All Forum Posts by: Keith Goodwine

@Chris Gould  You don't have to chuck this lead yet, especially since it's under contract.  The hard part is over.  Take massive action!  Wholesalers buy at a discount to close quickly with cash buyers. If you aren't closing quickly, and you don't have any interested cash buyers, then you aren't providing the service of a wholesaler.  

Help us help you - if you've talked to any buyers so far, why have they turned down buying this property? Did you buy too high compared to ARV? Are there too many repairs needed? Does it have train tracks, an airport, and a nuclear waste facility in the back yard?

Also try these marketing strategies:

• Have you called all of your cash buyers to see if anyone is interested?  If not, call AND email them all now!  Even the ones that you know won't be interested may find your deal appealing if the price is right.
• Is the property in the FSBO section on Craigslist? If not, post it now! (Here's the link - Toledo FSBO Craigslist )
• Is the property in the Toledo Real Estate Investors Asssociation Facebook group?  If not, post it now!  (Here's the link - Toledo REIA )
• Do you have a FSBO sign in the yard? If not, buy one for the seller and ask her to put it out front now!

Congrats!

Ask her if she'd like to forward you the contact information of the investors, or if she could give the investors your information.  There's no reason why they can't or shouldn't contact you, especially if they are ready to pay cash.  If they can't make a deal, it's likely the other "investors" are wholesalers as well, in which case, you beat them to the punch.

What are your buyers saying about this house?  Too high of a price?  Too many repairs?

Are you marketing the property on Craigslist and Facebook?

Welcome!

Healthcare is going down the tubes, you say?!  My girlfriend is a physical therapist.  What trends do you notice that's got you thinking about exiting?

Huh.  Well yeah, this may be a personal problem they don't feel comfortable discussing then.

It sounds like you've had clear conversations about them moving out.  I think that's more than enough to start prepping for a new tenant, including changing locks and cleaning out their leftover items. 

Be sure to document when/where/how the conversations took place, and a short synopsis of the call.  Keep a Word document that says, "8/16/2016 12:00 PM - Tenant responded to my messages via phone call.  They asked me to keep security deposit to cover for moving out early.  They said they had cleaned everything out, cleaned the carpets, and took care of their damage.  When I asked to give them a rating of me on a 1-10 scale, they gave me a 10.  However, our discussion of their move-out is final."

Sorry to hear that!  I understand the desire to act legally, but they have very clearly breached/terminated the lease in moving out, so I think you are well within your rights as a property with no tenants to prepare for new tenants.

This post may give you some extra clarity:  

http://www.rentprep.com/evictions/3-biggest-mistakes-landlords-make-abandoned-rentals/

Something is obviously very wrong, and if they haven't communicated with you about it, it likely has nothing to do with you anyways.  Be sure they haven't been complaining either to you or property management about repair items.  If not, this may be a personal problem they don't feel comfortable discussing.

Bring up security deposit, and you may get a response. 

"It appears you have moved out yesterday.  I'm not sure why, but it seems like you're already gone.  I'd be open to discussing any details if you give me a call or text back, but I need you to contact me as soon as possible.  Being that this is a month-to-month lease, I'm assuming you are terminating the lease now.  If you call or text me back, we can discuss your security deposit and your final personal items that you left behind. Else I'll keep the full deposit to cover for your ending the lease without proper notification, and cleaning fees for removing your remaining personal items, and lock changing fees.  Let me know if there's anything at all you want to discuss.  I need a response by Friday.  Otherwise I've got to prepare for new  tenants. Thanks for your business, and best wishes!"

You'd at least be safe to do these things at the end of the month, and get a new renter moved in there next month.

Have you spoken to a real estate attorney at all? If not, call one NOW.  Seriously, now.  The next actions in your life should be to search Google for "real estate attorney in my area", find the first attorney listed, and call them.  Literally next thing you do.  Don't even read the rest of this post until you do this.  The consultation is free.  Every moment you wait is a moment where you, your other tenant's, and your drug dealer tenant's lives are in danger.  Call a real estate attorney now.

 An attorney will file for 7 day eviction and the police will be there to enforce it.  The police can also serve the notice if you prefer that.

They definitely violated the lease by attracting armed robberies to the rental. The robbery has destroyed your property, and threatened the life of your tenants. It doesn't matter who did the robbery, your tenants are responsible to you and to everyone else that lives there for causing it to happen. Your lease can be terminated in 7 days (maybe even sooner given the severity) for this kind of material breach.

Your other tenants can rightfully break their lease if they feel their life is in danger. Would you want to stay in an apartment knowing your neighbors are the kind of drug dealers that attract armed robberies? I sure wouldn't.  Also, your drug dealer tenants are likely trashing their place.  Are they hiding drugs in the drywall or cabinets?  The longer they stay there, the more of a risk they are for everyone involved.  They need to be evicted as soon as possible.

Kick these guys to the curb and don't look back.  The longer they stay there, the more people are going to have a gun in their face.  Are you still reading?  Call an attorney NOW!

Some people of the mindset, "own where you live, rent where you own."

It's not a bad idea to flip a house that you don't live in, while you continue to rent.

Another option would be to use "house hacking" - buy the house with a standard or FHA mortgage, live there while you make improvements, and sell ASAP after completion.

There's always motivated sellers out there.  At least I'd like to think so.  Currently looking for my first one myself!

First get to know their motivations for calling you.  They saw your marketing and called you.  They wouldn't have called if they weren't at least a little bit motivated to sell.  Are they planning to move to a different state?  Move into a retirement home?  Need more space for a family?  Have they bought another home and haven't figured out a solution for their current home yet?  Just got a divorce and have to liquidate the house to pay for a judgment?  Behind on payments and they need cash quick?  Is the house a rental and they're tired of dealing with bad tenants?  Your solution is you can buy quickly and in as-is condition.

For high equity and 100% equity sellers, maybe they want to sell to cash in on their equity, but their home needs $35,000 in repairs. A realtor might have suggested making the repairs they can't afford, or might have warned them that it would take months to find an interested buyer because of the repairs. They don't have the time or money to put in to making repairs, especially for a home they want to sell anyways. They might consider taking out a HELOC loan to make repairs (hurting the equity they want), or floating the price with the realtor only to see it sit on the market for months and getting investor offers which the realtor doesn't want to accept. Your solution is the same - you can buy quickly and in as-is condition.

I use Zillow, filter for recently sold in the area, and sort by square footage (highest to lowest is only option). The best matches in terms of Bed/Bath/Square Footage and that have sold within a year are my estimates for ARV. To me, what properties actually sell for is what makes for a good comparable value. MLS has the added value of seeing what's under contract, but I can live without it.

I don't look at currently listed properties and here's why.  I live in a hot market and I'm not particularly interested what people are listing their homes for with realtors.  I've seen many houses sit on the market for a very long time because the seller wants higher than retail for a home that needs $40,000 in repairs.  They might think the land is valuable to a rebuild investor, or hope that transplants from California will justify the price tag/repair value because it's cheaper than what they're used to seeing.  The price eventually drops to true market value, or the house continues to sit on the market.  Either way, the listed price isn't always a representation of market value.  That's why I don't use list prices for comps.

You might be able to joint venture on these leads for $500 each, but as Jordan said, you must have equitable interest to connect buyers to interested sellers.  Or have a real estate agent license.