Case Study #1 – San Diego, California
It was the Summer of 2012 and I received a phone call from a woman in San Diego, California.
She says… “Your website says you buy houses for cash and close quickly?”
I replied, “I Sure Do!” and asked here to “Tell me a little more about your house and by the way, why are you selling?”
She proceeded to tell me that her family inherited the house and she was the Executor of the Estate and she wanted to sell the house fast and move on with her life…
She went on to say, “The problem is that I have 4 family members who are hounding me to sell this fast and distribute the money.”
She told me the house had been in the family for years and while it still has sentimental value, she needed to cash out for family reasons. She said the house was run down and she would take whatever I could offer. (I’m looking at a Motivated Seller… BIG TIME!)
I told her I’d take a look at the numbers and get back to her with my all cash offer.
So, I Google Mapped the house and saw that it was in a pretty fantastic location.
All the houses in that neighborhood were comping at around $420,000.
In terms of repairs, It hadn’t been updated for a good 50 years and still had pink kitchen cabinents and original yellow tile in the bathrooms. The pool in the back yard doubled as a half full backyard pond, weeds everywhere! You get the picture.
This house needed a ton of work and a dumpster or two to bring it up to speed!
This is a total rehab project that would require a good $80,000 to bring it current.
This is starting to look like a good one, if you know what I mean 😉
I absolutely love houses like this, especially in such condition. Solid neighborhood and the comps run by a local realtor friend told me this was definitely a WINNER!
I called the Seller back and asked her if she was aware of the current condition of the house?
She said, “Yes, its pretty bad and needs a ton of work to making it livable.”
I immediately told her I was definitely interested in buying it for cash and closing in 3 days!. This deal is definitely a GO!
I put together my purchase agreement and emailed it to her for review and signature. She promptly replied with signature and we got a deal!
The next day I ran an ad in a local San Diego paper, craigslist, backpage and called my all cash buyers in the area.
It read, “Handyman Special – $100,000 in Profit! 4 bdr, 3 ba, 2,300 sq. ft, 11,789 sq. ft. lot. Asking $220,000, ARV $420,000 call Mark at 619-356-3175.”
Guess What? The first guy I called, was an all cash buyer that said, “Mark, I’ll take it! Who’s handling title work?”
We closed escrow in 3 days and were celebrating with surf and turf at one of my favorite restaurants.
Job Well Done!
Let’s look at the results of this deal. The gal in San Diego got what she wanted, the all cash buyer, who turned out to be a full time rehabber, got what he wanted, and I got a nice check for putting everything together. Talk about a Win, Win, Win.
And you know what else? My phone kept ringing off the hook for the next few weeks with other interested buyers from my ads that I posted…
Here’s what I told them when we talked.
“I’m Sorry that one’s sold, but when I find another deal for you would you be interested in looking at it?”
“They all said, YES! And please call me first!” 🙂
This is exactly how you build your list of Buyers in your target area.
This is a prime example of exactly how I Virtual Wholesale from my laptop in Arizona on a sweet deal in in San Diego, CA.
Stay tunned for my next deal in Albuquerque, NM.
Case Study #2 – Albuquerque, New Mexico
This Motivated Seller in SW Albuquerque, NM responded to a Probate Goldmine Post Card mailer sent out in October, 2012 by Virtual Wholesaler Mark Van Dyke. The Personal Representative called Mark from the contact info he put on the post card, and she said her mother recently passed and didn’t want to do all the work required to bring the house up to date. She said it needed a lot of work. Bottom line, she said she wanted to sell me the house fast for cash and move on with her life…
I couldn’t respond fast enough and said, “Sure I’m interested, but first I need to take a look at the house and see what kind of work needs to be done. I then said to her, “When I am done looking at the property, I will be able to get you an all cash offer in 24 hours!” Wasting no time, I jumped into my car and drove down to the house and took a good look around at the subject property and the surrounding houses in the neighborhood.
Here’s what I found out. Yes, the house needed work, to the tune of around $20,000 to $25,000 depending on finishes. Remember, you don’t want to overdo it when it comes to repairs. Just make sure not to under do it either. Anyways, just as she said, this place needed new everything!!! New Kitchen, New Bathrooms, New Flooring, New Paint, etc.,the list goes on and on… The work will begin, (for the Investor/rehabber we assign this deal to) with few dumpsters for trash out and backyard junk removal. (Somebody was a hoarder!)
Now, let’s take a look at the numbers:
- After Repair Value, (ARV) of $115,900
- Estimated Repairs – $10,000
- Maximum Cash Offer – $55,100
Results of this Probate Goldmine Post Card Mailer:
The Probate Goldmine strikes again by: 1) Getting the Motivated Seller/Personal Representative to respond to our Probate Postcard, (Yes, the one we give you right here!) and, 2) Accept our all cash offer! Our next step is to post our deal on Wholesale Real Estate USA and assign this deal to a local “Investor/Rehabber” and make our profit via assignment fee and continue mailing to our Probate Goldmine!
Do You Want to Make Money Doing This?
Virtual Wholesaling by Mark Van Dyke 