OfflineI just closed my very first deal today (Tue) for $5,706.70 net profit!!! It took me 2.5 months, since I bought RBBP on August 1st. And I had a few last-minute surprises but everything worked out in the end. Man, this stuff works! Only if you work though 
Just to let you know what happened, my realtor listed this 2-br/2-ba townhouse in a nice neighborhood for $89,900. The ARV is about $125k, so I made an offer for $66,300 with EM of $500 and got it accepted and approved by the bank (it's a short sale). While pending the approval, we stumbled upon a cash buyer who's a contractor, who was also very interested in this property. So I decided to flip it to him through double closing. We had some back and forth and we ended up with $77,500!
A mistake I made during the negotiation was that I forgot to ask him to pay his own agent's commission. If I remembered I had to pay that, I would've negotiated with a higher number. This mistake caused me more than $2k! It's definitely a very valuable lesson.
As for the transactional funding for the first closing, I got the cash from my buddy who's in the hedge fund business -- I paid him 2% fee. I also put in a little bit of my own money to save on the money costs (since it's sitting in the bank anyway). The funny thing is, I actually sent him a message in Facebook one night thinking that he probably wouldn't want to invest his money, but he replied the next morning with some questions and we talked over the phone and made a deal in less than an hour! This reminds me: don't be afraid to ask, the worst somebody can do is say no.
The last thing that caused a 1-day delay of the closing was that the title search returned an open mortgage on the property by a contractor. The mortgage was paid off 20 years ago, but the company already went out of business and we couldn't find the owner. Luckily, the seller dug through her documents and managed to find the release papers at 1 am last night! She was really motivated as she's been trying to sell the property for 1.5 years!
All said and done, the closing took less than an hour and I walked away from the table with about $5,700 net profit, and I've never even seen the property myself!!! How cool is that?!
But, the best thing that happened today is to see the big smile on the seller's face -- she was literally dancing and hugging people! It's just so wonderful to be able to help take a burden off someone, give business to the title company, the attorney, 2 realtors, bring a great deal to the end-buyer, and make some money myself (plus the county and state take a good chunk of taxes too...). Everybody wins!
Bottom line, just go out there and keep making progress every single day. Never ever give up because that's when you actually fail! I didn't know a lot of the things that happened, and I still probably don't. I had many obstacles, most of them psychological -- What if they try to scam me? What if I look stupid? What if it doesn't work out? Too many what ifs...but I definitely had a wonderful real world education, not just theoretical stuff. I'm moving on to my 2nd deal, and I hope your next deal is right the corner! Hope this helps, good luck!
Real Estate Investor, if you would like the chance to work with me in the US East Coast, send me a PM (Private Message) anytime to see if we are a good fit for each other.
Wishing you abundance,
Ken Siew
GET ON TO THE NEXT ONE! I already have 2 more under contract and a buyer lined up for one of them!
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Thank you soooo much for sharing the details. Doesn't it feel good. You learned so much so quickly. I'm sooo happy for you!! You motivate me again to get my next deal d-o-n-e!
So awesome!! Big win all around!!
Jill Holden | San Diego
Investor Services
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I knew you were going to make it happen. I have been following all of your posted comments and it was evident that you have the motivation, ambition, and intelligence to become a successful Real Estate Investor. Can't wait to hear about deal #2! Best wishes!
Les
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it is great to use Private Money!!! I can't believe how fast your short sale went through! which bank was the lender?
What title company did you do your double closing with?
Looking forward to reading about your second deal!
Valerie
Valerie
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That is a great job Ken. Never let the bumps in the road stop you from the finsh line. Very happy for you.
Steve.
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KEN
GREAT JOB !! THANKS FOR SHARING ALOT OF PEOPLE NEED TOO HEAR THIS, ESPECIALLY IF THEY GOT THE RBBP, THIS IS AROUND THE TIME ALOT OF THEM THROW IN THE TOWEL , BECAUSE THEY HAVENT DONE THEIR FIRST DEAL YET.THIS SHOULD MOTIVATE EVERYONE.THANKS AGAIN FOR SHARING, AND NOW IT GETS FUN !!!!
CURTIS FILLERS
(CHARLOTTE,NC)
I've been reading about your progress as you made your way through this deal. it's great to see you make it to the finish line and help so many people while doing it.
Great job Ken!
Mark K.
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Great job Ken! Way to get the job done:) I too am curious as to how your short sale closed so soon....do tell
Again, much congrats and keep em coming!
Lenee
www.allstarhouses.com
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Great job, thanks for all the details. WIN,WIN,WIN
I appreciate the kind words! I gotta owe the success to DG.com as well, whenever I felt like giving up, I would come back to DG.com and start reading new posts and answering questions. It helps me to recharge -- in this business, the toughest thing to do is to stay motivated and keep doing what you need to do.
@Valuni, to answer your questions, the bank was Bank of America. We only got the approval letter on the very last day, so all the people on my team worked late the night before (and got up early too!). So grateful to have such dedicated people on the team! Actually, the deal only took about a month to close. It was a quick short sale as the bank guaranteed a 10-day response. Although it took few more weeks for the final approval, it was kinda expected.
Not sure which title company I used, everything was done last minute so I just asked my attorney to find me the best and the most affordable title company
As I said, I still don't know everything that happened -- but it just proves that you don't need to know everything to make a deal happen!
Might be closing my 2nd deal end of the month, but still working out the details. Will keep you guys posted!
Have a blessed day!
Real Estate Investor, if you would like the chance to work with me in the US East Coast, send me a PM (Private Message) anytime to see if we are a good fit for each other.
Wishing you abundance,
Ken Siew
How did the short sale go so fast? How did you get to flip it so fast? I thought if you bought a SS you had to keep it for X amount of time? I am glad this all worked for you so well...I am still waiting on a short sale we put an offer in on July 31st...Bank Of America...still waiting for the bank to do an appraisal. I'm here in NJ if you are looking to network?
Congrats again!
Hi Ken let me say CONGRADULATIONS!!!!!!An you stayed with it to the end,WHAT A WAY TO GO!!!!!!!You know what else I LOVE YOUR HONESTY AN YOUR SO HUMBLE Id LOVE TO WORK WITH YOU TOO.Those are great qualities an NEVER LET GO OF THEM!!!!!One thing about this an life its self we will NEVER QUIT LEARNING AS LONG AS WE ARE STILL BREATHING, IAM SO VERY PROUD OF YOU AN I TRUELY MEAN THAT AN NOT ONLY DO YOU MAKE US HAPPY BUT ALL THOSE OTHER PEOPLE WHO WORKED WITH YOU AN THAT OVER JOYED OWNER "YOU MADE HER DAY" AN SHE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU, KEN THESE PEOPLE OUT HERE NEED US TO HELP THEM OUT OF THERE DIRER SITUATIONS. ISNT LIFE FUN!!!!!!! YOU BET YAH!!!!!!!!. YOUR A VERY FINE MAN KEEP THE THE WONDERFUL WORK, Jim
jbischoff
That is awesome that you came back to DG to get motivated and to ask more questions. Great job! You also remind me that I don't have to know every little detail to get the job done. That inspires me! Thanks for sharing your deal! Tammy
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Congrats! that's awesome...why did your buyer have a realtor? and your friend that funded the deal, you got away with only 2%? that's sweet!
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Excellent work Ken. Great use of multiple key strategies! You really pulled it together - a short sale, a cash buyer, private money, and you never even saw the property - wow - way to go.
Blessings & Favor,
Gena.
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Thanks guys, couldn't do it without the help from Dean, his team, and you guys!
Hazco, I got lucky on this one! The end-buyer was looking at the same property through his own agent, but my initial offer was already pending approval (my realtor happened to be the listing agent too). So after it was approved, I decided to flip it to him. I didn't really market this property too much to my other cash buyers because of the tight timeline. But like what Dean said, "You have to be in the game to get lucky!"
I asked my friend what he wanted. We started with 1%, but he thought it wasn't too enticing. Finally he said he would be happy with 2%, so I gave it to him
Everybody's happy!
Real Estate Investor, if you would like the chance to work with me in the US East Coast, send me a PM (Private Message) anytime to see if we are a good fit for each other.
Wishing you abundance,
Ken Siew
Hey Ken,
For some reason I thought that you had already done deals. I think due to you being on with so much knowledge and participation. This is great congratulations. I have a question for you because I'm working with two agents. I don't want to burn them out and but I want to be consistent. Are you still doing 25:1? Have you found a sweet spot yet? I started with 40% but got nothing but rejection there. Then with my other agent I actually went randomly between 20-30% off which was a big mistake on my part. I'm feeling like starting over because I made many mistakes including many were not rehab properties. I'd like to start off all over giving one agent 25 properly sifted properties at the discount rate of 30% and the other one somewhere between 27% and 25% discount. (Either all 27% or all 25%) I'd like to keep it more scientific in that I stay consistent and record results.
Was this deal at 30% discount?
Okay Thanks for the encouragement,
Karemah
I have this short sale that we've been working on TWO YEARS! I too want to know which bank got this done so fast! That is incredible! Great going! Very happy for you!
I don't know the exact number, but maybe 15-20 for 1 deal. Anyway there are not enough data points for me to find the sweet spot yet. Probably need to do another few more deals to know.
The ARV is 125k, and I got it for about 66k. So about 47% discount off FMV. I just used the formula on page 3 of 30 days to quick cash formula for this. It needed some work and it's in a pretty nice neighborhood. Still looking at a lot of properties, but I'm doing this out of state so it's difficult for me to do things locally. So I'm planning to expand my operations to where I live now.
Tammy, it was Bank of America. But the bank promised a 10-day response when I made the offer. In fact, I didn't plan on doing any short sale initially, so I only made offers on those that promised quick response. We only got the approval letter on the day of closing (or the night before). Lots of bargains found on short sales, but I think I'm gonna focus more on seller/REOs for now. Having said that, my 2nd deal in the work is a short sale (already approved)! Go figure
Real Estate Investor, if you would like the chance to work with me in the US East Coast, send me a PM (Private Message) anytime to see if we are a good fit for each other.
Wishing you abundance,
Ken Siew
I've been doing deals for years, and I still don't know everything that there is to know.
It's great that you experienced firsthand the effects of having a great team will do for your business.
Way to go Ken! ! You have the determination to make things happen....that's evident!! Keep the deals turning and keep sharing all u learn as we learn when u share! !!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
would welcome an opportunity to network with u.you on facebook, linkedin, or twitter??
Jay
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way to show the naysayers that with work comes rewards!
Mike
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Way to go!! Nice job on your deal. Congratulations!
Ryan
I am still in the game working towards my first deal. I am happy for you and you give me hope. I have about 20 offer out now waiting to hear if any are excepted. I also have another 25 offers out to another relator waiting for him to do his part. Time to really kick it into gear now that that you have one under your belt.
Way to kick down the walls and GET THINGS DONE!! Thats pretty awesome that your first deal is a short sale, when even some pros don't want to handle short sales.
Can't wait to hear about your next deal!
RENinja
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Ken,
Awesome! Congratulations! You give us more motivation!
Cheryl & Dave
Way to go Ken! Another great example of perseverance! You broke through barriers and got it done. It's so valuable that you recognize, note, and share what you learned!
Thanks, and congrats!
Julie
John and Julie Wakefield
JCW Properties, LLC
Hi Ken Ill bet you I just may be even happier than you reading all these comments my wonderful friend an feeling the joy you must have, Iam smiling from ear to ear, Jim
jbischoff
I am so glad to hear about your success and to hear the hurdles that you overcame as well. I am in the process of putting out my first offer but also working with my REA and ghost ads to find a buyer. I would love to hear more about your first deal if you would be open to sharing. I hope to join the rest of you in your success in the on coming weeks.
Congrats and best wishes to all future opportunities.
Jeremy
Hi Ken,
Congratulations! You are my latest hero, and I had a good laugh at the last part of your story where you weren't sure what was happening. Just remember this: "Stop getting ready to get ready...ignorance on fire is far more powerful, and profitable, than knowledge on ice."
I hope I can replicate your success real soon.
Your newest fan,
Carl