Getting Frustrated - Posted by Jim C

Posted by Mark-NC on December 30, 2000 at 20:56:44:

Jim,
Now, I don’t know your Realtor but if he or she is the typical realtor you have just thrown out the red flags as soon as you start talking about things like flips, assignments and other investors.

You have to understand these realtors are bombarded by newbie investors that waste their time everyday and most won’t even deal with you if they know what you are doing unless you can prove otherwise.

In fact I was told by one of the realtors in my area that they are taught in class that most investors are a waste of time and to stay clear.

So the best thing you can do is act confident when you make the offer. Just go in there and make the offer like you are buying it for yourself and forget about telling your Realtor about all of the things you are going to do with this deal as an investor. Just make sure what ever you do, you can do it, other wise you are going to loose credibility.

If the Realtor wants to know if your approved for the financing just get a letter from your hard money lender stating you are approved with them subject to their inspection.

With a Pre approval letter from your hard money lender thats all the Realtor really needs to see to show that the deal can be closed.

This way if you can’t assign the contract you at least have a back up with hard money and the deal will be closed one way or another.

Mark

Getting Frustrated - Posted by Jim C

Posted by Jim C on December 30, 2000 at 17:23:07:

What kind of no money down deals will I be able to do if a house is being sold by a real estate agent?

I had planned to buy a house and assign the contract to a local investor, but when I spoke with an agent about it, she was telling me to fax her the information about the investor and she told me to fax her info on a hard money lender that I told her about.

Now I’m thinking that I will only be able to do an FSBO and there are practically none of them around. I drove around yesterday looking for FSBO’s and I’ve checked the paper. There was only one that was below like $250,000.

I’m getting kind of frustrated here. What should I do? Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot!!!

Re: Getting Frustrated - Posted by Bob Johnson

Posted by Bob Johnson on December 31, 2000 at 01:57:15:

Keep looking. I talked to about a dozen agents before I found one that (a) understood what I was trying to do, and (b) was willing to actually work to understand the market and put a deal together for me. My experience is that most agents don’t understand the investor mindset, are only comfortable selling new single family homes, and don’t really know the market. Several sent me some MLS listings, two actually followed up after they sent them to me, and one of those two has been following up every week trying to narrow down the options for me. She found a winner and brought me in 4 days after it went on the market. I’m making an offer tomorrow.

I actually had one realtor set an appointment to go look at properties, and then STAND ME UP after I asked about the underlying owner financing, etc. He’s the one running ads in the paper bragging about how many properties he sold last year. Yeah, right.

Of course, the 4 counties north of DC that I’m looking in are some of the fastest growing in the nation right now. Countless realtors told me that this low-down stuff didn’t ever work, and it especially won’t fly in a seller’s market like this. Funny, the rehab property I’m working on will be about 3% down and should give me about $30k equity appreciation in less than 120 days. And all the realtors but one told me this kind of deal doesn’t exist and wouldn’t ever work in this market.

Keep looking. Too many agents simply want to pick the low-hanging fruit.

Bob Johnson