First Solo Flip & I'm in Trouble

[1step]

Vacant, I did staged on a home before and it didn't add value. The home didn't sell faster or for a higher price.

Wondering how you came to this conclusion? Seems like everything I have heard indicates staging clearly adds value.

How did you test this on a home to conclude it offers no value?

 

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[D11FYY]

I would
1) Phone around and get staged furniture in
2) Get better photographs and yes on a Sunnier day - I buy and sell cars it sounds silly a photo on a nice day at the right time makes a significant diffrence - the feel good factor from just looking at it.
3) Plant some flowers do up the garden nice - Women love Gardens and Kitchens - (Women decide if the guy buys it or not haha - not meaning to be sexist.)
4) Get flyers made with the new photos and make them available on your own website so people can view anytime without seeing the price you actually paid for the house.
5) Go hand them out at the mall , local shops , salons etc. and arrange another open viewing offer incentive for showing up they could view and spread word!
6) Stop knocking things back and just try something different

Best of luck and hope you flip this around!

 

[CashFlowDepot]

You only have about 2 weeks until the have to pay off the mortgage

Even if they start foreclosure it will take a couple of months before you lose the house

BUT...

you need to get aggressive about getting this house sold

Do you have a Highest Bidder Sale scheduled for THIS weekend?
I sent you the book and all the docs so you will know exactly what to do and how to do it

have you contacted Dyches Boddiford?

Another plan would be to contact every single 1031 exchange company -- start wtih www.1031taxfreesale.com
they have a lot of people with a lot of money that has to be spent in 45 days or less for a 1031 exchange.
If they don't spend the cash, they have to pay taxes on it.

do a search at 1031.org for other companies

Contact all 1031 exchange companies to see if they have anyone who would like to invest in this property

be willing to offer 50% of the equity when you do sell it. (it is better than zero equity if you lose it)

hedge funds are buying in your area - contact Blackstone and search the Georgia Business Journal to see which other hedge funds are buying in the altanta area. A quick search revealed this company https://www.americanhomes4rent.com/ is buying about 10,000 homes a month in altanta. they might buy your house

you could structure it to sell them the home below market but hold back a 10% to 20% option for future option ( recorded of course) for future gains

and of course, you should contact the current hard money lender to see if they will extend the loan - it will probably cost you $ but it is better than losing the house ( hard monehy lenders are loan sharks and not the best person to deal with. it is much better to work with private lenders and always.. ALWAYS have an extension clause built in to the loan)

 

[PeeVee]

You only have about 2 weeks until the have to pay off the mortgage

Even if they start foreclosure it will take a couple of months before you lose the house

BUT...

you need to get aggressive about getting this house sold

Do you have a Highest Bidder Sale scheduled for THIS weekend?
I sent you the book and all the docs so you will know exactly what to do and how to do it

have you contacted Dyches Boddiford?

Another plan would be to contact every single 1031 exchange company -- start wtih www.1031taxfreesale.com
they have a lot of people with a lot of money that has to be spent in 45 days or less for a 1031 exchange.
If they don't spend the cash, they have to pay taxes on it.

do a search at 1031.org for other companies

Contact all 1031 exchange companies to see if they have anyone who would like to invest in this property

be willing to offer 50% of the equity when you do sell it. (it is better than zero equity if you lose it)

hedge funds are buying in your area - contact Blackstone and search the Georgia Business Journal to see which other hedge funds are buying in the altanta area. A quick search revealed this company https://www.americanhomes4rent.com/ is buying about 10,000 homes a month in altanta. they might buy your house

you could structure it to sell them the home below market but hold back a 10% to 20% option for future option ( recorded of course) for future gains

and of course, you should contact the current hard money lender to see if they will extend the loan - it will probably cost you $ but it is better than losing the house ( hard monehy lenders are loan sharks and not the best person to deal with. it is much better to work with private lenders and always.. ALWAYS have an extension clause built in to the loan)

You are an amazing resource. I am not in RE but I can relate to pulling out all of the stops and finding every possible angle to something. Awesome that you are helping someone in need.

 

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[CashFlowDepot]

Thanks Peevee

 

[PopEmersen]

I have the HBS scheduled for this weekend. I also have the option of showhomes of atlanta moving in a home manager this week. Basically, they stage the home for free, pay the util, and landscaping till the home sells. With the HBS this weekend, should I do it?

Never heard of 1031 but I will look right now. On my way to HD to get a million signs. Contacted Dcyches have a call with him today.

 

[CashFlowDepot]

I have the HBS scheduled for this weekend. I also have the option of showhomes of atlanta moving in a home manager this week. Basically, they stage the home for free, pay the util, and landscaping till the home sells. With the HBS this weekend, should I do it?

Never heard of 1031 but I will look right now. On my way to HD to get a million signs. Contacted Dcyches have a call with him today.

Glad to see you taking ACTION! Remember to get a creative mortgage broker at the property to pre-qualify people on the spot. Why would they do this? They get a lot of leads of people who might want to buy a house and need a mortgage.

a 1031 will not work for this property. YOu rehabbed it with the intention of reselling.

GET THE HOUSE STAGED ASAP!!!

Are you following the advice in my book?

Are you posting on craigslist daily? two times a day would be better? (you will need to use 2-3 different emails)

Did you send out a press release? You can get someone to write it at www.Fiverr.com and send it out too.

Do you have a BIG sign in front of the property? not a little 18 x 24 -- I'm talking about a 3 foot x 4 footer printed on both sides.

I am finishing up my Panama Relocation Tour on Thursday afternoon (tomorrow) so I will be checking in to see if you have any questions. I'm leaving on Saturday for Ecuador for a few weeks but I will check in when I can to see if you need anything. It might be faster to email me at jackie at cashflowdepot dot com

You WILL get the house sold this weekend!

 

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[yulthebull]

this may or may not have been mentioned already and I'm not sure its a viable option but how about paying the buyers agent 4 or 5% instead of the standard 3

 

[xmartel]

this may or may not have been mentioned already and I'm not sure its a viable option but how about paying the buyers agent 4 or 5% instead of the standard 3

To expand on this, here's a trick I learned if I'm ever in a tight spot. I've never had to use it yet, but I've seen other home builders around here do it.

Not sure how it is done there, but in Canada it's free for buyers to use realtors, so most people do. They control 80% of the market. I've been quite successful selling without them, but it can be difficult and if you try and circumvent their monopoly they blacklist you. Even if you're willing to negotiate a commission if a realtor does bring someone, by not using one yourself you can often find yourself missing out on the majority of the buyers. Even if the property would be perfect for their client, they won't show it.

I've learned that instead of fighting it, use the system to your advantage. I've done it in a few different ways. But I'll give you 2 real life examples of 1 method in action. You just have to remember, realtors are people, and most are motivated by making a lot of money. They like to say their clients needs come first, but I've found in reality that's not true at all for 75%+ of the realtors out there. Money talks.

Example 1

There was a home for sale in the 550k range on street filled with 400k homes. The owner was an aquantance of a family friend. It was on the market for 6 months without selling. Instead of dropping the price like most people do in that senario. They offered a bonus 10k commission to the buyers agent on top of the regular commission (6-4-2 around here split 50/50 between sides). It sold in 3 days for asking price.

Example 2

A high end home builder in my city built an 800k home on spec. Sat for quite a few months without selling. Lowered the price to 775k. Still didn't move. So they raised the price to 850k, and made the commission structure 0% for anything under 800k, and 100% for everything over. It sold for 850k within the week.

You have to be careful with how you structure this method, you don't want to rip people off. The 2nd example bugs me, it's genius, but I don't like it. The buyers agent's greed surpassed his obligations to his clients and they over paid by probably 100k vs what the home should have sold for.

You only want to do this method in moderation and structured properly so that you're not taking advantage of people.

Every realtor now knows about the 2nd deal, and that realtor now has a shady reputation. So does the builder to some degree. And if those details ever got out into the buying public, it could seriously harm the reputation of that builder.

 

[PopEmersen]

So last week between jury duty and emergency room visits I wasn't able to do the proper marketing the HBS called for so I postponed the auction until this Sundy the 29th. Also, we had a showing on Thursday. The guy liked the house and even drove up the driveway into the garage several times. Didn't hear from him all weekend.

So on this past Saturday I started the marketing process for the HBS, I created 2 CL listings listing the auction. I printed 100 flyers and put those flyers on cars parked in the Kroger and Walmart parking lot accross the cross street. There was a wedding at the park in front of the house, those cars got flyers too. I also put up signs through out the neighborhood with flyers attached to them. I put a brochure inside the place too.
Sunday, I had the yard cleaned again.

Tuesday, the guy that saw the house puts an offer in. We go back and forth and Wednesday we agreed and are now under contract so I won't have to have the HBS BUT going through the HBS process, it really seems like the best way to sell a home. If I could have done it over, I would have had an HBS the week after all the work was done. You get the mometum of the house be REALLY fresh and clean plus the landscaping is top notch right then. You also get to control how the process goes and you get to keep the commission. On my next flip I will do the HBS. One more thing, I can't do RE investing and this high pressure gig. When I did those other 6, that's all i was doing. These 10 hours at work hampered the project.

You live and you learn, just happy to have it under contract BUT we all know its not official until the names are signed during closing. Thank you guys for all your suggestions.

 

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[Tyman]

Awesome to hear! Was waiting for your response, I'm glad you (almost) got it sold.

 

[Veloce Grey]

Nice you seem to have got a result.

Personally I'm not the best driver around so a driveway like that would be a big turn off, but it isn't so much the steepness. The issue for me would be the winding and narrow nature of it meaning I'd continually be a risk to damage my car. Had it simply been quite a bit wider that risk would be gone and it would be far less of an issue.

 

[CashFlowDepot]

Reporting live from beautiful (but chilly) Cuenca Ecuador...

great report on how the full court press of a Highest Bidder Sale worked to get the house sold.

You can do a fantastic job rehabbing a property but if no one knows about the house you can't sell it. Your marketing efforts drew attention to the property.

Hopefully the next time you will be able to go through the whole process of doing a 2 day HIghest Bidder Sale, accepting bids, doing the round robin to get the price up up up, selling the house in only 7 days from the time you start the marketing, and having a back up buyer ( just in case the first one bombs out).

Highest Bidder Sales work!

Did my Highest Bidder Sale book help?

 

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[PopEmersen]

Yes, your book helped immensely! It opened my eyes as to the control I have over the sale of my property. I have to own the selling process, before I let the realtor own that, no more.

 

[CashFlowDepot]

Yes, you definitely need to OWN the selling process. Passing the on to a real estate agent or anyone else will not get the same results - and certaily not as fast.

I look forward to hearing when you have closed and it is funded!

 

[PopEmersen]

Closing was this past Friday, and all went well. Learned a lot. On to the next endeavor.

 

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[CashFlowDepot]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!