Why I hate Monday’s

Yesterday my head was swimming---vision was blurry and there was a constant ringing in my ears---well not really but, I wanted to get the paragraph warmed up.  Yesterday I was waiting for one of my Escrows to either get going or fall apart and it was raining and the roof on my house was leaking.

Proactive or Reactive?  I really should have told the roofer to start 3 months ago when I got the estimate but, for reasons unknown I thought it could wait---or I thought I would do it next week and then other stuff started to pile up and all of the sudden---my roof problem wasn't a problem when it is sunny.

So—if that wasn't enough---I went to one of my houses to check on it---I drive up and the neighbor asked me if I was keeping a dog in the backyard.  I told her that I was not keeping a dog there as I only visit the property once a month or so…..my curiosity is peaked and I go into the backyard---I see paint cans stacked up outside the garage door---*strange*---I move the paint cans and peek inside.  As I open up the door I see a huge head and two eyes looking at me.  It was a 4 month old Pit Bull!!!  Some piece of shit person locked a puppy in my garage and left it there.  The neighbor said that she heard it crying for the last two cold nights---I have not been to property in about a week so who knows how long that poor little guy was stuck in there with no food and water.

Anyhow—I got him out and as he was shivering with fear gave him some water and affection.  As I was petting him---I realized that he had scars on his face and legs---it looks like the guy who left him there to die had fought him.  The dog gradually  warmed up to me pretty quick as I think he knew I just saved his life.  Luckily the neighbor said she knew a guy who has been looking for a pit bull puppy.  We called the guy and he came and got his new pup.  So far so good.

I was a little shaken by that as well as the idea that I had to get on my Spanish tile roof and try to fix my leak without falling off the house and breaking up my tiles.  I went to Home Depot and bought some plastic, mastic, and a headlamp for working in the dark---well----got everything in my truck but, left the headlamp at the store—realized it when it was getting dark----after home depot—sent to Vons and bought some food and two pallets of water----well---got the food in my truck but, left the water at the store.

Never—ever have done this before let alone two times in two hours---I guess that dog thing bothered me more than I realized.  Lets hope we can get on with this escrow so I can get up to the cabin and do some boarding.

Winter Break and a tale of two escrows

Well,  Its winter break for the kids and this is when we typically head up to the cabin for a few weeks and put some mileage on our Big Bear season passes.

Unfortunately---the weather has not been that cold and the resort only has a base of 6-12” and it is raining up there this whole week----in fact, the resort is completely shut down today and is operating on a minute by minute basis----UNREAL!!  Last year at this time---we were looking at a 6 foot base and beautiful conditions-------OH—why now?

To top off this crappy situation I am in escrow on two of my properties—should be great but, I am having some issues with one of my places.  I am selling a 5 bedroom—3 bath home that is beautiful with new everything.  This was a whole house renovation----everything from the floors to furnace was replaced.  I am also selling it cheap---287K when the last house sold for 264K and had 1000 square feet less living space.  I am only selling it this cheap because the buyers promised me that they would close prior to December 31 2010 and I could book this revenue and post it against some earlier negative entries.

During the discussions about price-----I committed the Cardinal Sin—I negotiated against MYSELF!!  (Whats up Rookie?)  I knew what I was doing at the time---the agent was telling me how much they could afford, comps etc. and in one conversation I was in a good mood and said—“Yeah OK—as long as I net 280K and then 10 minutes later “OK we I will take 272” and then the next morning in a caffeine induced snow covered morning (I was at the cabin) I texted her and said if we can get this done easily and quickly I would take 265K (net). 

They agreed and we should have been off and running but, they came back a few days later with some kind of reasoning and said “Gee—would you take a net of 263K?”  I almost killed the deal right there but, I said sure—I will take it as long as nothing else comes up.  Wrong move—in fact most of the things I did in this deal were wrong and I knew it when I was doing it---why did I do it?  At some level I underestimated the agent---older lady (3 grandkids) and I was essentially just chatting with her. 

OK—I made some really basic negotiating errors and they are getting a good deal.  They should be happy and I should be taking my lumps.  The question is why are they now coming back to the table and wanting more???  The really crazy thing is that what they are asking for is essentially just pennies.  They came back with a junk’d up inspection report from a guy who after looking at a 2x4 would say---“observed rough wood, that is not square---consider having an engineer provide additional report”.  This guys report is a joke----and to top if off they agent then went and got an estimate from a heating guy who gave them an estimate that was about 5x actual costs.  Geez! 

So---no these guys are coming back and asking me to reduce the price to a 10K premium over what the last house sold for---remember—that my house is twice the size!!  2100SF compared to 1280SF or so—and then seriously want me to sell it to them for 10K over?  Either that or put an additional heating unit in----(I just put one in?!?).  So-instead of blowing up---I guided the agent to an online site and showed her that her clients could buy a wall unit for 400 bucks and that all the piping and venting is already inside the wall----------I had a 80 minute conversation with her about a 400 dollar line item?  Nutty—she kept going over and over saying “I want you to say that you will put a wall unit in”.  Boy—did I ever underestimate this lady----pit bull---1. see target, 2. Bite 3. Dont let go till you taste blood.  That is OK---she is doing a great job for her client although, maybe a little too good.

For me—I easily knocked off 15 thousand dollars from this transaction just to make it easy and now they are quibbling over 400 bucks?  OH yeah—this is a VA loan and MY fees are 24,0000 dollars because I have to pay for their whole escrow and promised to give them 9,000 dollars at the end of escrow-----and they are complaining about a 400 dollar wall heater?  Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees—in their defense---they are newbies---never bought a house and are probably scared to death -----I am sure they are thinking that renting is so much easier----no decisions to make.

So---what is the moral of this story---the lesson?  I think it is this 1. never underestimate your other (opponent) 2.  Dont step into the ring unless you are ready to fight to the death and 3.  For every item you ever give up make sure that the other party gives up something in return.

 

 

About a week ago two of my properties went into escrow.  One is a

The other property is a 3 bedroom---2 bath condo.  In this unit i pretty much only put in new wood flooring and carpet----new paint and granite in the kitchen and bathrooms.

The prices for these two properties are as follows  287K for the 5/3 and 178K (I think—ned to look) for the condo.  Here is the funny thing----if you look at the values based on Zillow which are always low---the 5/3 has a Zestimate (Zillow Estimate) of 295K.  The condo on the other hand has a Zestimate of 143K.

So---I am selling the condo at 35K over the estimate and selling the 5/3 at a little less than 10K under the zestimate.  From just looking at the zestimate—it looks like the buyer of the 5/3 is getting a great deal---which is true.  The question is why am I having problems with these buyers?

Wow!! Last post was in January? 12 months ago--unbelievable

Well it is now December and have neglected this blog for a very long time----much of this neglect stems from being a little gunshy about posting my life online--very recently after my last post almost a year ago I had a meeting with a guy and out of the blue he asked me a question. I was kinda like "HUH?" and then realized that this guy had read my blog prior to this meeting---it felt a little awkward so........havent posted in the last year.

This blog is/was mainly meant to sort of be kind of a journal for myself---too many times I cant remember when some event happened I just sort of recall what else was going on at the time of the event----so I figured I would blog it and be able to document these events in a blog sort of timeline.

Anyhow---here is what is going on right now----still sitting on a bunch of real estate--7 houses---that is a pile of cash that is just waiting to be converted. For much of this year with everything in the economy looking kooky----I felt pretty good about having my cash in a hard tangible asset like real estate----I figured even if the economy completely took a dump I was in a better position with real estate than cash or stocks. Well---although the real estate market has stabilized (somewhat) there is still a ton of fear out there from buyers as well as lenders---so the time has come to sell of my inventory of houses.

I had two properties listed in the last 3-6 months and as of yesterday have two of the properties in escrow--now lets close them. Next on my list is a commercial property that I bought about 5 months ago----It has a pretty interesting "Light Industrial" zoning with super freeway access and you can see it from the freeway itself so--this should make a pretty good rental. I have zero interest in being a landlord but, in this case I am going to give it a try---after that sell the ranch. Funny thing is that I spent about 5K in September cleaning the 5 acres of landscaping and gutting the house only to leave the property vacanct for the last two months---I havent even been over there---nutty.

Kids are getting out of school for winter break next week and we are going to the cabin and begin putting our season passes to work--my goal this year is for me to get 30 days of snowboarding---that would make me feel good. I recently bought a bunch of cameras to tape the action of the kids --got a Vhold HD for my helmet and a super small Kodac for my pocket.

OK---I know this was a boring post but, had to get started with something. Next post will be some vids of the kids. I also am working on some tech ideas---one is for a pretty interesting Iphone App and another is a product post syndication concept. Neither one seems to be out there right now so..I need to get out of these real estate positions and start working on some different stuff.