Hi everyone. I'm 28 years old, a licensed plumber and have my own plumbing company out of Wallingford CT. I'm looking to close my first deal on a flip, but have not had any luck yet. I don't have any problem finding deals, I have made offers on 10 different properties 2k-15k over asking price and still have yet to land one. I have about 30k cash to put down and looking to do a FHA or conventional loan depending on the property. All of these properties are in the New Haven County area and are bank owned. After I submit an offer through the listing agent, most of the time I hear nothing back, or I see the house goes on deposit a week later. My questions are: How can I submit a second offer, if it's unknown that they declined my original offer? I ask my agent to find out the status of my offer everyday and they say the bank doesn't respond. Is my agent feeding me B.S.? Is the only way to score a deal in CT to make cash offers? Please any advice would be greatly appreciated!

@Phil Restivo You can definitely get non-cash offers accepted in CT on bank owned properties. I have 3 clients in the last 30 days who have gotten FHA and/or FHA 203k financed offers accepted.

Without knowing the specifics of the properties you are offering on it is hard to make any judgments about your agent and them feeding you any kind of BS or not. 

Have you bid on any HUD, homepath or any other bank owned property that has a period where only owned occupants can bid? These properties are sometimes a good fit for owner occupants because it puts you on an even playing field when you are bidding because you are only bidding against other owner occupants.

I have been there as an agent and even as an investor where you hit a streak where you make offers and you don’t get them accepted. It is a bummer for sure, but keep plugging away and you will land something. 

If you need any guidance at all on how to put you and your agent in a better position to hear back from the sellers in a more timely fashion let me know. Again, that part of your post is tough to answer without specifics. 

 I would like at the terms that your agent is putting those offers on to try to sell your offer. Here are some tips that I sometimes put my offers on if I were representing my buyer(s) especially on a hot market like it is down here in South, FL.

Deposit = $5% of purchase price

Additional deposit = $5k-10k upon offer acceptance. Sometimes, if the property is really good then offer a large deposit overall.

Inspection = 7 days or 10 days at most.

Additional Terms:

Try to leave it blank or by your state’s contract terms.

For REO's I generally like to know who the bank/asset company is because they aren't all created equal. For example, Fannie/Freddie is pretty good at giving you at times a response quick, but others like SAM, the bank of new york, etc. may not have an answer ready. Also, make sure that your agent knows about submitting bank offers because they have certain paperwork to fill out and this is especially true for FANNIE. If your agent presents the offer and the bank is requesting more documents this period of time of you/agent/listing agent/bank getting them the proper paperwork is crucial because it may mean someone else putting a bid while you gather the paperwork. Before going to view the property, I at times have the offers prepared already just in case buyer wants to make an offer, this way if they're going to submit an offer I just send them the Dotloop contract to be signed electronically right then and there. Speed is of the essence with bank offers.