barn and tennis court!  All of this accomplished in about 5 months. The original seller was paid off from the sales and I had a pretty neat second home 3 miles out of town for parties and reunions along the river!

I sold the vacant lot for about 20K+, the dog leg corral area behind the barn for 10K as a neighbor wanted it. I kept the A Frame and sold it for 120K and did a tax  exchange for part to another second home at the lake!

I made no payments to the original seller as they were triggered with the sale of the properties, then a couple of payments and payoff. So, really no money down nor any payments out of my pocket!  I paid for the minor subdivision, $200 and closing costs and about filing fees, less than a couple grand on all of it.

So, about 150K, is that close to a 1,000% for you ROI guys? That was my best deal because it was the most fun I ever had in RE, enjoyed the property and walked with very little tax liability.

Wes S. · Answer

Great question...and hopeful this will turn into an interesting post.

My best deal is still blooming.  I bought a little farm on the edge of town couple yrs ago, 20 acres, noticed the lane wasn't plowed during winter, finally tracked down owner who was long gone out of town...he was in forclosure, worked with him and CW/BOA to do a short sale and got it done!  Took 6 months, lots of headaches but in the end worth it.  Currently renting it out/farming and covering my PITI...but has development potential and/or our Assisted Living Facility here is expanding and currently in talks with them.  I'm confident I'll 5X my money and hope to 1031 it into farmland.

J Scott · Answer

Best deal ever was the only non-REO I ever purchased...

My closing attorney and his wife were taking a walk one morning and stumbled onto a garage sale.  They started talking to the woman in charge, and it turned out that her mother had died a few months before, and this was her mother's house.

My attorney asked if she was thinking about selling the house, and she said she hadn't really thought much about it, but would certainly consider it.  He immediately called me, and I drove 45 minutes to meet this woman.

She wasn't emotionally ready to sell at that point, but we gave her our business card and told her to call us when she was ready, or if she just needed some help with any aspect of the house.  She and my wife talked for over an hour (I think she was more happy to have someone to talk to than to sell the house to), and when we left, we were happy just to have been able to cheer her up a bit.

It took four months, but she eventually called us (a Christmas card my wife sent reminded her of our existence) and we bought the house 3 days later.  Everyone was happy.

We did a two week rehab, and sold the house a few weeks later for a $40K+ profit (about 400% annualized ROI).

I consider it our best deal both because of the return (obviously), but also very much because we were able to help someone else out when they needed it.  It was a nice change from dealing with nameless, faceless asset managers all day...

Christian Morency · Answer

Mine was a termite ridden house in California I picked up for 15k and sold for 22k, then bought back for 30k and refied for 57k then eventually sold at the top of the market for 100k. All with positive cash flow while I held it over a 10 year span. The 100k sale was done as a 1031 exchange for two bigger and better houses in Alabama and one junker that I flipped for a 6k profit. The two houses pay for themselves, so this deal is ongoing.

Jimmy C. · Answer

Mine was a deal from a newbie wholesaler who had tied up a probate deal.  The house was in a great area with a lot of equity left for a flip. He assigned to us for 15k and we assigned to end buyer for 25k.

the seller was out of town and we never had speak to her. A few phone calls and faxes and finally a check!

Rob Gillespie · Answer

I went to an absolute auction at the last minute a few miles from my home. I needed to leave for a wedding in 2 hours, my wife was less than impressed that instead of getting ready, I was leaving for an auction. 
I got there and they were ready to start, I asked them to wait 5 minutes so I could look around, they agreed. 
Long story short, the house needed nothing!!! I got it for 60k, Sold it on a lease option for 170k! I found a buyer to give me 10k down for the option, and pay over 1k per month. I got them a new loan to get me out of it in about 18 months. 
I wish they all went that well!!

Account Closed · Answer

I was really lucky when I was first getting my feet wet. Only a few rehab projs in I stumbled across a REO 3 flat on a prestigious steet in an very upscale Chicago suburb. I purchased it (short sale) and renovated it (convert to SFH) for $800k, with a total cash outlay of about $400k. Sold less than a year later (by a few weeks) for $1.5 mil which was list price.

I have not since done a project with such a high cost and need for "luxury" but that was my best deal because it was a huge risk that paid off in the end and gave me the confidence to scale up my business and career with the proceeds earned. It also was the deal that allowed me to pay off my college and grad school loans, get myself and brother a condo, and proved to a prospective employer (in financial services) to hire me for a very excellent position that I still have today!

Cheryl C. · Answer

Financexaminer,

Sounds like a beautiful property, interesting characters and a good result.  There are lots of different ideas about the term "best".  I made mine monetary.  The property we bought in 2005 is virtually impossible to find.  We were offered 2.5 times our purchase price within weeks of closing.

There have been many sweet deals along the way and for many it's probably hard to say which was the best.

From a "living life to the best" standpoint, I've have to say that our summer/weekend place that we bought over 20yrs ago was the best decision we ever made.

What was your best deal ever?

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