Knowing Your DOMs and A BP Success Story...

Have patience with me as I navigate you through a recent success story of a Bigger Pockets member.

When I first joined BP about 7 weeks ago I was asked by a local wholesaler in my area (Maryland) to become a colleague.  At the time I wasn't sure what that meant... but in the spirit of jumping in and participating I gladly accepted.

At the same time this BP member was working hard to wholesale a deal in Maryland and had sought advice on how to get the deal wholesaled... and in typical fashion the BP community stepped up and gave her lots of advice... which she implemented.

Yet... she still was not getting the kind of interest in the deal she had hoped... and getting this deal done was very important to her for a lot of reasons.

I offered to meet with her in person to determine why this deal was not getting the interest she had hoped it would. 

So... we met, we had a great conversation and we decided that the problem was either with the renovation number or the After Repair Value (ARV).  So I asked for a Competative Market Analysis (CMA) and once received  I quickly found the problem.

And here is where the DOMs come in... and for the perverts out there I am not referring to a dominatrix. 

There are two numbers that I consider critically important to deteriming the ARV of a property.  They are Days On Market Property (DOMP) which indicates the TOTAL number of days a property has been on the market since it was first listed.  And the Days On Market (DOM) which indicates the number of days on the market since a change in the listing has been made.  If you want to see how long a property has "seasoned" just look at the DOMP and it will tell how long this property has been listed.

This wholesaler did not fully understand that just because an agent had claimed that a neighboring property had sold in 27 days... the real story was that it had been sitting on the market for over 400.  So... that neighboring comp really didn't reflect the value she had hoped.  The bottom line... all of the comps with reasonable DOMPs were $25K to $30K less then the ARV she was using for her deal. 

Once this wholesaler realized that she had incorrectly valued the property on the backend, and she made the needed adjustments in reducing her price, again followed the advice of the BP community to get the word out, and the deal closed this past Friday.  And she made a very handsome profit indeed.

I will let this BP member introduce herself if she so wishes.

OK... what is the moral of this story?  There are several...

1.  If you don't know ask.  BP is a great place to start.

2.  Understanding what the MLS is telling you is critical... and then knowing what to make of all of those numbers is even more critical... especially in a market where prices still have not stabalized.

3.  Don't be afraid to take action even if you are not sure of each step in the process.  Taking any action is better then sitting around reading about the success of others... Trust me on this one.

4.  It is so much more fun to head to the bank with profits then... sitting around reading about the success of others!

Now get out there and do something!

If you found this post to be of value, I would be honored if you passed it on to others who may benefit.

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Peter R, Giardini is the founder of The Club, Real Estate Mastermind a National Real Estate Investor Coaching program whose philosophy is that real estate investing coaching/ mentoring can only be provided by experenced "local" coaches in a one-on-one environment. To find out more about The Club visit or send an email to .

You can listen in and participate in Pete's Real Estate Investors' Mastermind radio show every Thursday night at 11:00PM on BlogTalkRadio... .  All rights reserved 2009.