All Forum Posts by: Doug P.

@Angela Montgomery You don't need an agent. Buy direct from sellers!

@Josh V. It's a negotiation tactic. Chances are he's not going to come back with a price that would make sense for all cash (i.e. 60-70% of FMV). If he did you could easily find a partner or wholesale the deal, don't let money or lack of it hold you back.

Once you have his lowest cash price you can explain that it's more than you're able to pay all cash, but maybe you can work out a deal involving financing.

@Scott Titus My advice is to be honest with everyone. You don't need to go scurrying around in the shadows with land trusts and whatnot. I have gone to the bank with the seller, had a meeting with the manager, told him/her that the seller can't afford the payments and so I'm going to make that payments for them.

Know what the manager said?

"Great!"

@Josh V. As a rule of thumb, in my experience when a seller says: "Make me an offer." It means they are NOT motivated. In your case my rule is confirmed by the fact that you're needing to walk a fine line to try to keep this 'deal' profitable.

When a seller has a lot of equity or owns the property free and clear, the first thing you need to do is negotiate the lowest price you can. Then you ask if they will finance it. And only if they mention interest do you then negotiate a rate.

As it stands right now you're really negotiating with yourself with no idea what the seller really wants or needs.

When you said that the duplex is $150k I'm guessing that means that's what it's worth? How much is the seller willing to sell it for all cash? If his number is also $150k you have an uphill battle on your hands. If you don't know, then start with that. Go back to him and say:

"Mr. Seller, I hear you saying that you're sick and tired of dealing with tenants and just want to get rid of this property. Let me ask you, if I came in with an all cash offer, took the property as-is, paid all the closing costs, and closed on the date of your choosing, what's the least you will be willing to take for the property?"

@Anthony Hornbeck Since it's hypothetical I wouldn't have gone to school and would have no student loan.

Seriously, in my area the property would be appreciating about 5%, plus principal pay down, plus cashflow. So I'd be further ahead keeping the property.

@William Johnson Huge congrats on your first assignment! That's a nice payday too :D

Talk about a technicality. Everyone knows that an open house sign means that the house is for sale.

Plus, in my city quite a few agents leave directional signs up during the week that say: "[Office Name] For Sale --->"

@Bill Gulley I looked up the sign bylaw specifically for Waterloo (my home city). The laws are slightly different for each city.

All I know is that political signs are almost entirely exempt (although they can't be placed on private property without the owners consent.) So my signs say: "Vote for, We Buy Houses!" LOL ;)

@Jon Holdman I haven't read the sign laws in a long time so I just checked. Real estate sales signs are only permitted on the property being sold/leased/rented. There's no mention of an exemption for directional signs.

Surely yourself or colleagues use directional open house signs on the corner? Like this:

Those are bandit signs.

It's just extremely rare to get into trouble for them because they're usually only up for a few hours on the weekend.