Straight From The Horses Mouth

Sorry, I've been on a mini-sabbatical from REI as "life" seems to have taken me away. I'm actually contemplating different things at this point, mainly entertaining the idea of starting a business. Nothing concrete yet as I'm still trying to weight different issues.

I've mentioned before how this 4-plex deal in WV has been taking such a long time to materialize. Part of it is due to my workload and not spending as much time on it as I should, while another part is getting many of my questions answered by the agent handling the deal (she's both the buyer's and seller's agent in this deal). The owner sent my a list of items earlier this month that he's already repaired, but my main concern was what condition the property was in RIGHT NOW - IOW, is there anything still needing repaired. Emailing the agent takes forever as I'm lucky it takes a week to get a turnaround response.

I noticed on the list of items repaired, the owner jotted down his name and telephone number, so I decided today to give him a call and hear it "straight from the horses mouth." It turns out the owner lives out-of-state, too, but found this property for the cheap and decided to try fixing it up. He claims he's already put $15,000 into the place, and has run out of money for any additional repairs (which there is still some things left to do). I asked him about occupancy, and he says two of the units are currently occupied, and he is using one for himself (and his daughter). The other, he says, WAS occupied, but when the tenants left he wanted to leave it empty in order to do some "touch-ups". Guaging from what he told me, he may be getting to a point of desperation. He told me a few times that he has no more money and that he is starting to get homesick (his wife and other children stayed back home). I didn't ask, but he sounds like an investor himself. He said he asked the agent a few times if she could give him my contact info, but she told him "no". I said agents may be legally bound not to give the info out, but I'm glad he put his contact info on the repair list as I was having a helluva time getting anything answered. Seeing as how he sounded a bit desperate, I asked him if he would entertain the idea of carrying back a note. He said "no", but later on in the conversation, he said if it meant he could unload the house, he would consider it.

So, now my dilemma. The place sounds like it still needs some repair work. One of the things he told me still needed done was to run new electrical to the road to handle the increased amperage. He got some bids and the lowest was $900. He said he'd have no problem "overseeing" that repair if I'd pay for it (since he had no more money). There were some other items that were minor, but still needed to get done. There is no way I can take off work, go up there for 2-3 weeks and get the stuff done. I'm just not sure what to do at this point. The PM can (hopefully) contact some contractors to get the needed repairs done, but not sure at what cost (although, it'd be cheaper than me flying up, staying 2-3 weeks, and doing it myself, I'm sure). Even without seller financing, I'd be getting about $400-$600/mo. CF using the 50% gross income rule of thumb, so it'd be good income.

I just need to do a lot of thinking about this.

Update: It looks like the horse's mouth opened up to the broker, too. After asking the seller not to tell the agent/broker about our conversation, he must have said something to her afterward. I got a call from the agent's assistant saying the seller called and wondered why the communication between the three of us takes so long. Oh boy. I sent the agent a quick email stating that I did indeed contact the seller directly, but only because I had a pending question that I needed answered ASAP in order to better ascertain the condition of the property. I apologized if there was any mis-communication. We'll see what comes of this. I guess the seller IS getting desperate if he's now complaining to the agent about such things. I thought our phone call went well, but I guess he may be going into panic mode.