Discussion Forum

Making offers

Posted by: timmym22  Investor
Posted on : 7/29/2010 10:53:55 PM

steve, when you said that you made about 40 offers a month. Do you comb the MLS and just make lowball offers? What triggers you to actual go out and look at the property after they counter you? I want to be efficient as possible. If you had 3 counter offers off your lowball offers, did that trigger you to go look at the property at that point?

What I've done recently.

Posted by: Ken - UPMich-  
Posted on : 7/30/2010 12:21:16 AM

In all reality, you don't need to look at a property until you've got it under contract.  I take the "throw a lot of crap at the wall and see if anything sticks....rinse and repeat" method.  I've now got three homes under contract that need minimal work and I should be able to resell for at least 10k profit in nearly as-is condition. 

But I offer low and often.  I have a realtor who laughs at my offers but he's making money off of me. 

I recently purchased a property sight unseen.  But when you have inspection and contingency clauses in with your offers, who cares?  Just bid super low and you can cover a lot of surface area right from your desktop.  If you get one, you have to go see it, but then you know that trip is worth your time.

And FWIW, I'm still a noob at this.  I've only flipped two houses ever.  Lost money on the first, but made good coin on the second and decided this is what I'm going to do with my life.  I haven't looked back. 

hmmmm

Posted by: afi999  Real Estate Investor
Posted on : 7/30/2010 4:27:31 PM

I have done about 9 deals so far and 6 were wholesale deals.  In my market there is alot of foreclosures and short sales.  Id say about 70 percent of the market actually.  I usually spend 2 days a week just throwing offers out there.  If i get a counter thats closer to my number than theirs then i go look.  Id say i make about 10 offers a week, so maybe 40 a month.  Out of that i get about 30 rejections, 5 worthless counter offers, 4 good counters worth going to see and maybe one that just accepts.  So i only look at about 4-6 properties a month and maybe only get 2 of the deals every month.  I have only been doing this for 6 months so im still a noob too but at least these numbers are real in my market. 

Jonathan Woelfel
afi999@aol.com

lost & confused

Posted by: brownroche  
Posted on : 8/7/2010 11:52:09 AM

I'm a newbie...been going at this hard for 3mos, put in umpteen offers, looked at every home before making an offer & nothing. I've had so many realtors stop talking to me, pass me on to others, or ask me to pay them extra when they found that I want to wholesale homes and make low ball offers. Am I doing something wrong here?

How do you do it? How do you know what to offer without looking at the property? How are your low ball offers being accepted? My spouse & I have talked to a few investors around here that have made recent purchases, but their offers are at, above, or just a couple of k's below the asking price. We can't wholesale like that. Is there something I'm missing?

.... Would Love To See An Answer On This ....

Posted by: Merrick  
Posted on : 8/8/2010 9:45:18 AM

I've experienced the same lack of results with REO's.

All the Best,
  Merrick

"Don't curse the darkness, light the candle."

hmmmm

Posted by: afi999  Real Estate Investor
Posted on : 8/8/2010 10:04:42 PM

Sometimes i lowball, but sometimes a foreclosure or short sale listing price is pretty good as is.  Im not gonna lowball a house that already has 50k in equity.  Try looking for deals that are already below market and offer just slightly less.  Or try a niche market.  Im contemplating getting into city violation properties.  I can get them cheap and many cities negotiate the fines down tamost nothing.  Just some ideas for ya

Jonathan Woelfel
afi999@aol.com

Re:hmmmm

Posted by: brownroche  
Posted on : 8/13/2010 9:02:28 AM

Thanks for the advise. I did have 1 realtor advise that current foreclosure/short sale prices were good as is. But, things are pretty weird here & the properties that I've been finding (foreclosures & especially short sales) are listed at or above market. How can you wholesale out if you purchase right at market value?

I'm finding that the ones that are listed below market (and actually had 1 realtor admit to it), the listing agents are intentionally listing well below what the bank will except with the purpose of reeling in offers. So when I put in my offers, I basically get laughs, even if I offer close to the listed price.

I thought I had somewhat of a grasp on this stuff before getting started 3 months ago, but finding I'm getting more & more confused the more I try...lol. I'm praying & expecting something will break soon :)