All Forum Posts by: Andi Sjamsu

Kyle: agent does the negotiating for us.  If I could go straight to seller, I'm happy to do so because then I can get a good feel.  In this case, I suspect the sellers agent is a bit of a flake, takes 2-3 days to reply.

Shane: thanks for the reminder.  We came in just under 30% below asking, my target was 15% below ask, but I stopped at 20% below because they didn't budge.  I'm a big believer in the universe doing it's thing.  Our current house we ended up getting it for 18% below the original list after it sat no offers for months, and the seller accepted our contingency of selling our then current home. (which our agent said WOULD NEVER GET ACCEPTED BY ANY SELLER IN THIS TOWN).  The final straw that almost broke the deal: Septic failed inspected, $15k replacement... the seller said "no problem I'll pay the $!5k".  So yes, back to the table & more prayers for guidance as to which house is meant for us next.

FYI, my strategy was initial offer is intentionally low, 2nd offer is double what the seller dropped, 3rd would be BAFO (in this case approx 10% below seller ask).  They dropped $5k from ask, so we countered by upping $10k (my BAFO was $25k above my initial offer).  They came back with "we have multiple offers near ask" without naming a specific figure as their 2nd counter.  So today they clarified they wouldn't drop below $360k ($5k below current ask), though we offered our BAFO as reply to 2nd counter.  Today they confirmed they wouldn't go below $360k, so I've told our agent to say Thank You & call us when you drop your price.

180 DoM, no prior offers (until we hinted we'd make an offer).  They've gone through multiple rounds of small price cuts.  My calculator says that in order for it to be a "home run" as Brandon would say, the buy price needs to be 10% below current ask.  

Good morning.  We were looking at 2 potential properties and last week we eliminated 1 of them and put in an offer on the other.  I have it in my mind that I would do "3 strikes" meaning that I'd put in an offer and at least 2 additional counter counters before pulling the plug.  That seemed like a reasonable amount of effort or should I throttle back to initial, counter by seller (if they don't accept), then go straight to BAFO (Best and Final Offer)?

Thanks.

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I are looking to house hack 2-4 family in Norwalk/Fairfield in the sub $400k range.  Would love to connect with others.  We are getting ready to sell our current home in Princeton Jct, NJ and are looking to partner up with others also.

Thanks

do we have an April meeting set yet?

Hi everyone.

thanks for the suggestions.  I have noted the upcoming Apr 25 meetup.

Westchester MF are often closer to $500k and carrying costs are higher than CT due to higher taxes.

We saw a short sale in Verplanck that MIGHT fit the need, but after much deliberation we passed since we had a harder time seeing us living that property (though the numbers were compelling).

We are taking a very disciplined approach towards this acquisition.  Once we set the price we're ok with, we are NOT crossing that line.  We will be putting our current home on the market in the next 2 weeks, so there's no turning back.  We both agreed that no matter what, we are getting out of the current house and dropping our housing overhead.  The househack will allow us to drop that to almost ZERO or NEGATIVE out of pocket (even including BP set aside for repairs, maintenance, etc.  If we have to we are open to renting a place while we continue the hunt.

Our first test will be today when our agent submits our offer on a home in Fairfield.  It will have a Hubbard (buyers selling their current residence) contingency along with inspection contingency.  Process in CT is different from NJ (we don't have a memo phase, go straight to offer agreement).  It is priced where the BP Rental Calcs tell us we need to be to make it work well.  It will be up to the seller to accept/counter/decline.  Agent is concerned that since there are 2 other offers, ours may not be as "strong" as other offers, but we've turned it over to HP (Higher Power/God).  This was the same when we acquired current home, agent freaked when we added Hubbard contingency (subject to us selling current residence).

I'd love to team up with an investor that has $500k ready to roll. We'd manage the deal & offer to liquidate in 5 years (wife's retirement) so if you know of someone, I'd love to chat. FYI, the property today has cash flow of over $1000/month plus 6% COC ROI.

Fingers crossed. 

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I are looking to relocate (from Princeton Jct, NJ) to ease her commute.  Her office is 2 blocks from Grand Central.  We only recently moved our target to househacking a 2-4 family (initially we looked at getting a condo, really liked SoNo).  We have been looking in Westchester County, NY & Fairfield County, CT.  Her limit is 90 min train ride from GC which basically puts us at Fairfield Metro as the max.  

Westchester taxes are INSANE (even worse than notoriously high NJ taxes).  We're trying to stay sub $400k (with upwards of 20% down).  We will be putting our house up for sale shortly.  I have some folks who've expressed interest, so we may be able to sell without putting it on the market.

Since we're empty nesters with an older dog (he just turned 12 yesterday), we'd prefer to be on 1st fl for all our sakes.

My 5 yr goal is to acquire 2 MFH per year over the next 5 years.  I'm looking to connect with other investors to do joint deals.  What I bring to the table is:

* strong analytical skills

* come from a family of builders, so pretty proficient in finding the "gotchas" pretty quickly

* fairly keen sense of aesthetics & what aspiring renters prefer

* good knowledge of basic maintenance and repairs 

* 30+ years of marketing/marketing communications background

* strong negotiating skills

Would love to connect with others in the area.  We're up here looking at neighborhoods almost weekly.

I have 1 property that we're considering making an offer on, it's now almost 180 DoM, fits most of our criteria, saw some potential "gotchas" that would make it less attractive for non owner occupant investors, so not sure what I'm missing and why other's haven't tried to grab it yet.  Our current home is a "destined to be yours" home, I'm beginning to get the feeling the one we're looking at may be another example.  

Our current home was on the market in 2005 for $450k (3Br/1.5Ba ranch, full unfinished basement with Bilco doors, on 3/4 acre next to a golf course), languished & pulled off market before we had a chance to see inside.  In 2006 it came back on, there was 1 Open House (we stopped & my wife fell in love right away).  Our agent told us "no seller in this town would agree to a sellers contingency" (we'll close once we close on selling the townhouse we owned at the time).  Turns out the price dropped $50k to $400k, we negotiated down to $385k and seller accepted our contingency and countered that she wanted a firm date we would list our townhouse.  Inspection found failed septic system ($15k replacement) which seller paid for.  We put the townhouse on the market the Sunday before Thanksgiving, had showings that week and accepted deal on Fri at 5pm for 1.5% below our asking.  The impossible deal came together (though technically there was a 5 day period where we had like $200k in the bank but were technically homeless since the closing got pushed to Jan 2, 2007).

Tomorrow our agent will make an offer, we will see if "impossible deals" can repeat.

Thanks and looking forward to meeting you.

many agents will ask you to sign a "buyers agent agreement" committing you to work with 1 agent for a specific geographic area for a specific period of time.

I will try to make it to the meeting.

@Phillip S. In this round we are fortunate to be working with very patient agents.  I outlined for them my game plan (2 properties per year for next 5 years as a minimum target, ideally 4-6 per year) and let them know that we will be submitting a LOT of offers (the vast majority of which will be declined).  I also spoke with our mortgage rep, let him know the game plan as well.  So our team members on that side of the deal are on board.  I think that most agents would be open as long as you clue them in to your game plan.  If you explain the game plan, you can then ask them "are you still willing to be our agent given that we'll get far more NO than YES, but that I am committed to this plan?  I totally understand if you opt to not be my agent, but some other agent will if you are not available" and let them decide yay/nay for themselves.  I find that if I give others the choice to opt out/stay in, more often than not they'll stay in.  which is not to say that people don't tell me "that's crazy **** what you're talking about."  but it's often followed by "but you know, my gut tells me that you're crazy enough to be able to pull it off, so I'm in."  All I ask is that when they feel they need to bail, just let me know, no hard feelings and I'll find someone who wants to be on the team.  I promise them that if I feel it's not working, I'll be the first to let them know.  Simple, open dialogue.

Often we are our own worst enemies.  We assume the side will say "no" or won't do something before they are even given a chance to make a decision.  my agent when we bought this house was in that boat (I'm not going to use him in the future if I buy in this area again).

Over last summer I had a chance to brush up on my GC skills when my wife decided to renovate our kitchen, master bath and half bath.  Came in slightly under budget and only a few days behind schedule.

-- Kitchen:

* new quartz countertop

* custom marble backsplash with patterned glass accent strip

* new stainless steel sink

* Grohe pull out faucet

* new sheet vinyl flooring (had to rip out 3 layers of existing flooring)

* new stainless steel electric smooth top range, dishwasher, microwave range hood

-- master bath

* new quartz countertop (custom 46" width)

* grohe faucet

* american standard skirted toilet (sides are smooth so you don't see the "piping" and easier to clean), had to move the water line

-- half bath

* new ikea super slim cabinet

* new Ikea super slim sink

* grohe faucet

* new toilet

* new sheet vinyl flooring

A number of my friends who have done similar renos have spent $30-60k doing what we did for far less than $30k incl professional labor but it took a lot of shopping and negotiating.

This has proven very helpful as we price out our first picks  (2+ family homes) to househack since my wife must be ok with how it looks, so I'm prepared to have to get some updates done before we can even move in.

Our first offer is being submitted tomorrow by our agent.  Fingers crossed:)