Calls and Tenants

Calls
I received two calls yesterday from my bandit signs. I was wondering if I was going to get any at all as it was getting near 3:00pm. I received the first call shortly after 3:00pm. It was a lady who said her mother needed to sell her house, because she needed to take care of her mother in another city. My adrenaline was pumping, but I soon learned she wasn't motivatred it all. While talking to her, she said her mother has had the house listed for 30 days with no nibbles. She said the house was listed for $99,900, and her mother was hard-pressed to go down. I told her I doubt the price would work for me, and also told her since it was listed, her mother would have to pay the Realtor® fees as well. But I told her I would run some numbers anyway and get back with her. I could just tell in her voice and what she relayed to me that this wasn't going to be a deal. After hanging up, I went to the online courthouse records to get some info on the deed and if there were any judgements on the owner or her property. I found out she bought the property in early 2004 via HUD for $58,000, which I thought was interesting. I didn't find any judgements, so the owner seems to be in good shape. I also ran comps, and figured the house's listing price is EXACTLY what the house would comp out at. I called the lady back and told her if I were to offer all-cash, I could only pay her $65,000 at best. However, I could offer her more, but her mother would have to be willing to take back a second. She said that her mother wanted to sell the property and didn't want any financial attachments to it, so that wouldn't work out either. I sort of figured this was going to be how it played out, since she didn't sound motivated and didn't have any real urgency. I thanked the lady for her time and asked her to keep me in mind if her mother wanted to make a deal in the future.

It's interesting, but I got this sixth sense not one minute into the initial call that this was not going to be a deal. There just didn't seem to be any motivation or urgency in the what the lady said or, more importantly, how she talked. Oh well - the majority of calls will be like this, so I chalked it up to being one more call closer to "the" call.

I received the second call at around 5:30pm. I had relatives over at the time, and switched my phone to "quiet" mode, so I missed the call altogether. I looked at my phone around 5:45pm and noticed a missed call with a voicemail message. So, I listened to the message. I could instantly tell it was an elderly man. He was VERY brief and only gave his name and the address of the property (which is all I really needed anyway). He said for me to call him back between 12-1pm ONLY. Very strange. I immediately figure this will not be a deal either as he didn't want me to call him back NOW, but I ran some numbers anyway. It turns out he bought the property in 1988 for $75,000. Tax records show it was assessed this year at $159,000. I did a quick amortization, and figure he still owes around $57,000 on the original loan, since courthouse records didn't show any record of release (i.e., refinance). Comps were a little hard to get since most of the houses around the neighborhood are newer homes (<10 years old) and this property was built in 1979. It's almost 2,000sf and sits on a 1 acre lot. I figure the assessed value is close to FMV or a little higher. I figure the most I'd offer him all-cash would be $100k, but I'll need to find out what type of motivation and sense of urgency he has. He could very well be another "retail price only" seller.

Tenants
I received the move-in condition form from my tenants in the mail yesterday. After looking it over, I kind of agree with their assessment. Most of the problems are stains in the carpet in various places around the house. What really surprised me, though, was they included the rent check for August in the letter! It isn't due until the 3rd of each month, so I thought this was a very pleasant surprise. I hope they continue paying like this. :-)