Posted by Jeanne on December 18, 2007 at 10:30:03:
Andy,
Congrats and good job. Would love to publish your Success Story when all is said and done. Please send it to me, if you don’t mind…
Jeanne Ekhaml
Creative Real Estate Online
Success! First Land/Home Purchase made! - Posted by Andy (NC)
Posted by Andy (NC) on December 18, 2007 at 09:21:18:
Wow! They really are out there!
To offer encouragement and thanks, here’s what I learned (along with the story in a nutshell):
Got a call from a Seller wanting me to look at a doublewide on 1.2 ac of land in an up-and-coming area. She was asking 75K and had an appraisal from 1999 for 71K. Went out and looked at it and told her I could only pay 35K. Place was trashed. Expected to never hear from her again.
Later noticed her ad in the penny saver. Three weeks later she calls and asks if I’ll pay 45K. I go out and look at it in more detail. My private opinion is I can pay 40 and still do well, but I’m nervous at that price. Electricity and water are not hooked up. Ultimately we settle on 37.5K. Closed last Thursday. She was able to quit paying off two mortgages, pay off this property she had been L/Oing for 12 years, and walk with away with 4700, so she was really happy.
Lessons learned:
(1) Never would have bought this without EDUCATION. Scott & Tony’s L/H Book and Small Park Bootcamp were invaluable! Highly recommended…Thanks Scott & Tony! Also I used your guy Jack Frue to close. Worked out well.
(2) Don’t appear too interested! I did this by accident because I was trying to get rid of her. If Seller is motivated, major concessions will be forthcoming. I had no interest in this property unless it was in the 35K range.
(3) Don’t let price stop you from going out and building a relationship with the Seller. I almost didn’t bother to look at this property because her initial price was too high. I would have missed out. The Seller will come around if motivated, and a relationship has been built. “60-day Deals” apparently happen with Land/Homes as well as Lonnie deals.
(4) ASK FOR HELP! I likely would not have bought this without asking for and getting help from friends in the MH community! Key players were:
Heath Cowart, who inspected the property with me the second time and gave me a lot of suggestions/useful info from a GC/home inspector’s perspective. This gave me a lot of confidence. Heath drove an hour each way to do this for me without expectation of anything in return. I fed him and bought him a tank of gas, but still feel a BIG debt of gratitude. Thank you Heath–you rock!
Lin Bennett, who calmly talked the deal over with me, gave me some useful ideas (particularly renting out the outbuilding as storage) and local market information. She also offered to take me in for a personal intro to her lender and to help me prepare a loan presentation packet. Though I didn’t end up needing this, knowing that support was there gave me a lot of confidence. Further, Lin gave some very helpful insurance tips at the last minute. Her best tip was to call Ryan! Thank you Lin!
Ryan Needler, who hooked me up BIG TIME with his insurance guy the day before we closed. I will be saving about $650 this year avoiding Foremost insurance and going with Farm Bureau. Note: my local Farm Bureau agent wouldn’t insure it because my homeowner’s is with a different company, so this was a definite hook up by Ryan’s agent, simply because of his relationship with Ryan. Thank you Ryan! I can’t think of ANYTHING I’d rather save money on than insurance!
Also, thanks to the community at large! Knowing you’ve got a bunch smart, experienced, giving folks who have your back is super comforting. I aspire to return the favor!
(5) Feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Trusting myself to make it a success. STILL feeling the fear now that I am figuring out how to rehab it, how to be a landlord, and do other stuff I don’t know how to do (yet). I am afeared, but with support shall prevail.
Stay tuned for rehab and landlording updates and questions…
To your success, and Merry Christmas,
Andy (NC)
Re: Success! First Land/Home Purchase made! - Posted by Michael(KCMO)
Posted by Michael(KCMO) on December 24, 2007 at 08:17:54:
Andy,
That’s Awesome! Congratulations!
I second your statement that we have a wonderful community that makes a huge difference in all our success.
Merry Christmas to All!!
Michael(KCMO)
Congrats again - Posted by Heath(NC)
Posted by Heath(NC) on December 19, 2007 at 06:05:00:
That made my day!!!
I am sincerely glad to have been able to help and I am also happy to be able to continue the tradition of giving back to the community like so many others on this board.
Heath(NC)
It’s a Merry Christmas after all! - Posted by RichDowdy(NC)
Posted by RichDowdy(NC) on December 19, 2007 at 05:13:03:
Congrats Andy!!!
Picked this up in time for a personal Christmas present, lol! I pray for your continued success. Have a happy holidays.
Richard Dowdy
Congrats! - Posted by Ryan (NC)
Posted by Ryan (NC) on December 18, 2007 at 19:32:14:
Congrats on a great deal Andy!
Tony refers to this phenomenon as standing in the path of opportunity… Amazing thing is once you are in the path you can literally get run over by deals! Good on ya my friend, nothing happens without taking action and I look forward to the many stories you’ll have in the future.
Best wishes,
Ryan Needler
CONGRATS !!! - Posted by Tony Colella
Posted by Tony Colella on December 18, 2007 at 10:50:32:
And they say the first deal is the hardest!
You did a great job of putting information into action and did so while covering you bases through due diligence.
That is the anatomy of successful deal. Way to go!
How’s that for a holiday gift to your family?
Here’s to many more Andrew.
Tony