All Forum Posts by: Will Wu

 The first thing I asked her is why she wanted to sell. Her reply to me is that "being a white woman with little kids" she has a lot going on and she does not wants to deal with low income tenants in the "ghetto".  My help to her was to pay her the price she wanted and get her out of the life of being low income landlord which is not for anyone. I did everything in my power to help her I spent many hours preparing information and appeasing prices on those properties and forwarded all my homework to her. The only thing I wanted from her is for her to reply me. If she wasn't ready to sell she just needed to tell me and I will stop contacting her. 

 I did that yesterday. I sent her an email explaining her our urgency to have her confirmation if we can proceed or no. Whatever is her decision it will be OK we just needed her reply so we will know what to do next. I pay a lot of attention on how people react. When someone said to me they will get back to me tomorrow I expect them to do that. When they don't do that and keep telling me they will do certain things but that never happens that is a big red flag for me. As of now I'm not even considering this deal will go until I see the contract signed. Any verbal agreements she made to me is worthless and I have already moved on to pursue other deals. 

Indeed 6 phone calls in one day sounds ridiculous. But that is after 2 days without calling her at all, after 2 days that she gave me a verbal agreement that we have a deal and made me spend money on attorney to draft the contract. A deal that she wanted with the price she asked. I did not even countered her asking price. I will expect her to at least acknowledge that she received the contract. Could be by email or text or whatever. I'm not an obsessive buyer trying to harass the seller like many of you think. If she had any concerns or any second thought about the deal (which everybody is entitle to) all she had to do is to let me know. If she did not wanted to talk she could have texted or a short email that will not take her more than 2 minutes will be good enough. As a father of 3 kids and hands on manager of 50 apartments plus managing other investments I'm also very busy and treasure my limited time. Of course many of you will think I'm harassing her but I will think that harassment is when someone express that she does not want to deal with you but you still keep insisting. Every time I talk to her she is assures me she is very interested to get the deal done and promises me to call me back at a certain time but that never happens. I guess I'm too serious and take others words too seriously. I can't help it because this is the way I learned to do business. Always keep your word and do not waste anyone time. Be honest and upfront, always. That is why I made sure to have the money ready before making her the offer. Apparently it seems OK for many people that because you are a busy mother with a lot going on is OK to waste others money and time. 

Thank you for your advice. I have taken a step back and will not call her that frequently. The reason on my 6 calls on Monday is because the sales contract deadline was on Monday and we had to pull many strings to get the money from investors and lenders and I was under limited time to get this deal done and secure the funds. Without the contract the investors will move on to other deals. It's not like we have the cash sitting in the bank just waiting for her to make up her mind about it. But you guys are right. I should not push her that hard. Thank you for the precious advise. 

 You could be quite right about it. I have 3 kids myself and I know how it is. I'm very used to deal with professionals that is why I can understand it. I have to switch my mind and not see her as a professional but instead a busy mother...

I recently engaged in a negotiation to buy a portfolio of rental apartments from a seller whom just inherited these properties from her late father. The properties were off market. I contacted her to discuss if she might be interested to sell the whole portfolio and she immediately said she really wants to get rid off it because it is too much for her (a white woman with little kids) to deal with low income tenants in the "hood". I managed to get an appointment with her to discuss the price and terms. After a couple of weeks and some back and forth she finally told me the price she was wiling to sell. I agree to pay the price she asked because I believe it was a fair price. This is a 50+ units apartments deal for a seven figure cash deal. During all the negotiation I was very proactive calling her trying get the deal done. She never called me once (even when she always promised to call me a certain time). I felt like I was chasing her all the time. She just did not acted like a person interested to sell. I asked her many times if she is "really interested to sell" and she assured me she was but she is always so busy she does not have time to reply emails or phone calls (how busy can a person be that chooses to ignore a buyer willing to buy cash for seven figure deal and pay her full asking price).

Anyway, last Friday we agreed on the phone on the price. It was the price she wanted and she confirmed verbally that we have a deal. Then I proceeded to send her the sales contract on Friday giving her the weekend for her to go thru the terms. I called her 6 times on Monday and she finally answered my phone late afternoon confirming she received my contract and she will send to her attorney to review and get back to me tomorrow. Once again "tomorrow went by" and she did not called me back as promised and did not pick up her phone during the whole day. I finally got someone to pickup the phone at 7:30pm today. It was her husband and he told me she is at bed now and asked me to call her tomorrow during from 9:00 to 3:00pm (yeah but you guys never pickup the phone during that time). 

I'm an investor and I've done many transactions before and this is the first time that I'm dealing with a seller that does not respond professionally and does not pick up the phone or call you back. I've finally sent her an email today asking her to contact us if she still wants to close the deal or not otherwise we will take our money to pursue other deals. The only reason I have not quit this deal is because it is a good deal that fits our portfolio. I'd love to hear what do you guys think about this seller? What will you do in this situation?

 I inherited this tenant when I purchased this property a few months ago and he has a record of being arrested back in May 2014 for trespassing and stealing unoccupied premises. That is why I suspect he is doing it again. I'm not concerned about the yard cause I can force him to remove it and if he does not comply I will ask my maintenances crew to remove it. I don't think he is a hoarder or scrapper cause he did not have junk like this before. His rent is paid 100% by Sec. 8. Nevertheless,  I called the police and will leave it to the police to decide if this is legal or not.

I called him he was not available to answer at the time. I told his girlfriend I'll need to talk to him about it. I will call the cops.