All Forum Posts by: Joe M.

Great information here. thanks everyone for answering my questions.

I did in fact buy the house. The timing stinks because it will probably take another 3 weeks or so to close, then I'll need another 4 weeks for rehab work.

So I'm looking at this house being ready to rent around the first of November.

I fully recognize that my perspective might be considered old fashioned, but in my mind if you borrow money you pay it back. That's regardless if you borrowed 10 bucks from your friend or 250K from the bank.

No I'm not a banker nor do I have any particular love for banks in general but in my mind there is a moral obligation to live up to the promises you make.

my realtor told me when I first started looking at REO properties that the banks can and have accepted other offers after giving a verbal agreement to someone else that they are the winning bid.

heck he said he had once case where the bank excersized an out clause in a written contract to accept a higher offer.

with REO properties I don't think it is safe to count it as "yours" until the darn thing closes.

For me it depends on a lot of factors, as I'm sure most folks will say.

First thing I do when considering an offer is go to Trulia to see the price history on the house. Additionally I'll go to my county website and look at sales of the house and its assessed value.

Next I'll chat a bit with my contractor about general costs to rehab (although I'll have a good idea of the rehab costs after looking at the house).

So with those two pieces in place, I can get a good idea of the ARV and what I would offer on the house. But there are some additional things I consider:

Generally speaking, the longer the house has been on the market the lower I'm willing to go with my offer price. Two schools of thought on this are:

1.) Nobody has offered on this house and they would be more willing to take ANY offer.

2.) The second school of thought is they've already rejected all the low ball offers so don't waste your time.

Finally when considering an offer I'll trust some amount to instinct. In the situation I referenced I had a good idea that not very many (if any) folks would be offering on this house. This house is just two away from one I already own, so I asked my renter to keep an eye out for how many folks were in/out of the house and he didn't see anyone go in/out during the bid period.

It wasn't a make or break deal for me. If I got the house, great. If not then move on.

So on this house offer price that was accepted was 40% below asking price. I offered all cash with no contingencies and close in two weeks.

Again, for me it all depends on how well the house fits into my long term goals whether or not I do a low ball offer or not.

So far I've only purchased 3 homes. I've not been at this very long so I've a lot to learn. But of the three homes I've purchased I've paid 10%, 25% and now 40% under asking price. I kind of like where the trend is going :D

HUD property. We submitted a bid when the option became available for non owner occupants. I threw the bid down in the dirt, like way down. Essentially my bid price was the valuation of the lot the house sits on. The house isn't in that bad of shape but does need some major work like plumbing, HVAC etc.

Anyhow HUD is supposed to post bid results by 3 pm each day. On the day I submitted my bid we didn't win it as there was no posting on the HUD site. I wasn't terribly surprised because of the low ball offer I put in.

I briefly considered posting a follow up bid but decided against it and moved on. 3 days later I discover that HUD accepted my bid.......

Well it was quite a shock. It's a good thing I didn't push forward with a bid I was preparing for another house. I guess the moral of the story is, if you put a bid in on a HUD house then I wouldn't expect them to follow their rule of posting results "daily"

I think in order to be successful in anything you have to have a deep and internal burning desire to achieve that goal.

For me it comes from growing up very, very poor in rural West Virginia. A lot of people say they grew up poor but when I tell them some of my stories they tend to change their perspective.

At a very young age, probably around the time I was 12 or 13 years old I made a personal promise to myself that I would never be poor. From that time on almost every major decision I made was in relationship to that goal.

I didn't write it down, I didn't listen to some guru on a CD, I didn't read it in a book.

Finished basements can be a liability in some cases. I used to own a house with a finished basement and it was a complete pain in the arse. The ceiling was not a drop ceiling, rather a standard ceiling. So anytime any work had to be done to plumping, run phone/cable lines etc. the ceiling had to be damaged to gain access to the mechanical's of the house.

Also, it was carpeted and about once a year in the spring moisture would seep into the basement and I would have to be diligent to get it dried up or otherwise it would cause mildew/moisture issues.

In the area I invest (and I suspect most major city's) there is sort of a "buffer" of neighborhoods between the war zone and the upper scale/middle class suburbs.

Some folks call these areas "working class" neighborhoods. These are the areas where I look for deals.

From a personal perspective I would never invest in a property knowing that I was part of contributing to urban blight, criminal activity and such. No amount of cash flow or potential profit is worth it to me.

It needs some light work (painting, flooring etc.) and a few other misc. things but overall this is a fantastic house for the price. There apparently has been quite a bit of interest in it, so I'm hoping to make a good deal fast.

Yeah I'm buying them when it fits into my plans. This one I'm looking at tonight looks like a keeper on paper.

I have another one I'm looking at that two houses down from one of my current properties. I can't buy them both so I need to decide which one I want, or I might throw really low ball offers in on both of them and see which one bites..... :lol: