Seeking Stories about that "Deal That Got Away"
Melanie StephensPro Member
Investor · Tabernash, CO · Member since 2012 · 11 posts · 237 votesSeeking Stories about that "Deal That Got Away"
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Rental Property Investor · Hendersonville, NC · Member since 2016 · 446 posts · 412 votes
5yMelanie, I have one:
Right after buying my first property (all this was before becoming an agent), I stumbled on a house for sale with an in-law suite and an extra lot. In my area, single family is very difficult to cash flow, so I was focused on multi-family. We offered $128,000 (way below asking) and it was valued probably around $190k at the time (it was very dated, but all cosmetic) and they took it. Turns out they were ready to get rid of the house....as we started to move forward I realized that even at that price after the rehab it wouldn't meet my cash flow targets so we passed on it. About 9 months later I see it up for sale for $330k. Someone bought it and flipped it and combined the units together as a single family. They payed $160k and sold for around $330k (without the extra lot) and I estimated they had $80k in rehab. I realized my mistake was being too focused on one strategy. I had a great deal and could have easily flipped it, etc. if I had focused on how to make money on the property and not just on one strategy.
55 Replies
- Rental Property Investor · Greenville SC / Atlanta GA · Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 20 votes5y
My Greenville realtor found a "castle" (built in the '90s) in the SC hill country. It hit MLS and loads of people showed up just to look at the place. We loved the uniqueness of it and were looking at it as a joint AirBnB + wedding/event venue. Issue was that we had 45 min to make an offer and it required substantial work ($250-300k) to see our vision through. They were asking $195k and we almost went in with a $230k cash offer with no strings attached. Rushing into a deal that big didn't feel right with zero time for due diligence.
Turns out the winning bid was an investor who picked it up for...$230k cash. Fast-forward a couple weeks and the buyer's agent (shhh) asked my agent if we were still interested...for $350k. Apparently HGTV contacted the broker and wants to do a show with three unique properties undergoing rehab. The winner gets the mortgage paid. And the buyer? Zero personality, no interest in TV, doesn't care about doing anything cool with it and just wants to make quick buck. Win some and lose some. Dang, that would have been a blast! I wish him the best.
- 5yJohn UnderwoodPro MemberInvestor · Greer, SC · Member since 2014 · 13k+ posts · 17k+ votes
Instead of contracts and waiting days to close, I have bought houses same day for cash. I do my own quick title search, type up my own Quit Claim deed and get it signed and notarized all on the same day. This keeps a True good to be true deal from vaporizing.
I just bought another house for 12k. The people were difficult and the house was condemned and scheduled to be torn down. I had to move fast when a window of opportunity finally opened late one afternoon. Nothing super wrong with the house. It just needed some of everything.
I had time to get an attorney to run a full blown title search on this one while I was waiting.
- Lender · Chicago IL · Member since 2020 · 357 posts · 229 votes5y
We drive a pickup truck around town with vinyl wrapping on it, advertising our company. A gentleman saw our truck and called us first to see if we'd like to buy his uncle's home. His uncle had become ill and hadn't been living in the house for quite some time. He was sick of taking care of it, and his uncle was sick of paying the bills just to hold on to it.
It was an adorable four square style home with 3.5 levels of living on the NW side of Chicago, on a somewhat historic block, right near a rapidly developing area. I adored the block, the area, and the house, despite the fact that the house was full of isht. Literally. Full. Of. ISHT. Cat poop. Everywhere. The house stunk! We're used to buying distressed properties so it wasn't a huge deal, but, ya know. Still not the most pleasant house to walk around, if you know what I mean. (watch that landmine over there ;)
The house had good bones and we didn't need to tear it down. Though, in this area, a tear down might have been justified as well. My partner and I decided we could pay a specialty cleaning company to clean out the mess and odors, then turn around and resell it on the market to other investors as a gut rehab or tear down. We stay conservative with our numbers so our projected re-sale price to investors was 265k. Thus, we offered 180k, thinking we'd spend about 5k to clean it up, plus several thousands in buying/re-selling costs. (Our selling costs in Chicago are OUTRAGEOUS) The hope was we could turn around and maybe make 30-40k...
Well, we got outbid by another 'cash buyer' that the gentleman spoke to after us. Turns out they offered him around 215k. Less than a month, later I saw the house listed on the MLS for sale at 314k. It ended up closing at over 320k. And boy, did I feel like a dummy.
WELP. That's all she wrote. :/ If you'd like more info please feel free to get in touch with me! I will also email this to you directly.
- Real Estate Consultant · Dallas, TX · Member since 2021 · 7 posts · 7 votes5y
Here I go :) About 4-5 years ago I was offered 8 units, at 165k, 10% down, owner financed at 6%, 100% occupied, 4 minutes away from downtown Dallas in the Fair Park area (yes the multifamily unit had a great downtown view and was all brick). I regret not getting it as similar properties are now going for over 700k.
My mistake was listening to others as how dangerous the area was and how it would be complicated to collect rent or evict tenants if needed to, when they didn't own Real Estate. I shouldn't have listened to them! I could have hired a management company!!! It was a matter of time as the area is changing so rapidly and values have significantly increased.
- Member since 2021 · 4 posts · 1 vote5y
What about lucky to get out before it closed?
- Real Estate Consultant · Dallas, TX · Member since 2021 · 7 posts · 7 votes5y
LOL :-) You are right! I guess one has to consider both scenarios.
- 5yMartin NealPro MemberRental Property Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 293 posts · 383 votes
@Melanie Stephens Here’s one of many for me:
Back in April of 2019, I was looking at houses that I could potentially buy for the BRRRR method.  I came across a two bedroom house with a garage that was selling for $40,000. It was a foreclosure. My niche at the time was only townhomes. I went to see the property and saw that he needed a moderate rehab of $25,000. I've done this type of rehab before and was certain about my numbers. There were no two bedroom houses selling in that area and so I did not know how to properly evaluate the ARV of the property. I compared it to the townhomes that I normally invested in and estimated that it would be worth no more than $80,000-$100,000. This was a mistake on my part. I passed on the deal because it was not going to be a perfect BRRRR. A member of the same Facebook group I was in went on to buy that property. He sold it six months later and made a $65,000 profit because the ARV of that property was at least $130,000. This was an important lesson about making sure that I get the ARV right and I'm not comparing apples to oranges.
- Rental Property Investor · Northern Virginia · Member since 2019 · 793 posts · 620 votes5y
@Melanie Stephens This is how we lost out on a multi-million dollar deal. A couple months ago, we were second on line on a 90+ unit multifamily property. We were already advised by the broker that the top offer was not going to be accepted as the seller knew the group and did not want to work with them. When it came to the offer price, we stayed firm despite the broker asking for us to come up a little in price. The property still worked with our underwriting for us to come up. The broker came back with seller requests such as shortening the due diligence period which we accepted and we even offered some hard money. The broker stated he'd send a contract over shortly.
After a few hours and no contract, we contacted the broker to find out where the contract was and he said the owner signed the contract with another buyer. Confused and a litter perturbed, we drilled into how a seller appeared out of nowhere. Come to find out, the broker shopped our offer with another group who offered less than us and beat us with the EXACT same terms by $100k. We don't offer even numbers in our offers, so to beat us by the exact amount was a mystery until the broker admitted telling other buyers our offer.
Lesson learned: In this environment, we have to be flexible and be willing to give up a little more than what we want to get a deal done. If the numbers still work (never force yourself into a deal--the numbers have to work), then offer the best you can and let everything else play out.
- Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes5y
@Melanie Stephens
Had a triplex around the corner from me lined up for 115k. No walk thru due to uncooperative tenant in 1st unit. Still a deal at that price even if a full gut.
Seller wanted a larger deposit. Had an identical offer from someone else. I hemmed and hawed for a few hours about it while I was at work. When I contacted the sellers agent in the afternoon they had already signed with the other guy.
- Member since 2021 · 6 posts · 0 votes5y
I don't know about the deal that got away but I will tell you the stock that got away. I was stalking IIPR for months when it was hovering around $20. I was thinking to myself that it's just a pot stock like all the others, possibly even one of the overblown MJ penny stocks that were getting hyped up. I took it off my watch list when it slid. Well, guess what, now the cannabis REIT is trading over $170 a share AND it also offers a handsome dividend. I'm still not invested in it right now. Blame it on spite or just me wanting to wait for a hopeful pullback below $150. Needless to say, this is the one that got away for me and it could've been a HUGE win.
The company has projects in several states including Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Mass., Maryland, Colorado, California, Arizona, Nevada, Jersey, and a bunch of other MJ-friendly states. Here's to hoping for a little more of a pullback. I've also been watching Power REIT as a possible second choice and a little cheaper. But still haven't pulled the trigger.
- Pomona, NY · Member since 2016 · 375 posts · 217 votes5y
Heres one,
Sold a flip in march of 20 after renovating for 4 months netted 120k, went into contract for the next end of march 20. Nice property in a very desirable area. Purchase price 215k estimated 60k in repairs. 390k arv, I figured 60 days renovation. Well then covid hit, HML was pulling from deals, didnt have enough cash, bank would keep giving extension even tho real estate came to a halt. I was forced to pull from the deal, ends up my agent had her other investor purchase the property, didn't close till july, ended up having a title issue, if only I pulled title and didnt take they're title insurance. Well they closed put 60k into it sold it a few months later for 430k. Everyone in real estate told me I will never make 100k in the 300k to 500k price range, everyone thus far has been dead wrong. Natted 120k on my 2nd flip would of made over 100k on my 3rd if I didnt listen to people, and of coarse had a cash backer. Since then I lost several good properties because of cold feet. Finally back in contract getting ready to close.
- Investor · Louisville, KY · Member since 2016 · 10 posts · 7 votes5y
I attended a foreclosure auction in Louisville that only had about 15 properties on the block instead of the usual 100. Very few people attended and houses sold for a fraction of what would be considered normal. One poor man lost 5 properties with one being a duplex in a neighborhood that was starting to boom. The properties sold for between $500 and $12,000. I was the first person to knock on their door to purchase the redemption rights. I talked to the son who explained that his father had health issues and wasn't able to manage the properties and would be open to selling the redemption rights for little money as they weren't worth anything to them. His son also stated that he had a contractors license and a realtor license. We agreed to meet the next day. That was the last I had contact with him. I assumed he was avoiding me because someone with more money contacted him. I was wrong. They were just scared and sold the redemption right almost 6 months later. If I could go back in time I would not only have been more persistent but I would have offered the son the listings when I finished renovating the houses to sweeten the pot.
- Miami, FL · Member since 2018 · 7 posts · 1 vote5y
The one that got away!!!
A duplex came on the market in Miami at the end of 2020, listed for $335k. Essentially 2 separate houses, 3 bed 3 bath front house with a 3 bed 2 bath attached in the back on a HUGE lot. The property was in need of serious cosmetic upgrades and was actually part of a probate sale so at this time it was a HOT deal that came up on the MLS and in a market that was starting to heat up quickly.
I submitted a full ask offer with conventional financing before even seeing the property. I went with my contractor the following day and immediately saw the potential to add a 4th bedroom to the front house and saw this was the epitome of a perfect BRRRR with roughly $80k needed in repairs and an ARV of over $540k. Long story short, the listing agent asked me to waive the appraisal contingency which I decided was too risky. I lost out to a cash offer of $315k. That buyer came in and in 2 months completely turned the property around executing my vision. He rented both units for $5,100!!!
The pain didn't end there! I got very excited when he listed the property for $525k as it was still a great cashflowing deal and in a very desired area of Miami (El Portal) so even at ask the numbers made sense. After throwing offers with all but the kitchen sink to this seller and even offering up to $30k above appraisal if it fell short, he ultimately decided to BRRRR (which was the sensible choice). He was all in at about $400k with purchase price and repairs and pulled 100% of his money out within 6 months. This property is a CASHFLOWING machine with the potential for more, i.e. perfect AIRBNB area.
This one truly hurt as I was burned twice on it. Sometimes you have to take the risk of waiving an appraisal to land a GEM like this. Or better yet just leveraging HARD MONEY to offer a competing cash offer. LESSON LEARNED!
- Real Estate Agent · Grand Rapids, MI · Member since 2016 · 251 posts · 224 votes5y
I have a deal I bought that I wish I didn't.. does that count? Closed at the end of January. Pipe burst in the first week and started to flood the basement. Now the property is labeled abandoned and the city has made me gut the house and now bring the 100 year old house to code (not a bad thing). However, the house had foundation issues which I was planning to fix, but caused floors to slope. Now have to bring all floor to within tolerance.. was NOT planning to do that. The quick BRRRR has turned into quite the nightmare
- Rental Property Investor · Canton, OH · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes5y
@Melanie Stephens
Too many to count. Usually it's because I didn't act quick enough and someone else jumped on it, or because I walked away (when I shouldn't have) because seller and I were a few thousand dollars apart on purchase price.
I had this same conversation with a very seasoned REI once and he said "Don't beat yourself up, it happens even to the best of us. The nice thing is, there's always another deal around the corner."
- Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 975 votes5y
I use REIReply to find motivated sellers in Oklahoma City (OKC), and I found this gentleman who was interested in selling a triplex (of sorts). It was three separate structures on one parcel of land in NW OKC (small SFH, a small apartment over a detached garage, and another small structure with a studio apartment type of thing). It was unique for the area, but all three were cash flowing about 2k/month and needed mostly cosmetic work.
We went back and forth in the negotiation and the highest I could go was 150k. He could go no lower than 154k and so we went our separate ways. I followed up with him a month later and he had sold it for about 175k (his original asking price). I still wonder if I should have compromised on my number to buy it for 154k. My hesitation was the fact that there were no true comps for the property. There were triplexes in the area, but none with three separate structures. I was concerned an appraiser wouldn't see it as a 3 unit (because of the garage apartment) and so the full square footage wouldn't count.
I still wonder if I should have bought it! As we know, real estate is very forgiving in the long term so even if the appraisal had come in low it probably would have still been worth buying it. I go back and forth though!
- New York City, NY · Member since 2021 · 3 posts · 1 vote5y
My friend was given the pink slip at work. He knew he had to do something fast and asked me to invest in some real estate (3 multi families) with him down in Daytona Beach. He asked me for 50k. I didn't have that much cash without touching my 401K and I was a bit hesitant bc it would've been the most money I would've given someone. Fast forward March 2021. I've been watching a bunch of tiktok, IG, podcasts and YouTube videos learning about FIRE and people becoming financially free that are younger than me. I gave my friend a call and asked what he was up to. He said he sold the 3 Daytona properties for $2.8M!!! I've never kicked myself so hard in my life. I quickly asked him what he was doing and said I'm a bit older and wiser now with a little more money to spend - Where are you investing? He gave me the name of the cities he was looking at and now I am in contract for a 5 unit multi-family.
- Member since 2021 · 16 posts · 1 vote5y
Hi Melanie,
My name is Melvyn Mangion. Feel free to share your ideas on my website.
I have a question for you. How can one regret selling a real estate given that he was not forced to sell it? With hindsight, we can all admit that we could have known better.
- Investor · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2019 · 433 posts · 743 votes5y
This one just happened to me a few weeks ago. I had a lead come into my website, I went out and visited the property and I decided it wasn't a property for me, but maybe I could assign it. I got the price down to 48k, but in order to make it a deal, I thought I needed to get it 40k so I could either assign it for 45k or BRRRR it. So I referred it out to a buddy home buyer to see if he could do it... he locked it up at 48k and assigned it for 66k. He made an 18k assignment on a word of mouth referral from me. Moral of the story was that I should lock up property and at least try to monetize it, instead of just letting it go.
- 5yGregory SchwartzBusiness MemberRental Property Investor · College Station, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
@Melanie Stephens This one just happened to a friend of mine. He purchased his first self-storage in a small town. He has greatly improved the systems, management, and subsequently the NOI. This success has fueled his desire to expand. He's been meaning to call his only competition in that small town and see if they wanted to sell. Today he sees an advertisement for the competitor's storage facility. He immediately calls the listing broker only to find out it went under contract 3 weeks prior.
Lesson learned: Take action now. Call brokers and let them know what you're looking for and be specific in your criteria.
Schwartz Realty Group5117 Reviews - Towson, MD · Member since 2015 · 5 posts · 2 votes5y
Here's a story about a non-investment property that I found years ago that would have been perfect for my personal needs. I like to detail cars as a hobby and I have a nice older "historic" BMW that I really need to park somewhere out of the elements.
I saw a land deal in Baltimore County that included two two-car garages that were in decent shape. The house had burned down sometime ago and was demolished, leaving just the land and garages. It was listed on the MLS for $25k and I was all over it. My better half, however, didn't see my vision and decided that it wasn't in our best interest to pursue it. It eventually sold for $20k and I've always regretted not following my instincts and buying it anyway as my BMW rusts away parked outside.
- 5yPaul MoorePro MemberCommercial Real Estate Fund Manager · Lynchburg, VA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Hi @Melanie Stephens. I hosted a podcast called How to Lose Money. Many of the stories are in the real estate investment realm. Lots of examples there - mine included!
My first bad deal was when I offered a FSBO seller his full asking price or appraised value - whichever was lower. Wouldn't you know the came in right at the asking price! Even though it was an odd number! :-) I lost over $50,000 on that deal.
- Investor · Wilmington, DE · Member since 2021 · 7 posts · 7 votes5y
Back in 2014 my landlord in Jersey City was begging me to buy the Duplex we were renting, he only wanted $130K. I said no because we were moving in 2015 due to military orders. He kept calling me until 2015/16. Fast forward 2019 I saw they sold it for $900K.
- Member since 2020 · 17 posts · 8 votes5y
@Joshua B. Great story, makes me motivated
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