All Forum Posts by: Walter Fabiszewski

@Kaylee Pratt I just reread your original post and that you said “in 50 words or less”. Sorry for the long replies

As a real estate agent just starting my career I used to work in the office and do “up time” where I would  take calls from customers looking for information on properties for sale. One day I get this call from a gentleman who lived in Virginia. He explained to me that his mother passed away and that he wanted to list and sell her house that he recently inherited. He gave me the address and I immediately jumped in my car to take a look. When I got to the house there was a woman outside doing a little gardening. She came up to me at my car and asked if she could help me.  I explained to her that I may have the wrong address, but I thought I just got a phone call from the owner saying that he would like to sell the property. She got irate with me and told me that “the old lady who lived here promised me the house for $25,000. I used to check on her every day and she promised me that I can have the house when she died for $25,000.“ I returned to the office, called the son and told him what she said. He said “just give it to her”. I tried to explain to him that 1) if she does not have any written documentation he is under no obligation to sell her the property for that price and 2) in that location the land alone was worth $100,000 (because the builders were buying like crazy to tear down and build new construction) and without even seeing the condition of the inside I would estimate the value of the duplex at approximately $150,000. Again he told me to “just let her have it” and asked if I would do the contract and handle the transaction for him. Long story short, I prepared a contract which both parties signed with all the dates times and deadlines. Four or five months past and the buyer still hadn’t closed and was in breach of contract. All the while she was “squatting“ in the property and the seller was paying all the utilities, taxes, insurance, etc. I reiterated to the seller that in my professional opinion the value of the home was XYZ, I told him that I would pay $35,000, close within seven days and deal with the squatter myself. he wanted nothing to do with the property and never wanted to have to come back to this town again so he agreed. I rehabbed and rented the property for about three years and then sold it for $300,000.

I have two incredible stories about investments that just fell into my lap. Back in 2001 my mother went to see a FSBO duplex.  She walked the property with her husband and liked what she saw. The floors were level and didn't bounce when you walked on them, the heating systems seemed to work, the roof looked good, there were no cracks in the foundation, etc. One side of the duplex just needed cosmetic touchup (paint, flooring, etc.). The other side was gutted to the studs. When my mother asked how much the seller was looking for, he replied with " what will you give me?" I told my mom that when it comes to negotiations usually the first person to throw out a price "loses". Again she asked how much he wanted for the house and again he replied "what will you give me?" Finally my mom said fine, what will I give you? I'll give you $25,000. The property was easily worth $100,000 in its current condition and more like $180,000 ARV. The seller looked at her with a look of shock on his face and said "$25,000? You are offering $25,000? I'll take it." she came running to my house because I had that kind of cash at the time. We purchased the house, renovated the first side, put a tenant in and took out $80,000 on a refi. We took some of that money to renovate the other side that was completely gutted and took the rest and put it down on our second investment property. I was BRRRR'ing before I even knew what that was. To give credit where credit is due, mom did find the deal, brought it to me and I financed and put in a lot of sweat equity start building our real estate portfolio.

After a long journey which included short sales, foreclosures and a bankruptcy I have finally rebounded and am ready to resume my journey to financial freedom through real estate investing. I won't bore everyone with the details, but after hitting rock-bottom six years ago I've managed to rebuild my credit from a 497 score up to over 800, qualified for and opened a HELOC and saved enough money to be able to rehab my next project. Most importantly, I've gotten out of my own way and out of my own head that I was a failure and that I didn't know what I was doing as a real estate investor. Watching lots of podcasts and YouTube videos by bigger pockets. I thank you for all the hard work you put in to both educate us and build our confidence to start or in my case restart our real estate investing careers. I'm looking forward to networking with many like-minded investors and continuing to learn through BiggerPockets.

@Marc Middleton I didn’t realize that his post was 2018 until after I posted a reply. What’s the current status of HBR? I see there are a ton of listings in the building. Did the developer walk away?

@Marc Middleton

I have a client who was interested in purchasing at the HBR. He was looking for a place that he can do Airbnb and enjoy periodic days at the beach with his family. That is until he saw the property. As a few people have mentioned the property is in desperate need of a large cash injection. Is it true that a developer has 77% of the owners on board to sell And that they only need another 3% to be able to buy out the building and take over the project of redeveloping? If this happens, will it be a long and drawn out process with lawsuits from the 20% of owners who did not agree to sell? If the yield is good enough, I may have an investor(S) who would be willing to purchase enough units to make that 80% a reality.