Mistake I Made on an Investment Deal

[Greg Helbeck]

*MISTAKE ALERT*

Here are some lessons from a pretty painful mistake that I made over the summer.

I had a property that I was following up with for over 2 years and I had a verbally accepted offer at $170,000. The property in the as-is condition was worth $350,000 and that is what it ended up selling for on the market after this deal fell apart ( would have been a $180,000 profit).

The major reason this thing fell apart is that the county court system vetoed the sale because of the low sales price and the fact that the owner was a minor who is a beneficiary of a trust. The minors father was the “seller” that I was dealing with and he had to legally act as a fiduciary for his son and the court did not allow the sale price of the house because it was too low.

I could have found this out a while ago before I continue to follow up and persist on this property if I would have just done my homework on the legal system and consulted my attorney about this. I did not do that and I ended up getting my hopes up for absolutely nothing (not the first time LOL)

Here are my main two lessons.

Lesson #1

Know exactly what you are getting into when it comes to buying properties that can have some hair on them!

The hair on this property was the fact that it was in a trust that had a confusing set up because there was a minor involved.

Lesson #2

An accepted offer does not mean anything until a contract is signed and a deal is officially closed! I had this accepted offer pending the court system approval for two years and I was counting my money in my head but after the court system did not allow the sale nothing actually materialized and I ended up wasting my time. Now I am much more aware of these types of situations and I don't get excited when I get an offer accepted.... I only get excited when the deal closes!!!

This was a painful lesson and hopefully whoever is reading this can avoid the mistakes that I have made.

Also, We are looking for some passive partners who would be interested in getting involved in some of our rental and flip deals in New York from a passive perspective. If you were ever interested in finding out how you could get involved, feel free to reach out and we can talk about some potential options on working together.