In Houston, the city does indeed have an ordinance that prohibits such signs. But they don?t seem to levy fines in order to enforce the ordinance. One can see the ?bandit signs? all over the place.
About a year ago, I was driving through an intersection where I saw a truck with a city emblem on the front door. On the side of the truck was a big, red circle with a diagonal slash through it like a ?no smoking? sign but it indicated ?no signs? instead. Above that in large print it said ?Sign Busters? ala Ghost Busters. Sure enough, there was a city employee pulling down all the ?bandit sign? nailed to the telephone pole. I got a pretty good chuckle over ?Sign Busters?.
About three months after seeing that truck in the intersection, I pulled into the parking lot of a fast food joint in a completely different part of town. Low and behold, there was that same truck; or one exactly like it. I found the driver and struck up a conversation. Turns out the City of Houston (fourth largest city in the country) has only two trucks to cover the entire city of over 500 square miles. Explains why some of the signs stay up so long.
$22K Cash Profit in 30 days! - Posted by R. Porter
Posted by R. Porter on December 13, 1999 at 18:40:42:
We bought a property where the owner was 10 months behind on payments and property was in foreclosure. We reinstated the loan & gave the seller $5k at the close. Purchase price was $70,500. We purchased the property Nov. 10. We had it painted inside, put in new carpet, replaced the garage doors, and put on new roof shingles. Cost of repairs was about $6500.00. We sold it on Friday, Dec. 10 for $104,900.
After paying closing costs for buyer, 3% realtor commission, etc, we walked with around $22,000 cash profit. Yes, it can be done!
Posted by steph in tex on December 13, 1999 at 19:07:30:
Porter,
That’s GREAT!!! I love it when that happens!
I bought a F/C property Sept 13th for 45K.
The guy was 14 months behind…(what do they do with all the money?) so I bought at loan balance using hard money, paid for a months rent in a small apt for him, paid for 1 months storage, and gave him 1K in cash at closing.
put it on the market AS IS
Fixer upper 75K (didn’t need much)
or
we fix 85K
3 buyers within days…
sold it Nov 7th for 85K with $3500 to buyer for paint/carpet at closing. I paid 4K towards closing cost and prepaids. They thought it was a sweet deal and so did I.
I DIDN"T FIX A THING!!
gotta love it
cha-ching
cheers my friend!! & here’s to the next one!
Steph,
I was wondering, did the buyers came up with their own financing for the purchase? Or did you have to assist them with funding?
Another question is how did you get the info to do your deals? Did you buy a particular course?
Thanks
Re: Did they come up with their own financing? - Posted by steph in tex
Posted by steph in tex on December 15, 1999 at 07:08:44:
dave,
I advertised “owner will assist-less than perfect credit ok”
i shoot for B credit, so i can create and sell a note without too much of a hit- but the lady i sold to had A
credit! we started out owner finance, but I would have had to hit her with 10.25 intr to make my note marketable, so we opted for sent her to one of the brokers I do business with regularly. I did give cash back for repairs, and paid as much of her cc/prepaids as I was allowed. worked out nicely for both of us.
I deal mainly in the foreclosure market. I haven’t got it yet, but am planning on getting Kaisers F/C course.
I hear it’s a great one. Good Luck!
steph in tex
Re: Steph in Tex - How do you find your pre-F/C - Posted by steph in tex
Posted by steph in tex on December 14, 1999 at 07:40:07:
Hi Brian,
There are so many ways, and what works one month-isn’t what’s working the next. You just have to put yourself out there big time.
I run ads, do bandit signs (mine say foreclosure O>K> ), drive neighborhoods (a lot), mailouts, foreclosure sales, spend lots of time at the court house, and now starting to have some word of mouth. I have realtors that are calling me with leads. I work with a few on a regular basis. I try to network with other investors. I sent out leads that aren’t in my target areas, and in return, I get leads that are in my target areas.
I have only been full time for a year-but this year has been huge. What a difference a little time under your belt can make. I can’t wait to see what I can do in another year!
hopes this helps. good luck!
steph in tex
Steph, I really admire your courage—having gone ‘full-time’ into r.e.! - Posted by SusanL.–FL
Posted by SusanL.–FL on December 15, 1999 at 08:19:09:
I’m sure it had it’s (scary) moments at first. If I remember correctly, you have a young family (10 year old son?) That factor alone would make me skittish–but you have TRUE grit!!
Do hope I will be able to be a ‘full-timer’ one of these days, but current ‘circumstances’ preclude me from being too adventureous. Can’t wait till I can get back out there on the ‘battlefield’ to do some wheeling and deeling again!
Thanks! I needed that! :^) - Posted by steph in tex
Posted by steph in tex on December 15, 1999 at 09:10:27:
Hey Susan!
thanks for the response. You’re close! 10yr old daughter. What a trip it is becoming.
They do grow up fast. It was scary at first–YIKES! But the time i have to spend with my kid now is what is most important. I think we truly need to give our kids direction as they enter adolescence, and that means lots of time. It has worked out well, and the great thing is–there’s nothing like being totally responsible for your own income to motivate you to get off your butt!
I have made more this year than I did working full time in Surgery (i do miss it a little), and even if i just broke even it would be worth it for the freedom. Thanks for your encouragement!
Good luck to you and yours!
steph in tex
Posted by steph in tex on December 14, 1999 at 13:23:52:
Hi Jeff,
A bandit sign is what we call those 24X18 inch signs
that you put your message on. We plaster those everywhere about once every six months. Many of those are taken down, be I am suprised every now and then when i get a call from a seller in an area we haven’t hit in months. I think Realtors take them down (hehehe)
It’s fun though. You have to be careful, because some cities have ordandance s against putting them in the city easement, on phone poles etc. My daughter loves to go put signs up with me…we make it kinda sneeky.
Hope that helps!
steph in tex