Recently in Selling Michigan Foreclosures Category

As soon as you are done with rehabbing your flip and you have people walking in looking to buy your home - ask them nicely if they are pre-approved yet? If they say no, you need to whip out the business card of the loan officer on your team and tell them that you highly recommend them and they should call them up immediately so they can get their loan going fast and not risk losing this beautiful home to some other buyer.And after that you need to delegate the whole loan thing to your mortgage professional.

It is a complete waste of your time to get involved in the mortgage process and start meeting their home buyer to collect documents or trying to figure out their credit situation especially if they have some blemishes on their credit. Leave all that to your mortgage professional. That is all the they do every day, all day. They are good at it. And they are getting paid for closing your deal. You have better things to do: find another deal to pull the trigger on when this one closes; go to networking meetings to make more contacts, attend seminars to add to your knowledge base and build your bank of private investors....

Real estate investing is a team sport. You as the investor occupy the position of the team captain but a good captain is not supposed to play at all positions but rather play at the position that he is great at and delegate the rest to its other team members.

Winning championships in our business AKA going to a closing and collecting a check with your LLC name on it cannot be done by yourself. Not only you need good teammates but you as the top guy needs to let them do their job. You will score more often.

I had just recently started flipping foreclosures in Detroit. One day my contractor called me and wanted to know what color I want the outside of the house painted. This 'picking color' thing was one of those I am completely clueless about so I took the easy way out and said pick whatever you want from Home Depot. Next day I pulled over to the house. It was summer and bunch of neighbors were standing outside, pointing to my house, some were laughing, some were shaking their heads. I stared at the house speechless. It was painted the brightest shade of canary yellow you can think of. The space shuttle could probably spot it out from outer space without too much trouble. This picture which I got from the Internet to give you some idea of what I was staring at. My house was 20 times more brighter and yellowish.

During the same period, one of the top top top real estate agents in Detroit ended up walking through three of my houses that had just got finished up. We were thinking about listing at least one of them with her and she wanted a tour of our properties as she was an investor herself.

After the tour was done, she told me that these houses looked great expect for one little thing: they reminded her of hospital rooms as majority of them were painted in white. She said hey I understand that you are a man and might have problem picking up any color besides white but I am sure that there is somebody else in your life that you can ask you to help you pick great looking colors at least for the bathrooms and kitchen. Leave the rest in a nice off-white shade and even there you can choose warmth over dullness. It was a good 'shellacking' and much needed at that time in my business.

You and I both have people in our lives that have great eyes when it comes to picking up and putting colors together. A great looking house is not the same as 'finished house'.

Take a close look at Deborah Benson's handiwork here. Her houses are gorgeous by choice and one of the reasons that their houses sell in a matter of days.

What you did in the basement and on the roof and behind the drywall matters but in the end it is the eyes of your buyers during the open house that are making the big decision to buy the house and turn your investment into a big check with your LLC name on it.

If you cant figure this whole color thing out, stop being shy and ask for help from people in your lives to make your deal the 'best looking' deal in the neighborhood. Not just 'best remodeled' but also 'best looking'.

Easy on eyes translates into faster in your bank account flip.

Photo credit: http://stavangerphotobytanty.blogspot.com/2007/01/house-series-10.html

- People who bitch and complain about China taking over the world yet go to Wal-Mart for their shopping where almost everything is made out of China.

- Michigan Real estate investors who have used a realtor in the past who did a great job of selling their flips. 

She was a professional, returned the phone calls, ran the Open Houses with you and actively reached out to other realtors who called in and told them that their buyers are going to love the foreclosures you have just turned from an ugly REO to a beautiful home, found you a buyer and worked the deal till it closed and you got a check.

And yet all of a sudden, to save may be $3,500: you decide to drop her and 'try' to do a FSBO on Craig's List and waste valuable months screwing around when you could be spending the same time lining up private investors, buying more houses and building your business.

Good people are hard to find and yet if you have them, why Wal-Mart them out of your life?

Are you making the check you wanted to make even after paying her 6%? Is it not better to concentrate on doing the next deal which will bring a $20,000 check instead of trying to add $3,000 to this one?

Same thing with contractors. People find good ones and then run them off by going off to cheaper (read: crazy insane one person crack smoking crew) alternatives.

I had a meeting with a prospective business partner last week that I have been talking to about starting a new business on the side. They turned me off immediately by starting the conversation with, "So what is the minimum, minimum amount of money we need to start this business?" They have money. A lot of it. But a wrong mindset about running a business. A better question would have been, "What do we need to make this business pop like crazy from Day 1 and we don't have that kind of money to do all the things we need to do at Day 1 - where do you think we can go and get OPM to make that happen?"

I am not for reckless spending. I leave that responsibility to my girls who (God help me) have figured out how to get to American Girls store on the Internet. But part of running a business is not about just finding opportunity (as in good deals) but also where to spend the most valuable resource you have: your time.

Alien Vs. Predator.

Vampires vs. Zombies.

Freddy vs. Jason.

Sell your flip by Realtor vs. Sell it FSBO?

Yeah it is as epic of a battle as the first 3. Some thoughts to move you close to selling your flip fast, if you are going to FSBO: (read this if you are looking for a realtor to help you sell your flip)

1. Start with the 'right comps': Every time I have talked to friends or neighbors who are thinking about selling their home FSBO - their comps are somewhere between 'hopeful' to 'delusional'. 

Numbers don't lie. If 3 bedrooms are going in your area for $90,000 well it does not matter if you wore silk gloves when you were laying out the tiles in the kitchen, one by one with precision that would make a NASA engineer proud of your wizardry. You may think THAT should push your house sale price to $125,000 but no your house is still worth $90,000.

2. Price your house to sell not price-to-wait: All the houses are in your area are going for $95,000. How fast do you want to sell your home? You can price it at $85,000 and if you still have $20,000 NET left and you can sell the house in 2 weeks.... Why not? 

If you are willing to do a little bit of marketing (online and offline) then price the house toward the higher end for the first 2 weeks and see what fish come swimming to you and if you don't like what is coming (or not coming) price the house to sell not price-to-sit-on.

3. Use Everything:  Use Craig's List. Use vFlyer. Use Postlets. Use flat fee MLS broker. Use YouTube. Use Facebook. In short use everything that is right in front of your nose to get the word out that you have a beautiful, fully remodeled house available for sale for a very lucky family who will call it home.

4. Man up and pay the Realtors MORE who have buyers: If a realtor knocks on the door and they have a buyer - pay them the 3%. Heck offer them 4.5% so they will go to bat for you instantly. If you are listing the house using a flat fee MLS broke - offer 4.5% if a realtor can bring you a buyer. You are still saving some coin and couples of hundred dollars are not going to make a dent in your big check.

Debbie and Doug Benson are very very cool real estate investors out of Lansing / Mason / Holt area. They buy and sell houses. They own apartment buildings and are working on buying some more right now. 2 People that you should be talking to in Michigan if you are serious about buying and selling bank foreclosures / investing in apartments.

Recently I saw on Doug & Debbie's Facebook Page that they had sold a house in 5 days after putting it on the market. I laughed because earlier this year, Doug was pretty grumpy on an episode of the FiredUP show about a house taking 11 days to flip.

So on his Facebook Page he wrote, "Got our first full-price offer on the Wilcox house ...five days after we put out the "For Sale" sign!?! *sigh* Right when I was starting to gear up my marketing stuff. Flyers, video, FaceBook ads, the works. Heck, I even added another page to my website! What a waste... ;-)"

He also sent me a private email, "We just took a call this morning from a lady who said she is going to find me a foreclosed house to fix up and sell to her. Another lady at the last open house (don't forget, we had already accepted an offer two days prior to this open house. Who cancels open houses!?! We put 16 couples through that house for crying out loud!) who said she is going to buy my next flip. She said she has been following us for two years waiting for when she can buy a house and making sure we keep flipping them so she can."

How do you get 'lucky' like this where buyers are chasing you before you even buy a foreclosure to flip in your Michigan City? Here is how:

Most investors work very hard in fixing the house BUT miss out on this. They fix the house but don't know how to make the house beautiful.

Most rehabbers are men yet most buyers are women. Believe me when it comes to making money and running a business, Nora and me are reflections of each other - everything else, not so much. We go shopping for anything even stupid stuff and we see the world from 2 different eyes. If you have been married for more than 1 year, you should be nodding your head right now.

2. Don't wait for luck to find you a buyer. Have a list of things you will do when the house is all done to sell the house fast. Doug has a list. So should you. He gives you a partial list right on his Facebook post.

Why is this important? Because even if you have a gorgeous house BUT nobody knows about it OR worse your house just becomes 'another listing on MLS" - you are not putting the house in front of buyers (like Doug is) who will be literally fighting in your living room to buy your house.

You are not giving your business a chance to send you a great check. Life is trying to give you money; you are not just taking it. Have a list.The same way you had a list to make sure that everything that needed fixing in the house, got fixed. Same way have a list to sell the house and do them all one by one. I want you to also be grumpy selling houses in 11 days soon.

There is no such thing as being 'lucky' about selling houses in Michigan. No fate but what we make. You have a beautiful house in a 'HOT MICHIGAN CITY' and you have a list of things you will do to sell the house - you will end up with a check. It is as simple as that.

We are going to talk a lot about #1 and #2, especially 2 on October 23 at my all day seminar in Troy. Almost 2-3 hours on this topic on how to sell your flips and sell them fast in Michigan.

October 23 is almost here so don't delay in securing your seat and miss out. You can reserve your seat here or if you have any questions, call Nora at 248-561-3535 directly and talk to her.

Like every seminar I have ever done before, this too comes with an 100% UNCONDITIONAL, NO QUESTIONS, NO REASONS REQUIRED GUARANTEE: sit through lunch, if don't like anything about my strategies, heck even the way light is reflecting off my bald head, just say so and get 100% refund of your tuition plus I will give you a $100 gas card for your inconvenience. I believe in my guarantee as having brass balls confidence in what I am going to show you.

I teach small groups by choice. Around 10-15 students only. I want to make sure that when you walk out, every single question that you might have been answered. So don't wait too long and be locked out. I will not be teaching another seminar till January 2011. So snoozing is not recommended on this. Lock your seat today.

If you ever went to a builders spec home especially a development being built by a national builder like Pulte, Singh or Toll Brothers - the first thing they will ask you before the let you go walk the model is to fill out a little postcard.

On it, you will give them your name, current address, phone number, email and how soon you are thinking about buying a home etc. So now if you may not like the house they are showing you right now - they know that you are in the market for a new home and as more new sub-divisions come into Phase 1 - they will alert you via mail, email or phone call.

Doug Benson, one of my Inner Circe members and a regular on the FiredUP Show, did a terrific episode on selling homes. One of the tactics that Doug uses is collecting phone numbers from every single person that walks through one of his flip open houses and then calling them back when his next flip is ready to hit the market. They might still be in market or might know somebody who is looking for home in the Lansing area.

So 2 things to remember:

1. Not everybody who is in the market to buy a new home in Michigan is going to find one before the weekend is over. When you bought the home you live in... how many homes did you looked at with your significant other?

Also if you are renting and your lease is not ending for another 90 days, but you still might start looking right now. I know a couple who is getting married in January and they are going to move in January but they are looking right now. So even if you don't end up selling them this home, you might end up flipping the home that you have going on in January.

2. If nothing else - collect email addresses and phone numbers along with names from people coming in to your place. If you are comfortable with Facebook, setup a Page to the tune of Southfield Homes and give them a little business card and ask them to LIKE it up so they can stay in touch and see all the new homes that are coming in the market.

But either way, build a list of buyers walking through your OPEN HOUSES and then follow-up on them as your new deals get finished and hit the market. That list will help you sell lots of houses in the next 12 months.

You are selling a flip you just fixed. Open House is going on and there are two families standing in the living room talking price with you. One of them needs to go and get a mortgage. Other one is a cash buyer. Why are both of them getting the same deal? The cash buyers can get the inspection done and close within 10 days. The FHA mortgage buyer is looking at 30 days minimum.

I am not saying that you should gift the house to the cash buyer but one price for two different buyers does not make any sense. When you are buying REO's - which offer do you think Asset Managers love the most? Cash or Mortgages?

Cash buyers are back in every Michigan City. Thanks to the low low prices in every city in Michigan and mom and dad helping the kiddies out start a new life (without debt) - whole lot of buyers are walking in to closings with cashier checks instead of a mortgage packet.

Show you cash buyers your appreciation by giving them a little extra something: a discount, a flat screen TV, an appliance warranty from Sears (only $400) - whatever that would make them know that you will be happy if they bought that cash over to your flip.

Cash buyers are here in Michigan. Buying homes everyday. Question is why are we treating them just like every other buyer? And what you are going to do to attract a horde of them to your own flip?