All Forum Posts by: Chris Eley

Hey BP!  So I thought I would share about my 2nd flip in the Phoenix market - the flip that wasn't supposed to be a flip! 

The wife and I were searching for a new place for us, but had no luck finding what we wanted on the MLS. So being the deal finder that I am, I sent out a direct mail piece (handwritten envelope w/letter) to all of the absentee owners in our area. Actually had a great response rate in the area, but most of the call backs were tire kickers or people who wanted way more than market value. We finally found an out-of-state owner who just wanted to get rid of the property quickly, so we worked out a good deal and we had our new home! That is, of course, until the wife had a major change of heart about the area we were buying in....ugh!

So no big deal, we got such a good deal on the home that we decided we would just flip it. The house was in great condition being less than 20 years old, but man was it ugly! There were 6 flooring types throughout the house (yes 6!), including hardwood with green slate inserts, 3 different tiles, and 2 colors of carpets. So we made the necessary cosmetic upgrades quickly and had the house on market within a month. Piece of cake! Or so we thought! Since we were buying for our personal home, we didn't really do much research in terms of re-selling the home. The home was located in a country club with extremely high monthly HOA fees, and there just weren't a ton of buyers in the market.

So the house sat on the market for about 9 months before we decided that we had to do something drastic to catch the attention of the few potential buyers that did come through the house. One of the best features of the home is that is has an amazing golf course view from the backyard. So we figured we would give it that "wow" factor by adding a brand new pool that overlooked the golf course. Two months and $30K later we had transformed the area into a resort-style backyard. We increased the price $40K to cover the pool, put the house back on market, and BOOM! we had tons of interest from buyers! We were under contract within 2 weeks, and sold 2 weeks later. 

It was an extremely long process (over a year), but you can never complain about a successful flip!  Especially when it wasn't intended to be a flip.  We bought the house for $400K, put $83K into it (including pool and all holding costs), and sold for $575K.  On to the next one!

Yeah they sure do!  Unfortunately, I can easily go into paralysis by analysis because of those same skills!  Haha

@Michael M. I'm targeting absentee owners in specific zip codes, I'd say they are C to D neighborhoods. Yes, I have a Google voice number setup and answer my own calls and do the direct negotiating with sellers. I plan on building cash with flips until the market comes back down, then will look for buy and holds (unless I can find properties now that cash flow - then I would use the BRRRR strategy). Not sure about the Saguaro, you probably want to call a removal company to find out.

@Kristie Eddy Thanks Kristie! I just pay an agent a flat fee of $199 that will get the house on the AZ MLS. This doesn't include anything else though - so I have to negotiate with the buyer's agent, do the paperwork, put the signpost/sign up, etc. You can also pay an additional $500 or so to have the agent's help with negotiating and paperwork (you still would have to take pics and write up the property description), but I decline this option since I am pretty comfortable with the whole process now. Here's the company's website I use - http://www.flatlist.com. 

@Ray Lai  Yeah, I was doing it all myself - which I definitely would like to outsource.  Yeah, if you have a reputable company that can do this for $0.65 per letter, I'm in!  Please post or PM me the company contact info.  Thanks Ray!

Yes, I've flipped during the summer months, it's not a huge deal.  You'll definitely spend more on AC with guys coming in and out of the house, but it always seems like contractors were a little slower in summer so it worked out pretty well.  Whatever you aren't comfortable having your relative fix, I would hire out a contractor for.  Of course, the more work your relative does, the more $ you will save. 

Hey BP!  I'm working on doing my next mailing campaign and wanted to try to improve my list of absentee owners by adding owners that are 55 and older.  Any ideas on how to generate this list?  I've tried adding the age criteria to Listsource, but it looks like the majority of the leads are filtered out when doing this (most leads are in the "unknown" category).  Has anyone successfully created this list or something similar? 

Thanks in advance!

@Michael M.  I actually was using typed letters with handwritten addresses on standard envelopes.  I just typed something up myself, so I didn't use a template or anything.  If you're not sure where to start, there are tons of examples of what you can write (on here and by Google searching).  I started out with postcards, but just found that the response was extremely low, although sending out postcards (through click2mail) were much cheaper and easier than letters.  I was spending roughly $0.60 per letter I sent out.  But thanks to @Matthew Rogers, I just found out you can buy forever stamps on Ebay at a discount, so that should cut the cost down a little bit.  Thanks again for the awesome tip Matthew!

@Dalton Kiley  Thanks!  Yeah, I definitely agree with the increase in confidence after the first flip.  It definitely changes your mindset - not IF I will be able to find a flip, but HOW am I going to find it.  And yes, I was able to negotiate the price directly with the seller over the phone since she lived out of state. 

@Dan Voykin Thanks Dan!  I received your email as well, and will reach out soon. 

@Adrian Watkins Yeah, I just used Listsource and tried out a few different lists before hitting on this one. It ended up being an out-of-state absentee owner with 100% equity - she had rented out the house for 7 or 8 years and was ready to get rid of it and use the cash for part of her retirement. And I agree, the MLS is very tough to find deals right now. I think the only way you can find deals on the MLS is to be a licensed agent, that way you can save the commissions and be able to quickly write up offers when deals come up. I'm actually planning on getting my license in the next couple of months, so we'll see if that helps with deal flow.