A deal at its inception

[Matthew Reid]

Since I’m at the beginning of this potential deal I’m going to make this a multi entry story… About two months ago I decided that I would send five letters to absentee owners with no/low mortgages of multi units in my town. I went through my Assessors website and got five properties that fit my criteria. I hand wrote the letters on yellow paper basically stating that I was a lifelong Kennebunk resident and my wife and I were looking to buy properties in the area. I may have gotten ahead of myself since I had no “real” money and no clear direction, but I was excited. I received one reply within a week but out of pure fear I didn’t call them back. I talked myself out of the deal by telling myself that the property really wasn’t in the exact location that I wanted, that the owners would probably ask too much for it, and I wasn’t really ready. I can’t remember all my reasoning but I was able to talk myself out of it pretty quick. What a fool! Two months went by and I received a text from a property owner that just got back into town (California). The text went onto explain that she was very sorry for getting back to me so late and she would love to talk. This text was at 10:30pm my time so I received it in the morning. Now I’ve gotten two replies out of five letters, wow. I went to work and was planning on calling her back when I got home; of course I was trying to get my courage up all day. Half way through the day I checked my phone and realized I had a message from the property owner. She told me again how sorry she was that she’d kept me waiting for so long and that she hasn’t thought about selling it until she got my letter. She said the house has been good to her but since she moved 3,000 miles away 10 years ago she doesn’t think she’ll be returning. She hasn’t been to the property in about three years. I knew after listening to the message that I better suck it up and give her a call. I called her back and was completely honest with her. I told her why I wrote the letter, why I like the property, and that I really had no idea what I was doing. Well it seemed to go smooth, she gave me the number of one of the tenants and told me she would call him and let him know that I would be calling. 15 minutes later she called me back and told me the tenant would be expecting my call. I’m planning on visiting the property sometime next with a contractor friend of mine. I don’t know much about the property except for a few things that I’ll list below. The property is a two unit and the rents are $900 each with the tenants paying all utilities. Taxes are $2300 Owner pays an impact fee of $68 every three months, so I could hookup public water/sewer. She’s owed the house for 25 years. It’s always rented well and one tenant has been there 15 years. It looks like the property could use a little work from the outside and when she bought the property 25 years ago she had a structural engineer come take a look at the foundation that was buckling. The engineer told he that she shouldn’t mess if it, it would only open a can of worms, she didn’t and it’s been in the same condition ever since. I’ll send an update when I learn more. Thanks for reading, and please post thoughts and replies.