All Forum Posts by: Edgar Cifuentes

@Carlton Perkins

Thank you, in my opinion they were not very motivated yet however will be soon as they cant afford 2 mortgages. I am sure an investor with a few deals under his belt probably could have closed it and that is why I am asking you guys. Personally I felt they just wanted to see what I was about, and see how they can make the most out of their 15 year investment. I offered them different solutions apart from my offer which is part of helping but I also realize it will cost me the deal. I know it is difficult to explain over a forum how the mood of the conversation was but I feel I could have locked in the deal if my negotiating skills were better. And that is why I went over there just to test myself and see how I would do as far as talking to people on how I can help them in their situation, I would have liked to be with a professional and see how they do it but I am not the type to pay thousands for mentoring and I know the only way I will learn is by practicing and getting out there I appreciate your feedback Carlton, maybe if your open to it we could meet and if you have any pointers you would be willing to give that would be great. Maybe JV, I also have some flooded properties in Cinco Ranch I am working on obtaining and with my knowledge on all the components of the home I can easily find out what needs to be done by just walking through. I will really need to develop some negotiating skills for these but I feel confident as the houses that need alot of repairs would be my specialty.

@Roland Paicely

She originally wanted above 100 but was also saying maybe 95K. I am sure I could have locked in this deal if I had not told her to try to sell herself on craigslist and FSBO but I would have felt like I was taking advantage of her and not giving her better options that would benefit her. As a licensed professional that is trying to establish one of the best inspection companies (still in the works) I don't want to be known for taking advantage I'd rather be known for helping and educating. I am hoping Real Estate Investing has a spot for a person like myself.

Hello, I wanted to get some opinions/critiques on possibly what I could have done to secure a deal, that is still possible in the near future. Background- I had a lady call me wanting to get a offer so I went to scope it out, she is having a home built and will be moving into it around October/November. Here current house that she is wanting to get rid of is a SFR 3Bed/2Bath in the suburbs of Houston, good condition less than 5k in repairs. Comps in the area go for 130k-150k for similar style houses (same neighborhood) and will most likely sell quickly due to the housing demand we will be having in Houston. She owes 80K and I told her I will most likely offer her 80K which will leave her without much after living there for 15 years. I didnt really pursue any negotiations but did build rapport and got a inspection for her new house out of it, however she didn't feel insulted by the offer and may (crossing my fingers) follow up with me if she cant get the house sold. I told them about placing the house on FSBO.com and Craigslist to see if they are able to sell it. Both her and her husband were very appreciative of me for giving them a start and not trying to just get their house from them. I explained to them how I could help them avoid the repairs and closing costs which I believed they liked as well. This was my first meeting with someone as an investor and would just like some comments on what I could have done better or what other experienced investors may have done differently. Thank you for reading and sorry for the long post I tried to keep it short.

Edgar

Awesome responses I appreciate the feedback, let me just throw in these 2 areas Meyerland and Sharpstown. These 2 areas have flooded repeatedly within the last 10 years and I have dealt with the renovations for some of these homeowners on more than 1 occasion and actually will be doing the 3rd renovation due to flooding for a client on the same house. It seems people do not want to leave these areas and new home buyers keep paying top dollar to move there.  It is possible I am not grasping the situation at hand but it seems to me flood zone or not people are still buying in all these areas. @Zack Bloom that is a very interesting bill, thank you very much for sharing that information.

Hello all, 

I just wanted to get some insight on our current situation here in Houston and our surrounding areas. As investors I think we all understand the market is going to be full of flooded houses and a demand for livable move-in ready houses will be high. This catastrophe did not discriminate and properties ranging from 30k to 1 million were victims, and unfortunately from the many people that have called me to work on their homes they did not have flood insurance and are really depending on FEMA to help with the situation at hand. Everyone's situation is different and obviously there will be some irresponsible homeowners that will spend their insurance money on a new vehicle and wonder why they will not have enough to cover the 60k repair. This will then be the prime example of a "distressed seller", and this is where we come in to get them out of the hole they just kept digging into. Now here are a few of my questions and would greatly appreciate any input.

Will this be the best time to do short sales as the mortgage debt will be much higher than what a flooded house is worth?

There are many affluent areas still under water or damaged by the storm such as memorial, cinco ranch, meyerland, sienna plantation, etc. some of these areas have houses built in the 70's that in my opinion will need to be completely redone and brought up to code (I have been noticing this before the storm when I go to inspect houses) for a better ROI, these are really the ones I plan to target. What are your opinions on doing these type of flips in older affluent neighborhoods? I know there are houses that have been redone inside the beltway, but I am looking more into the Katy/Cinco ranch are and the Clay Rd area, these houses were flooded due to the overflow of both the reservoirs and now that we all know there is a possibility for it to happen again unless some major overhauling is done to prevent. In my opinion these would be great investments if they do something to prevent this from happening but also if nothing is done these might be areas now known to be in a "flood zone" as they should have originally been disclosed. Any thoughts?

Sorry for the long post.