Why I Failed!!!
Hey BP,
Disclaimer: I made many mistakes
Unfortunately this is not a success story, but I have learned a lot from this deal.
This was my first potential deal that did not turn out so well. I got a house under contract in a not so great but not so bad neighborhood. I was able to talk the seller down to a price that I thought was a good deal for me and the owner. The house was owned free and clear which means the seller was going to make a nice profit from the sale and I would have made a few thousand, which I was more than happy with. (Side note: the house was listed on the MLS for 2.5 years with no action). I explained to the seller that I would potentially be the end buyer or an investor partner of mine would be and she that was fine. I also asked if I could place a lock box on the house in order to streamline having people coming in and out of the property and they did not agree to this.
I currently work a full time job and the property is about 1 hour from my house and the seller lives out of state. When I had people that were interested in viewing the property, I had to set it up with the seller's niece to let them in the house and see the place and the seller was ok with this. It got to the point that I was getting offers way lower than i had it under contract for so I started reaching out to other wholesalers in the area for advice. Each one said it was priced to high and I would have to renegotiate a price. This was not something I was looking forward to but had to be done. I attempted to reach out and explained to the seller that we may have to renegotiate the price down and she went into a frenzy. I let her know that I had other investors coming to look at the property so I will keep her informed after they make an offer. I also asked again to put the house on lockbox which is when the daughter got on the phone and went into a frenzy also. She claimed she doesn't know me from Adam (which is true) and she also doesn't know if I would be selling drugs or pimping girls out of the house, which is not my end game. She said that never has she heard of putting a lockbox on a house for potential buyers without them buying it first and I again explained this was in order to streamline the process because I was unable to be there showing the house due to my job.
It became a mess from here on out. I showed more investors and no one offered more than 40k and it was under contract for 42k. I made the dreaded second call today trying to get the price down and it did not go well. The seller cancelled the contract and said that I had her family acting as my "agents" showing others the property. This is not how I would have liked it to go, but the reality is I made mistakes...
Mistakes:
1.) I should have been more transparent and told the seller that I was going to "assign" the contract to an end buyer.
2.) I should have known the area better before I sent a contract with a price that was to high.
3.) I should have been more available to be at every showing and not relied on her family and potential buyers to be at the house without me there.
Well you live and you learn. I put this post under the success stories because even though I did not get my first check I learned a lot which is successful in my book. I am putting myself out there to the BP world so I can get some feedback and have people scold me for being a newbie idiot. I am ok with it. I know I will get my first check very soon!!!