Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by SCook85

Posted by Ted on November 10, 2000 at 20:32:26:

Tracy, I think his profit is the 25k or 30% that he is subtracting from the FMV

Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by SCook85

Posted by SCook85 on November 01, 2000 at 09:09:32:

Recently I have been getting many emails asking me how I buy the amount of homes that I do. My answer is usually a very simple one- I make Tons of OFFERS!

I make on average 100+ offers per month, sometimes many more. Over the course of this past weekend I made about 40 offers and bought 9 houses on Monday. It was not a package deal. Every deal stood on its own. But the point is this, if I didn’t make those offers I could not have bought all of those homes.

I have many people who come to me and tell me that they look at homes all of the time and they never buy anything. They find the motivated sellers but no deals ever go through. I then ask them how many times they have put an offer on paper and they can usually count it on one hand.

I make offers on every single home that I look at, on homes that I don’t look at, on homes that are priced ridiculously high, and homes that are priced ridiculously low, on homes in really good areas, on homes in bad areas, there is a number that works on just about any home regardless of where it is and that is what I offer. Sure most of the time I am told “no”. In fact on Monday MOST of my offers were rejected which is usually the case, but some were accepted, and those are the only ones that I care about.

I hope that this will inspire some of you to get out their making more offers. You don’t need to make as many offers as I do, but if you want to buy houses you have to make some offers. If you don’t, you won’t ever buy anything.

Happy Investing!

Steve

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by PatrickMD

Posted by PatrickMD on November 10, 2000 at 18:29:17:

Wow, Steve. Thanks for your response to my question about specific neighborhoods inside the beltway. I really didn’t expect much of a response and I was happily surprised! Thanks again and best of luck to you. Pat Page, Baltimore Clipper Homebuyers.

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by PatrickMD

Posted by PatrickMD on November 06, 2000 at 13:50:05:

Excellent free seminar, Steve. Do you find marketable deals inside the Baltimore Beltway? How about inside the Baltimore City limits, such as Canton, Fells Point, or Dundalk? Or does the County keep you totally busy? Thanks.

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by scott in va

Posted by scott in va on November 03, 2000 at 12:21:23:

Steve first of congrats, secondly you say you nake tons of offers.Do you just look throught the paper and call on everything?Do you place ads yourself?where do you find all the properties that you make offers on? Thanks in advance scott

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by T2B - FL

Posted by T2B - FL on November 02, 2000 at 12:35:33:

Great post!

Where do you get your money? Hard Money or do you have your own money from doing this for so long (with such great success)?

Where do you suggest a newbie with no cash get the money to make offers like you do?

Thanks!
Tom

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by Dee-Texas

Posted by Dee-Texas on November 02, 2000 at 07:32:19:

You my friend always blow me away with your deals! Congrats. I’ve had a major computer crash and just now getting back online, so I’ve been reading and reading. smile Loved your way of buying houses. I tried that with a Landlord that was moving, told him I would give him 70% of FMV and told him what FMV was. He didn’t bite BUT he hasn’t sold them either. He’s moving so I will just wait.
Dee-Texas

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by GIO

Posted by GIO on November 01, 2000 at 23:29:47:

yes these numbers are impressive and and your message motivational. but please anwer the question of what value do you offer for the home. If you don’t use a percent of the list price, which I assume the other questions meant the FMV ; HOW do you determine what price to offer. There MUST be some basis for your offers.
thanks

What About The Earnest money? - Posted by hatmat

Posted by hatmat on November 01, 2000 at 23:22:20:

Hey SCook85,
Please forgive this newbie question but do you have to put up earnest money on all of your offers? And when you do how much, and in what form, check ? promissory note? -hatmat

Doing what it takes, Glad for your Post! - Posted by Mark - IL

Posted by Mark - IL on November 01, 2000 at 23:15:04:

Great post to show a different look at real estate. Real estate for most of us is treated on a emotinal level and with what you are doing is a numbers game. No time for feelings to fog up the deal. I know for my self I sometimes get too involed on a piece of property and when my offer is not accepted it can be a let down especially if you have spent some time drawing up the numbers to make the deal work on your end. Maybe you could tell us how you got started in real estate. Also with buying that many properties do you have a crew to clean these up? Do you have a good size line of credit with someone to offer cash deals? Do you ever present 2 offers:

  1. Cash
  2. Some kind of finance.

I would be greatful along with others I am sure if you could give us a example of a deal, and how you came up with a price & structure the deal, etc.

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by Bill Scott

Posted by Bill Scott on November 01, 2000 at 21:32:25:

Congratulations Scott! And thanks for the real world post. You have to look at a lot of houses, write a lot of offers, take phone calls from pi$$ed off realtors and sellers incensed that you would offer such a low price, and work, work, work. But, you have your own business, make your own schedule and make good money. And that makes it worthwhile for many of us!

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by Sandra

Posted by Sandra on November 01, 2000 at 16:31:25:

SCook,

You said you only make cash offers. And you probably don’t use your own money for the 'ol conventional way (5% at contract etc, etc…) Do you have mortagage bankers that fund your deals for 70% of FMV or do you use private funds…rich folks funds

Thanx

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by JD

Posted by JD on November 01, 2000 at 16:31:17:

That’s great! I am confident that some of those accepted contracts will actually close. But to say that you “bought” the properties when 101 things can void the deals between now and closing seems unrealistic. Particularly when you havent even been in some (most?) of these properties. Very impressive nonetheless.

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by ScottNovi, MI

Posted by ScottNovi, MI on November 01, 2000 at 16:20:37:

Steve,

I’ve heard of your techniques use before, and I think it is a phenomenal tactic. I invest mainly in L/O and some flips, but i want to make more offers. I was wondering do you make these all in person? Because when I actually make my offers in person, I get looked at strangely, I’m 28 but with a face of a 21 year old and they think I don’t know my business (which I admit sometimes I don’t, but I have mentors that do). Do you ever make offers by fax? or verbal over the phone? Thanks for taking the time to read this. Appreciate your input, and CONGRATS and here’s to your success!!!

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by Rob FL

Posted by Rob FL on November 01, 2000 at 10:01:11:

Hey Steve,

Congrats on your deals. That is awesome!!!

I have some questions for you on the houses you make offers on but haven’t seen. Are these offers blind offers, like 70% of the asking price or something? Or are they based on knowledge of comps in the area, speaking with the owner or someone about repairs needed, and other things like that?

I know a few people who just want to send out offers based on a percentage of asking price or based on the assessed value on the tax rolls. These investors figure that if they send out 100 offers this way that maybe 2 or 3 will stick. I just wondered about your technique in this situation.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by Ben (FL)

Posted by Ben (FL) on November 01, 2000 at 10:00:10:

I seem to be getting stuck looking through paper and if “MOTIVATED SELLER” doesn’t ooze fromthe add, I go on. I appreciate your post.
Now, I have a couple of questions:

Are these offers made in the form of completed contracts with the details and terms already worked out, or do you just summarize general terms on paper?

Are all of these offers for cash sale, or do you mix and match, some L/O, some with Owner Financing, etc.

Do you just grab a number x% below the asking price, or do you analyze each property, it’s value, the seller’s wants vs. needs, whether you’re going to do any fix-up, etc.? This question is particularly interesting to me, considering I have a J.O.B. = 40 hours, another job/hobby that takes 5 to 10 hours a week, and would like to find a little time to fight the battle of the bulge, too (hmmm, wants vs. needs) in addition to building my RE business.

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by joel

Posted by joel on November 01, 2000 at 09:41:22:

Steve,

Thank you for your post. It is easy sometimes for me to get frustrated, but I just got re energized reading your post.

Thank you!

Joel

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by JohnG

Posted by JohnG on November 01, 2000 at 09:25:47:

Sometimes you buy a house even when you don’t want another one.

I already have enough good deals I am working on. So, when the realtor called with two houses in a great area (small war time houses that could be fixed up and re-sold) and both were asking 119,000 each. I said
go in at $80,000 - I didn’t want another “good deal” - and guess what - I got a counter at 89,000 and bought them both for 85,000 each !!!

You are right - keep making lots of offers !!!
Thats the only thing that makes you money - all the rest of this stuff is just talk talk talk !!!

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by SCook85

Posted by SCook85 on November 02, 2000 at 07:16:14:

Imake my offers based off of Fair Market Value of the homes, never off of list price. I know the neighborhoods very well. I have to be honest with you, in time you no longer use a formula. Of course your offers are based off of a formula that you used to use but once you have paid $40k for similar homes time and time again in a particular neighborhood you can be pretty sure that $40k is going to work again.

I personally use 2 formulas- They are

After Repair Value X 70% Less repairs = My offer

After Repair Value - $25k Less repairs = My offer

I take the lesser of the two and make my offer.

But I rarely use these formulas anymore, I simply look at a deal now and know what to pay for it. I’ll use the formula when I go into new neighborhoods that I have never bought in before.

Hope this helps

Steve

Re: Offers, Offers, Offers! Bought 9 houses! - Posted by WilliamGA

Posted by WilliamGA on November 02, 2000 at 07:09:36:

GIO,

I am not Steve (but one day hope to be like him :slight_smile:
but I believe I can answer your question.

I believe Steve’s offers are the “rule of thumb” that most investors here follow. 70% of ARV minus repairs. For example, you have a 100k house that needs 10k in repairs, your offer would be 60k. Thats 70k (or 70%) of the ARV less the 10k in repairs needed.

On houses where the ARV is 50k or less, you would subtract 25k from the ARV then subract any repairs needed. Example, house has an ARV of 45k and needs 5k in repairs. You offer 15k, that is 45k minus 25k = 20k less the 5k repairs = 15k.

Correct me if I am wrong, Steve.

WilliamGA