Fix and Flip in Hendersonville TN John Shortridge Deal Diary

[John Shortridge]

Hi Everyone!

I just signed the counter offer for my 3rd deal and it has already turned out to be very interesting with some cool twists and turns so I figured I would start a deal diary thread about it!

This property came on the market about 6 weeks ago and like most REOs in Hendersonville, which there are only a few, it was under contract immediately. I walked in the house when it was first listed, got about 10 steps in before I realized the carpet was infested with fleas and so were my bare legs (never wearing shorts again to look at a foreclosure!). So I planned to return the next day better prepared but checked it that morning and boom - PENDING. So I moved on.

I checked the listing the following week and to my surprise it was listed again as "Active." I called the listing agent to find out what was up. She said yes they had a contract for about a day or two but it fell through and is listed again. So, I went by, prepared for fleas and all, only to find that at some point someone had removed all the fleas and cleaned the carpets (which were still completely disgusting and covered in I'm assuming cat feces). Long story short, put an offer in... waited... nothing... PENDING. So I moved on.

Fast forward 4 weeks, I would keep asking my agent, "Did that house close?"

"No." "Not yet."

Interesting... In the mean time I had two other offers on different properties which were not accepted so after 4 weeks without closing I decided to call the listing agent. This was Monday. She told me, it is supposed to close tomorrow (Tuesday) but she is pretty confident it will fall though and will likely go back on the market next week. She also mentioned that their contract had the buyer using the seller closing agent and that they already had the title and were ready to close. She said if I put in another offer to basically pick up on their closing which won't happen I would have a good chance.

I immediately went back to the property, re-evaluated my SOW and budget and put in another, higher offer than my original, all cash, no contingencies. Received a counter offer yesterday, signed, and dropped off my EMD this morning. Boom. Now as to whether or not we will close next week... that will be on the next entry in the diary!

Moral of the story - Follow up with the deals you miss out on! And don't rely on your agent to be the middle man on things that you can easily do yourself. Call the listing agent and let your agent do the things that only he/she can do!

More to come!

Johnny