House 2 and Other Stuff

House #2

My agent emailed me recently to say that the house was seen over six times last week alone. She told me moments ago that two of those people (she believes it was from that group of six) have expressed interest in the house. She's not sure exactly what that may mean right now, but I'm just happy that it is generating some interest finally.

BTW, Stanley, I really like your idea. Regardless whether these two prospects go through with the purchase ot not, I am seriously considering implementing your idea. Thanks!

Recruiting?

I've managed to track down some old friends and distant family members, who live out of state, to start the process of indoctrinating them to REI. So far my efforts have been futile (or, I'm probably just not giving them enough time to let the whole thing sink in yet). One person in particular I'd like to get onboard. He is an ex of my sister, but he's always remained a friend of the family. I always considered him one of those intellectual geniuses as he would consistantly beat everyone when it came to trivia-type games - not to mention he's a chemical engineer, etc. In my initial conversation with him, he seemed to already understand a lot of what I was trying to explain with regards to REI, but most of it was new to him. I'm not trying to push him into it, but more get him to understand the pros/cons of doing it and let him decide on his own. We'll see how that goes.

5-unit

I've just about given up on the 5-unit. After looking over more of the figures and calling some more local (to the property) commercial lenders on rates, etc., the overall profit isn't looking attractive enough to go through with the whole deal. If the building were to suffer a bout of repairs and/or the vacancy were to drop, I could easily be seeing red, which would make any prior gains disappear. Not to mention the communication witht he RE agent I'm using has been sketchy at best. I still have two emails and a phone call that have not been answered.

Other Prospects

Lastly, I have found some other apartment complexes that I'm checking into. Preliminary figures have all but ruled out three of them. One of the others has a cap rate of 12%, but also has a list price of almost $700k (it has 33 units with room for 5-6 more). Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but realistically it's WAY out of my purhasing range. The other complex has 9 units and has a cap rate of over 18%. It's also about $550k LESS than the other one, which makes it more inline with my buying criteria. I sent the listing agent an email asking some more questions, and hope to get an answer soon.

House 1

My tenant is supposed to close on his new home tomorrow. According to him, though, he won't be moving out of my rental for another 5-7 days due to work, etc. I've already posted several ads on Craigslist, but have only gotten two calls. I plan to use one of those flat-fee MLS listing services this go'around to see how well it works (I've heard both good and bad things about them). If nothing else, maybe I'll find a broker I can work with on future deals.

House 2 Deed

In late December, I noticed the deed to House #2 was missing the legal description, so I called the title company. Long-story-short, the woman said she would submit a correction to corporate and that it could take "a while". I had completely forgotten about the whole thing until I was looking through my filebox for House #2 the other day and saw the closing docs, which sparked a reminder. The lady I had talked to said they would file an "Exhibit" with the noted corrections to the courthouse. I did a lookup on my county's web site, and sure enough, no "Exhibit" was found. So, I called the title company again, and the receptionist said everyone was out of the office for an all-day meeting. She forward me to the lady's VM and I left her a short, but detailed message about the issue (I also sent the title company an email). Still no call back yet. If nothing today, I'll call again tomorrow. Ah, customer service!