Back around September, I got word of some potential "deals" in a particular area of Dallas. When I heard what was going on, I immediately knew of some investors that would be interested. After getting more and more information, my initial investors were like, NO WAY!
There's a builder in a community that has apparently put 13 people into foreclosure situations, in which I won't go into details, as they confuse me as it is. The lender liked talking with me and working with me so she said that if I got the home owners' permission to talk with her in detail, we could do some business together. I have the contact information for 5 of the owners.
Because these homes are being built and money has disappeared, there are thousands of dollars of liens on these properties. One of the owners was VERY serious of getting out from under the home and said he would do whatever it took to get the house sold...
Fast forward to November when I blogged about meeting a builder who needed a new Realtor. I took this builder out to the houses and he immediately wanted all of them except one. We immediately put an offer in on one of the properties. Of course, the offer was contingent upon all liens being removed as the lender wouldn't approve a short sale with those liens. The owner had to jump through many hoops to get the lien releases signed, but he didn't mind. We were set to close the Friday before the New Year when one of the lien holders took off to Mexico and didn't return until yesterday, but alas, it closed.
Within this ordeal, one of the lien holders didn't want to release his lien. He kept upping the amount of money he wanted to release it. Finally, the owner tells him that this is ridiculous and why does he keep changing his number. It turned out that the person with the lien likes to buy foreclosures, fix them, and flip them, and he's sore that the owner didn't allow him the opportunity to buy the house. The owner so graciously gave him my name and number and told him that I was working with the lender on several of the homes and that I could get him into one of the homes...
Remember the builder above who liked all but one of the houses? This new guy is going to buy that house, cash!! I now have a buyer for the remaining 4 houses!! Short sales are never fun to go through, but if I had walked away from this situation at the beginning just because the first investors wanted nothing to do with this mess, I never would have found another investor!! Granted, this lien holder guy does have his real estate license, and we'll be working out referral fees, but it's still business I wouldn't have had if I didn't decide it was worth going the extra mile with the work. Lately, I've been finding lots of new clients in the most unsuspecting ways.
Also, a big THANK YOU to the title company as they did a fabulous job running around town with their notary stamp for the lien releases!!
Great job Donna. You got the perserverence to get the job done. I'm sure that's recognized by your client.
Ken
Mark and Ken, thanks! Yes, they are very grueling, but the price range is nice so the compensation is too. The ones that the builder is buying, I'll get to list those ones when he's done, so there's more to come!
Sometimes I wonder if my clients appreciate me because some of them are just down right nasty... others are full of Thank You's.
Congratulations on a job well done, I know perseverance can really pay off in the real estate industry.
You are to be congratulated for your patience and persistence. Go girl!
Knowing how to do short sales is an essential part of the Realtor tool kit. Thanks for your great post!
Some go easy some go hard. You gotta have a few difficult ones to know how sweet a good sale is.
Congrats on you perserverence.
Me
This is weird... I read all the comments through my email this morning and found some of those comments aren't on the blog any longer... why did people delete their comments?
Someone asked about the commissions though it's been deleted. Only the one has closed thus far as we're still getting the liens released on the others, but the commissions are all over the place. I'm not greedy, so when I know the bottom line from the lender and I know the bottom line of the buyer, I work my number in there.
Craig, "a few difficult ones"? I'm extatic when I get a good, easy one, which is very rare!
Harper team, if the charmed life is attracting the bottom of the barrel stuff most of the time, boy am I ever charmed!!
Everyone else, thank you very much for your kind words. I'm sure these other 4 deals will have stories of their own that I'll be blogging about...
Donna,
Thanks for the post. It pays to be persistent and go where most won't!
Nice job....congrats....
HEY! Your blog is on the DASHBOARD!!!! WOOT!
Ken Stampe
http://blog.homeloandfw.com
what does a Lychee taste like anyhow?
Hi Donna, Thanks for the blog
Its never crowded in extra mile! This profession offers runaway success to those who can zoom, think out of box.
Thanks & good luck
Yasir
Ken, Thanks!! I'm still waiting for your blog that I need to comment on!!
Netta, Yes, I almost passed all this up because the initial investors were scared to get their feet this dirty. It turns out, that once things get cleared up, the mud washes right off, and things are clean again!
Bar and Jennifer, I try to always be in the extra mile, but you know how people will try to cut you off for no reason. That's how I feel sometimes! Slower people stay to the right!
Jeff, I'm glad I could put a smile on your face... or is it just that it's Friday?!
Debi, Yes, it's a great 2007 so far!! Biggest January I've ever had!
Suzanne, Each short sale is different so it's really hard to learn from even 10 or 20 short sales if they're all going to be with different lenders. However, some of the questions are the same, so it does help to know the basic process.
Lloyd, Thanks! And actually, these homes were set for foreclosure, not short sales, so that would have been a completely different, complicated process.
Tony, I had a closing 3 months ago where the sellers had to take out a loan to close on their house. They had to bring $12k to closing. I can't imagine $110k!!
William, thank you, and you are very right!