Moving Along

Offer #6
I called the electric and water companies to have them turned on for the inspector next week. I called the gas company, and they have no record of gas service there even though there is a gas meter on the property. I am going to go inside the property tomorrow to see if it has gas.

Other Offers
Another offer I blew off a week ago has resurfaced. The bank initially rejected my offer with no counter. Now my agent says they decided to counter my offer (maybe they had someone else lined up, but that person backed out?). Originally, they listed the property for $105k, and I submitted a bid for $67k. They countered at list price, and I countered at $77k. Now they've countered at $99.9k. I reran some numbers, and $77k is pretty much my max, so I told my agent either they would have to come down a lot more, or I would have to back out.

I also got a counter on the huge 3400sf house. The list was $249,900, and I submitted a bid for $190k. The bank countered at $248k with a close on 4/15. My agent says they WANT me to counter, which I thought was strange. I haven't revisited this one, but a retail flip means I can't ask for much more. She said they want me to give them a personal check to deposit in escrow by EOD today. I told her that I can't do that right now, and if that means they'll cut me off, then so be it.

The other offer I had on the table for $60k on an $85k list price is still in limbo. The listing agent says there are multiple bids, but didn't say what the max was. I'm sticking to my guns on this one regardless.

Colleagues
I had two incidences at work that occurred to me this week that I thought were interesting. The first one occurred in a status meeting a couple days ago. I let it slip to a coworker that I had a property under contract. A couple other people asked me questions about it, and I responded to them. I thought after sharing my experience with real estate investing one or more people would jump on the opportunity to learn more abot it, but I was wrong - whcih shocked me. Nobody said much more about it and no one has asked me anything since then about it. Oh, well.

The other incident was with a friend of mine who works in another department at work. I haven't really talked with him in some time (a couple of months), and told him I had a property under contract and a couple more in the works. I also told him I stood to make a nice little profit from the first one, and more from the other two, if they go through. I then told him if things excel like I hope, I would 'retire' from this company in two years. Instead of inquiring more about my venture, he just replied with a laugh and said "Yeah right."

It just fathoms me that people still live in that "other" world. A world of relying on a company for their paycheck. A world of corporate slavery where your financial life is in someone else's hands. I felt sorry for my friend, because we've always talked before about getting out of the rat race. I perservered and have seen the proverbial light, while he still only dreams. It's sad in a way.

CPA Referral
I finally got hold of my loan officer, and he gave me the contact information for the CPA he spoke about in our meeting. I imagine every CPA in the country is busy now and until April 15th, but I should at least call him to start a reporte.