East End Estate Sale for Retired Real Estate Speculator

A friend in Ashland, VA used to work a 9-5 job. She hated it! Now she’s doing things a little different. She "retired" the 9-5 grind and speculates on distressed single family homes instead. She’s done almost 20 homes so far.

The most recent purchase was this east-end home owned by an estate. The investor bought the house in 1997. It had been listed by another broker in the MLS system where it sat on the market. And sat and sat and sat. The listed price was not attractive to an investor considering the amount of work which was need to bring the house back into saleable condition.

We see this pricing mistake a lot. For example; If a house needs $ 10,000 of work, a seller will discount the property $ 10,000 to compensate. What this does not allow room for is profit. And since most investors are looking for profit, this pricing strategy just does not work well in most cases

She recognized the value of house if it were repaired, and also felt comfortable with the neighborhood. One of the best techniques this investor uses is to submit actual repair estimates along with her all cash offer. A cover letter prepared by Steve O explained to the seller that the house was basically good but needed some work to make it marketable. The letter discussed the repairs needed and the cost. It also outlined the cost that the investor would incur to close, hold and resell the house including closing cost, commissions, holding costs, utilities, etc. The letter went on to explain that the buyer was motivated by profit and that needed to be factored into the price of the property when the investor bought it. In this way, we were able to soften an otherwise unacceptable offer.