Our Craigslist Find!

Whenever we meet other rehabbers, the number one question we get asked is, “Where do you get your properties?”. While the majority of the properties have come from MLS, there is one property we actually purchased off of Craigslist! If you had told us a little over a year ago that we would buy a property off of Craigslist, I would have thought you were crazy. Why? Because we weren’t even looking at Craigslist for potential properties!

Countless podcasts claim that Craigslist can be a great vehicle to source deals. And while we had casually searched Craigslist from time to time, nothing stood out to us. That all changed January 2017. We had been tirelessly combing the MLS to find our next project, when I decided to look at Craigslist. After a few hours of searching one property stood out to me as a potential flip. I called the poster immediately and set-up an appointment to go see the property. During the call, I also was informed that this property was actually a wholesale deal; another first for us.

A couple of days later we walked the property, and placed an offer. The wholesaler told us there were two other offers on the table (who knows if that was actually true or not), so our initial offer was our best and final. The wholesaler came back and asked if we could go up any more, but since we had already offered our best offer, we stayed with our initial offer. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the house….just kidding, wanted to see if you were paying attention. We got the house!! The wholesaler assigned the contract to us, we went to closing and closed with the seller, and finally we paid the wholesaler a commission. It was actually a smooth transaction, and we would do it again in a heartbeat.

The story doesn’t end here! Considering this was our first Craigslist purchase, and our first purchase from a wholesaler, it is only fitting that it was also our first off-market sale too! Family friends of ours were moving back to the area, and they asked if they could see the house prior to us listing the property. We agreed, and within a week we were under contract! So how did we handle closing, as this was our first sale without the assistance of a realtor? We contacted the lawyer who handled the transaction when we purchased the property! Crazy, eh!

This situation was a learning experience for us from start to finish, despite it being our fifth flip! But now, we regularly search Craigslist for opportunities...and you should too!