I called the lady back who left me a message yesterday regarding her house she wants to unload. The conversation went well, but I have a feeling she is in the first stages of denial. In talking with her, she said she recently lost her job and won't be able to make payments in the near future. She also said the place is a little too big for her alone. These were definately motivating factors, but she also said some things that lead me to believe she isn't in the "take my house today!" stage. For instance, she asked me how I would go about financing the deal to which I told her there was a miriad of ways I could "help her with her problem." Like buying the property for cash using my financing or just having her keep the existing mortgage in place and deed me the property. She abruptly said the latter method (ie, Sub2) would definately NOT be an option. I also told her that if the property didn't work out for me, I know other people who might be interested, and if she gave me permission, I could ask one or more of them to call her. Again, she said "NO" - at least not yet. There were a few other things I picked up which led me to believe that she wants to get rid of the property, but still feels she is in a position to control the negotiation. IOW, the job loss hasn't given her the motivation yet.
There were some pluses, though. She said she checked on the balance 2 years ago, and owed about $137k then. She thinks she owes around $134k now, but isn't 100% sure. This was about $2k less than what I had figured, so it boosts my bottom-line retail flip profit to around $3,000 (still not great at all, especially since she isn't willing to do a Sub2). The other plus was the fact she pays only $1,100/mo. Although, when fishing for more information, she seemed to dance around a lot of my questions. For example, she said her taxes and insurance are escrowed, but she had received a check earlier in the year for something regarding the escrow and spent it already. I have no earthly idea what this was all about, but it didn't sound positive. She also said she is caught-up on everything and the place needs no repairs (it was built in 2001).
Based on my earlier numbers, though, and her unwillingness to do a Sub2, I don't see this deal happening. I'll rerun some numbers for the heck of it, but I don't see a deal here at all, unfortunately. At least I got a call from one of my signs, though! ;-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The escrow check she received was probably from the yearly escrow balancing that mortgage companies do. If the taxes and insurance are less than what the lender figured, they refund the escrow excess to the homeowner. Likewise, if they are more, they will raise the monthly payment amount.
Yeah, that sounds plausible. She made it sound as though it were something she shouldn't have done (ie, cashed the check), but maybe she didn't understand it, either. Thanks, Shaun!
Post a Comment