The FSBO Deal, Farming, and RealQuest

FSBO Deal
Yesterday, I decided to unload the FSBO deal to another investor. I gave the owner my phone and email address last week, but have not heard back from her. With the tight financials of the deal, and with everything else going on, I thought it was best to let another REI take a crack at it. I sent the investor an email with all the information I had collected on the deal. He says he gives $5 for every quality referral, and $250+ for every referral he closes. I told him since the financials were slim, I'd feel like a thief taking even $5 form him right now, but wouldn't mind a cut if he closes the deal. ;-)

Farming
Like the day before it, yesterday, I went to a couple of housing communities in my farming area to take note of houses for sale, distressed, empty, etc. I found a total of eight properties for sale, and jotted their information down. Of those eight properties, three of the them were empty. Several from the day before were empty as well. I make note of the fact when I get the information as these may be motivated sellers (or, as was the fact on one them the other day, a foreclosure). I had a busy night when I got home, so I didn't have time to research the online county clerk's office yet. I'll try to do that today. It's fascinating the information you find out about people and their properties from public sources. Kind of scary, too. I didn't have any luck, again, finding distressed properties, though.

Realquest
Well, I finally decided to try RealQuest again. In an earlier entry, I stated that I was getting -0- matches no matter what subject rproperty I entered. It turns out that there were default values stored that I didn't even think about checking (i.e., user error). I changed a few criteria, and - BOOM! - got a list of comps. What I found a little unsettling, now, was the comps were not really what I was looking for. The report lists a sell price that, simply put, was not the sell price. For instance, I ran comps on a 2-story house for sale for $130k. Its 2003 assessed value was $141k. The first matching comp showed a house that sold 4 months ago for $175k. Yeah, my adrenaline was in high gear. However, when I did some further researching, I found the house actually sold for $128k. Why the huge difference ($175k vs. $128k), I wondered. Well, it turns out the sell price in the comp report takes into account SEVERAL different criteria, and the actual price it sold for is just one of the criteria. They also use a couple complex mathematical formulae to get their sold price. It may be good for someareas, but this particular house is in a neighborhood where homes are lucky to list for $150k and sell for $130k. So, $175k is definately way out in left field. Its still not a bad tool, but it requires further researching - i.e., due diligence - to arrive at a reasonable FMV price for the subject property.