Killer Resource...

If you post on Craigslist like I do you'll appreciate this hookup...

Postlets.com is a fantastic service that will build a beautifully formatted page for you to cut/paste into your craigslist post. I use it for real estate, but you can use it for posting rental real estate and vehicles as well.

Turn your crappy, generic posts like this poor guy... click here or this poor dude... click here
To one like the recent wholesale property I just posted... click here

1. Go to Postlets.com and create an account.
   
2. Create a postlet (very similar to creating a craigslist ad or ebay listing...)
3. Once finished, save the postlet and then click edit to return to the listing details. On the bottom of the page is a button that says COPY/PASTE HTML. Click it.
4. Copy highlighted html in the details box. (right-click/copy)
   
5. Click post to craigslist (right below the box)
6. Login to your craigslist account and create a new posting.
7. Create your headline and initial pricing/location info.
8. Paste your html from postlets in the listing details. If you linked photos to postlets you won't need to relist them in craigslist (whew!)
9. Finish your listing and sit back and look at the beauty that you've added to the internet shopping experience.
   

Now go post that thing you've been meaning to sell for the last couple of weeks.

-Taylor

Another Successful Auction... Eventually

Charlemagne Drive Condo Sold! (Link here to photos.)

I spent all weekend looking at this view of the Chesapeake Bay. The air temps were 75 degrees, and there were beautiful people all around and potential buyers by the droves coming through my open house. I am pretty well hooked on this lifestyle of real estate investor. I had a great time and ended up with a solid potential paycheck.

Here's some of the stats.

• Total visitors: 150+ ( I started counting 'buyers' groups' instead of individuals after the first hour on Saturday since there were just too many coming and going. 52 total groups.)
• Signs posted in 1 mile radius on major roads and inside complex: 48
  
• Signs retrieved on Sunday night (in the pouring rain...): 23
• Lost/unretrieved signs: 25
  
• Complaints/phone calls from local neighborhood residents for ugly yellow auction signs: 1
• Batches of chocolate chip cookies baked for visitors: 4
• # of bidders on list: 6

• RESULTS: Final bidder ended up backing out on Monday morning. Bummer.
• RESULTS PART II: I immediately got on the phone and got 3 bidders at a price $25k below the minimum bid. Bummer. However, since I was able to approach the seller with 3 bona fide offers and even though they were below the option price we had originally agreed upon, he was willing to lower his price enough for me to make my target margin on the deal!
  

Lessons learned:

1. Condos are more challenging to comp during market downturns. I was waaay off in my estimate of how much the market was willing to pay for this unit. Even with the private garden area, private beach path gate and extra parking, the end price was $10k below what I had originally contracted for and $40k below what I thought it might sell for...
   
2. Condos have a limited buying base compared to traditional residential/single family houses. Lots of lookers, few buyers. I had 30 visitors to sell Norlina, 150 visitors to sell this condo.
   
3. Condo association rules about sales of real estate and signage tend to be much more strict than traditional neighborhoods. This can/will put a severe damper on your marketing strategy if you are relying on signs alone. I lost a large number of signs to people in the complex and the surrounding neighborhood. No city fines though...whew!
   

Lucky for me I have a multiple pronged marketing strategy using signs, the newspaper (zero responses), and the AWESOME $1,000 dollar post card. (see previous post for picture of card.)

In the end it was a successful open house, a successful negotiation with buyers and a successful re-negotiation with my seller. We're hoping to close by the end of the month.

Let's hear it for 5-figure paychecks!!!

Hip-hip HOORAY!!
-TAYLOR

SOLD!

I ended up with 2 potential buyers for Norlina.

I had 14 visitors on Saturday, 6 on Sunday.

At the end of the day Sunday I had two bidders on the sheet and my mystery lady from Richmond with a phone-in bid that was well below the other two. Thanks Richmond lady! You got the other two moving upwards!!!

The other two bidders were both interested and bid each other up about a grand and stopped. (I was managing this process by phoning each one in turn with the increasing bids.) It turned out to be a race for financing as both needed to get to their bankers for the $$$.

So, by end of day Monday, my highest bidder secured his financing and had begun the underwriting process with his bank. I picked up the signed docs from his banker today and took all the contract paperwork with deposit check to the closing attorney's office to start escrow.

Expecting 30day escrow. Cross your fingers that the bank likes this guy's financials!

Next week... Mother's Day
Following Week... Charlemagne Condo Auction. Stay tuned!

Deal Update

The Auction is on!

My first open house/open bid auction started today and I actually had visitors! I think that 14 people walked through the house and 2 said they planned on returning tomorrow to make a bid. It's not to say that things have gone off without a hitch...

My initial plan was to list the property/auction on a Fee Only MLS listing for $400 to get the real estate agent traffic driven to my auction. Unfortunately, since I only have a contract on the property, my normal fee-only guy wouldn't list it for me. I had to be the owner of record/titleholder to be able t0 list with him... Bummer. By the time I had learned this (I turned in a completed packet with photos/etc and got the news direct from the broker a day later,) it was too late to be able to find a new fee listing service... double bummer... Since I was shooting for a retail buyer & 90% of all retail sales involve an agent and the MLS; you'll understand my state of mind about not getting onto the MLS.

I filled out/paid for a weekend 'open house' listing in the local paper with a photo & 12 lines of text. Was supposed to run Friday, Saturday & Sunday... I got a call Friday afternoon that there was a mixup with their online posting and she was calling to confirm that I wanted to be in the open house section on Sunday May4th and the weekend of May 9,10 & 11. What? I scheduled to be in the paper May 2, 3 & 4 and nothing about any other weekend. Major screw-up. AND, in a grand gesture of customer service and goodwill, she said she'd cancel the extra weekend at no charge. Oh, and Mr Taylor? Would you like to stay in the paper for Sunday May4th? YES!!!!
I was successful in getting my online USPS postcard to get mailed to every business & resident address within a 1 mile radius. (How to get such a list? That is a post unto itself...) See pict of my $1000 reward postcard. I had at least 3 visitors today that had seen the card & one intended on giving it to her friend on Sunday.


Signs. I ordered 50 Yellow Auction notice signs. I originally intended on using 25 this weekend and 25 for my next auction in a couple weeks, but decided to put out about 35 instead. Good thing too, because the other 11 people who came by the auction today all said that they followed the signs to get to the house... One even said that I did a good job with all the signs. "I couldn't miss them if I wanted to...", he said.

So, Sunday is the actual 'Auction' or open bid part of the open house weekend. It will be in the paper and I expect to see more traffic due to the exposure. I am going to make up another 8 signs to replace those that will be stolen/lost tonight. (I did get a kick out of posting about 3 signs in front of a Long & Foster Realty training center. It was at a major intersection and I couldn't miss the exposure, but I did get a little chuckle at the irony that there was likely a room with eager new real estate agents learning about how to list & sell a property when at that very moment I was out front posting "Auction Today!" signs...)

Irony. Good to the last drop.