Farewell to File Front... :(

I'm sad today. My favorite free online storage site is shutting down. Wot, wah...

Since I have contacts all over the country, I used filefront to share large documents and training videos (hi Shay!). It worked awesome and I'm looking for another site to replace it.

So... If you know of a good/great, free, non-Microsoft website out there that would be good for me to post files and have them retrieved by my 'people'... PLEASE let me know.

by the way, thanks for stopping by. I got a report the other day that my blog has 10% of all the blog traffic in San Luis Obispo County. 10%? wow.

Now leave a comment!

-Taylor

It All Makes Sense Now

Sit the Family down and have them watch this one...



The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Here's a print version of the same...











And Another...












-Taylor

Where should I mail your check?

I just got 'the call' from my title company that my check for the Larkfield Place deal will be ready at noon. Whew!

Just for reference, here's the time line...

• Feb 18th - Seller calls my info-line at 8:56am and listens for 10mins, 55 sec and hangs up.

• Feb 18th - 2pm I call to follow up on the call. He states that he's interested in what I've got going and would like to sell quickly and discretely. He liked my postcard and likes that he wouldn't need to do any of the fix up on his place. Set appointment for the following Tuesday 2/24. (I should have gotten up there sooner, but had sub teaching jobs to do and Tues was the soonest I could get there.)

• Feb 24 11:30 - Met with seller. 3 hour appointment went great and I ended up with my lowest, all cash offer being acceptable to him. Planned to close within 30 days.
• Feb 24 - Listed house on Craigslist, 11daysale.com, 11dayproperties.com. Cautious optimism...
• Feb 25 - Called previous interested buyers' list from Stoney Creek auction back in November. Had 2 cash buyers interested. One of them told a friend about he place and he drove by. Also started escrow on the 25th.
  
• Mar 4th - Signed assignment contract for $12,000 with investor who plans on flipping the property in 90 days so we can sell to an FHA buyer (seasoning of 90 days required.)
• Mar 13th - Funding in and ready to close. Seller asked to postpone signing so he didn't have to sign on Friday the 13th. Signing set for Monday.
• Mar 16th - Seller, buyer signed docs. Check from bank cashed. Closed and done.
• Mar 18th - Check ready!

Let's see, how many days was that? 22 days right? Now, it's not like I haven't worked my butt off for that money, but it sure is sweet to get 5 figure paychecks... I love every one of them.

Best of all, I proved that
THIS CAN BE DONE IN CALIFORNIA!

• IN THIS MARKET!
  
• IN A COASTAL COUNTY!
• IN LESS THAN A MONTH!

It's all about motivation and persistance. Seller motivation and investor persistance.

I'm hoping to surf this afternoon to celebrate. Ahhh...

Now on to the next one!
-Taylor

The Competition...

In any market, it is important (vital) to understand who your competition is; nothing new, right?

There are 4 key groups in competition to sell homes in any market.

1. Builders - generally the first to respond to upswings or downturns in the market. If a builder pays close attention to the traffic through model homes and the number of new contracts, they will undoubtably have a jump on the competition. Builders are generally very motivated sellers because they have to make huge payments on their construction loans everymonth and unsold inventory is lost $$ every month. They can get crazy with promotions (cars, TV's, free upgrades, interior design consultations, free pool, etc...)
2. Foreclosures- In this market, FC's make up a smaller part of the pool of actual sales. With so many homes under water, a head's up seller headed to FC will most likely sell via Short-Sale which is technically a Bank-Owned property since it is the bank that negotiates with the new buyer. In past markets, FC's with equity were motivated to sell quickly so they could get cash, save their credit and get on with life. Now, a FC is just a Bank Owned property(REO) waiting to happen.
3. REO's - King Krusher of the real estate market right now. In CA, 48% of all real estate sales are REO's. Depending on where in CA we're talking about, banks are taking up to 90% discounts on houses right now. !90%! (check this blog out.) Banks tend to play hardball initially, but it is well known that when push comes to shove, meaning when regulators show up and tell them to sell underperforming assets, the bank will cave and take big discounts to get the inventory off the books.
   
4. Owners- Owner to owner sales are at an all-time low in CA right now. Less than 30% of all sales are owner to owner. Homeowners are looking back 2-3 years and calculating the current price as a loss, and anyone making offers is likely to be looking 2-3 years into the future when prices have a chance to level off. This creates a big gap in the List/asking price to Offer price that most homeowners won't/can't accept. "I'll just wait it out." is one of the most common phrases I hear right now.
5. Investors -Technically there is a 5th category of seller, the investor. Many investors look like homeowners when it comes to selling a property. Buy low and try like hell to sell high. A perfect example of the 'Greater Fool Theory.' Find a fool greater than yourself to buy it from you and you're all set. I've had much better success at buying low and selling medium. Leaving a little meat on the bone for the next guy is the best way for me to make money over the long haul.
   

Use this in your discussion with sellers. Competition is critical to any transaction and I don't think sellers are getting any of the 'straight dope' anywhere in the media.

Here's an article for you to use to illustrate the competition between FC's and Builders. Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2009.

Go get em!
-Taylor

Another Business Venture?

When 11 Day Sale gets going strong I may start a business like this with one of my out of work contractor friends. It would be a good way to connect with REO agents and banks. Buy them, clean them out and re-sell. Or, just get paid to clean them out. Make money on both ends right?

Cheers,
Taylor

SOLD!

SOLD!
Just got a call from my investor buyer a few minutes ago and he's ready to move on Larkfield Pl! It took a week to get a buyer. Not bad considering that I only had a buyers' list of about 10 people last week. (I'm up to 20+ now) And, this buyer wants to do one deal a month once we get this one sold for retail.

Do we Love it? Yes we do!

I have a nice 5 figure paycheck coming when we close next week (gotta love a quick cash sale...)

But that's not all!

He wants to use my 11 Day Sale to sell the property to a retail buyer once we get the property cleaned up a little! I'm going to do it for a flat fee of $8500 so that puts me near 20k on this one wholesale deal! Woo hoo!

Gotta run! I've got a free and clear seller that wants to meet with me to-day. He has called twice to make sure I'm coming. Motivated? I think so.

We're off & running!

Cheers,
Taylor