How a Zillow lead turned into a 60K profit wholesale

[Alan Asriants]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence wholesale investment.

Purchase price: $34,000
Cash invested: $1,700
Sale price: $95,000

As an agent I run advertisements through Zillow to get connected with local homebuyers looking to tour properties. I got connected to a lady who wanted to tour a few properties and kept talking about a piece of crap house her father wanted to sell. She never let me inside of the property only opened the door for me to see inside. It was a dump. I offered her 34k. She accepted and we closed in 3 weeks. Turned out her sister was a squatter. We removed her and sold the property for 95k on the MLS.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I kept hearing her mention her fathers house and how bad it was. She kept insisting that I would never want a dump like that. Words like that are gold for investors. So I kept trying to explain that I actually prefer properties that are worse off.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

A zillow lead called in to tour a home. She ended up having a home that was in complete disarray. She let me take a look at the property from just the front porch. It was clear she was covering something up, so i gave her the value of the land for the property. I assumed the worst and let her know that I was taking a big risk. I offered her 34k and told her that I wouldn't be responsible for any liens. She walked away with 15k.

How did you finance this deal?

We purchased with Cash

How did you add value to the deal?

We cleaned out the property of all of its trash. Removed the squatters.

What was the outcome?

After removing the squatters and securing the property, we listing it on the MLS for 85k. We received multiple offers and sold it for 95k.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

If someone is not letting you inside of the property, assume the worst! Buying a cat in a bag is exactly that! It's better to lose out on something, then to find yourself climbing out of a hole. If you hear anybody talking about a crappy property think $$$!

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

This was a private deal and wasn't financed. Title company was Alpert Abstract LLC