House 1, Offer 1

I found a house that, at first, looked like a good one. It's a 2 bedroom, 1,200 square foot house that was a foreclosure that no one bought at auction, so it went back to the bank. The amount of the defaulted loan was $125,000. Apparently the loan was a VA backed loan, so the bank has since transferred the property to the Veteran's Administration. The house was sold twice before, but I talked to the listing agent last week and he tells me it fell out of escrow on Friday because the buyer's loan didn't come through. It's back on the market today. The listing price is $147,000. I figure comps are $160,000. The listing agent told me it sold last time for $152,000 and he expects it to go higher this time. Someone was already in doing some work on the place - looks like they did some drywall patching.

I had hoped to come in with an all cash bid, 15 day escrow, and a low price. Because this is being sold by the VA, I don't think those first two things will be as strong a positive as they would be if a person or bank was selling the home. I was also hoping to be the first bidder once it came back on the market and maybe get my offer accepted quickly, but it seems government sales work by opening a bidding period and accepting all bids until the end of the period, then selecting the highest bid. In this case, the period ends February 7th. So much for the plan of getting it quickly. There's no way I'm going to offer close to full price, but I'm going to submit a bid anyway. The agent tells me that cash bids require a letter from my bank stating I have the funds, so I'll work on getting that today. Based on what the agent tells me, I don't expect to get this property. This might be a good property to rent out, but for flipping, I don't think I can get it low enough to make it worthwhile.

I Love Passive Income - Part 2

I'm a bit bummed that I have't gotten some better leads, now that I have put out the call for birddoggers. Hopefully something will come soon. I'm just impatient.

The good news is yesterday I received another payment from the foreclosure investment company I first wrote about almost exactly three months ago. This time, the check was for just over $1,500. Nice! That brings my return in this second LLC to just over 18% annually.

The bad news is my car is in the shop getting $1,600 worth of repairs. Oh well. Easy come, easy go. But this does really illustrate the importance of cashflow. That investment just covered the cost of repairing my car, saving me from having to take a chunk of cash out of my checking account.

Phoenix Area Birddogs / Wholesalers Wanted!!

I am looking for birddogs and / or wholesalers in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area. I am a cash buyer looking to buy houses to flip at retail. No major rehabs (at least, not yet), but some repair work is ok (and to be expected). Email me at 10thAvenueInvestments AT cox DOT net for more info.

Still waiting..

This is the most frustrating part - waiting. I'm still waiting for the second half of funding for the LLC to come in. I'm also still waiting for the bank to release the funds from the first half of funding. Even though I brought a cashier's check to the bank, they still put an 11 business day hold on the funds because it was for a new account. This is ridiculous. It was a cashier's check! And with the new Check 21 law that was recently passed, the banks now can clear checks even faster than before. So why do are their customer's still forced to deal with absurdly long hold times?

I'm used to moving quickly and this slowness is driving me nuts.

META: I've changed the layout here to add a "Key Posts" section at the bottom of the right column. If you're coming here for the first time or are looking to get started in real estate investing, I consider these posts to be excellent places to start.

Halfway There

Phew.. The holidays are finally over and life is getting back to normal. The new LLC project is moving along - I've received half the funding and am setting up the bank account this afternoon. Just found out that if this goes well, there are some other investors who would be interested. Good deal!