All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Charles

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 221 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – One blog post written and two posted.  Since I did last week’s update later in the week, the correct count for last week should be two posts posted for the whole week.

Networking – Attended a Cashflow game event hosted by a local investor. That was the first time I have ever played and I enjoyed it.  It reminded me that there are still some calculations that I need to brush up on and get more knowledgeable about.

Offers – No offers submitted. As I am writing this, I just realized that I haven't been getting my automated MLS listing updates in a few days. I just asked my wife if she could check to see if there is something wrong or if the updates expired or something.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts.

Networking – No events planned.

4509 Falkirk Bay

The buyers gave us a list of repairs that they are asking to be fixed. Most of the items are minor and we agreed to fix all of those. The major items they wanted repaired were the electrical panel and the boat dock.  The electrical panel is up-to-code and is functioning perfectly fine. However, it is a Federal Pacific "Stab Lok" panel and this brand supposedly had breakers that malfunctioned in the past.  We had debated whether to replace it initially with the rest of the rehab but then I decided to leave it as is and then replace it later if we had to. Since the buyer’s home inspection called the panel out, my wife convinced me to replace it since the issue would come up again even if we don’t close escrow with this buyer.  It’s going to end up costing a little bit more to replace than if we would have done it initially since they have to cut through some of the siding to get to it. In the future, we may just plan on replacing this brand of panel from the get-go.  The buyers also asked us to replace the boat dock and the ramp to the boat dock. The dock does have a few cracks, but none of the home inspectors (ours or the buyers) said anything was structurally wrong with it.  We got a free quote from a dock specialist last week and he confirmed that the dock and ramp are both structurally sound and in good condition.  We gave his report to the buyers but they still asked us to replace it to bring the ramp and dock “up to the quality of the rest of the home.”  The estimate to replace the ramp and dock would have been right below 10K.  We then countered back that we are fixing every other item on their repair list, so we would not be replacing the ramp and dock since there is nothing wrong with them.  They then countered back and asked for a $2500 credit for the “repairs.”  We were initially going to refuse this credit, but then one of my wife’s mentors said that $2500 really isn’t that big of a deal on an 820K purchase.  Plus, if we refused and the buyers walked away, we would probably end up losing the same, if not more money in holding costs.  My wife sent the buyer’s agent the signed paperwork last night, so hopefully we are one step closer to being able to close escrow.

@Jeff Greenberg

Thanks Jeff, but it wasn't that brave.  There's only so much pool time and tours that you can go on.  Plus, the plane rides were pretty long.

@David Tipton

Thanks, but we know that we still have a long way to go.  I don't feel that i can advise people on the "right way" to do things until we have built up a decent track record, but at least we can try to share some of our experiences and things we think we should have done differently. 

@Andy Cross

No, they are not posted on BP.  They are posted on our company website, but unfortunately, I cannot post any links here.  If you go to my BP profile page, you should find the link to our homepage and then be able to find the blogs from there.

Since we have minimum experience, I think there are only a couple of blog posts about our "experiences."  In my opinion, the best ones that I have written are about topics that I didn't understand, so I went to do the research and ended up writing an informative post about what I learned.  Every time I read about a topic that I don't fully understand, I jot it down for me to write a short post about later.  For instance, if someone mentioned the term "adjustable rate mortgage" and I didn't know what that was, I would do some research and then write a post about it.   Also, if I read other articles that I think are good or informative, I will try and write about them and how they can be applied to our county or surrounding area.  Lastly, we sometimes write about events going on in the area that are not specifically real estate related, just to get more content out there.

@Jordan Ingram

Welcome to Bigger Pockets and also the best state in the country ;)  My wife and I live in Oxnard and we just completed our first flip.  Although we probably don't have the experience to be a mentor, please let me know if there is anything that we can help you with in Ventura County.  Feel free to PM me and I can provide you with our contact info.

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 242 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – Two blog posts written and one posted. We actually are starting to get on track again. I don’t know if I mentioned it in the past, but I want to post a blog about every 4 days. My initial goal was three a week, but we hardly ever met that goal and I think it might be unrealistic. I will keep the goal at every 4 days for now and see how we do.

Networking – No networking events attended

Offers – One offer submitted and rejected. Writing offers on MLS properties almost seems like a waste of time. I know that it's all a numbers game and you have to write 50 offers to get one accepted, but the price that makes sense for us is not even close to the price that most of the homes are selling for. It would be one thing if we were at least close, but we are not even in the ball park.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts.

Networking – My wife mentioned there is a Cashflow game happening tomorrow night. I have not seen the emails about it myself, but if there is, we may attend it.

4509 Falkirk Bay

We received the report from the physical inspection that was performed last week. The buyers will also be performing a sewer lateral inspection and an inspection of the boat dock and ramp leading to the dock. We did not perform any work on the ramp or the dock (except for replacing the lining that was falling off) as they are shared with the neighboring unit and the neighbor wanted us to pay for the whole thing. We will see if the buyers ask us to repair anything, as I’m sure they will, and then negotiate from there. I believe their contingency period ends next Monday, so hopefully we’ll have some more news by the time I write my next update.  

@Phillip Y.

Thanks for reading. I hope there is something in this thread helpful to other new investors.

@David Tipton

Thank you for the tip. It seems like most threads that i read have people suggesting that it is best to answer the phone and only have a voicemail pick up if you have to.  I do like your idea of asking them to leave their important information though.

@Brionne Moss

We don't want to get too excited yet, as anything can happen before escrow closes.  I'll feel a little better once we hear what their home inspector has to say, but we'll keep our fingers crossed. I'm assuming that if this one falls through, us having accepted a fall price offer bodes well if we have to put it back on the market.

It was on the market for 4 or 5 days before the first offer came.  We wanted to price it to move within the first two weeks.  The same model sold for 800K in October.  We feel like ours is nicer than that one, so we were trying to find a happy balance between thinking it's worth more yet not trying to ask too much for it.

I am a few days late writing this update. Apparently this is the week to hold holiday lunches/dinners, so I haven’t had much time to work on real estate at night. That being said, here is the latest update.

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 266 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – One blog post written and one posted. Since we are not hand writing the envelopes for this touch, I should have more time to dedicate to catching up on writing blogs.

Networking – No networking events attended

Offers – One offer submitted on Sunday. The seller countered all the offers today, so we need to give the agent who showed us this listing our best and final offer.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts.

Networking – No networking events planned for this week. All of the county REIAs have been cancelled for the holidays.

4509 Falkirk Bay

We received two offers last week, one for asking price and one for 5K higher than asking. The offer that was 5K higher was contingent on the buyer selling their current home, so we didn’t think the extra 5K was worth the risk of potentially losing out on the other buyer. We accepted the full price offer and opened escrow a few days ago. The termite inspection was yesterday and there are a few areas that we need to do spot treatment on. I believe the buyer’s physical inspection was schedule for today, but I haven’t heard any feedback on if it happened or how it went. We are keeping our fingers crossed that everything continues smoothly and we are able to close escrow in a few weeks.