My bird dog Richard from a nearby small town recently spent $100 on gas and a few days’ time driving for dollars and sent me addresses of more than 200 junky houses. I sent addresses by email to my Title Company and soon had the names and mailing addresses of the owners. I immediately sent out yellow letters.
One of my calls was from a lady named Martha, and she said she was indeed willing to sell her house. She tells me the roof had collapsed and she had been forced to move into a nearby apartment. Richard went back and took some exterior photos. The exterior was really bad, front porch was rotted, the exterior wood siding had holes in it and all the paint was peeling.
I offered Martha $17,000. It was only a small 2/1 & the after repair value was somewhere around $90 – $120K. She then tells me she talked to a Realtor and he told her the lot alone was worth at least $40K and that is the price she would accept. I contacted my buyer and to my surprise he says he will pay $45K for it.
A few days later Richard and I met Martha at the house to sign the agreement and seal the deal for the agreed upon price. We stood outside in the back yard for a while chatting and I took a few photos and then asked to see the inside.
She looked nervous and says I don’t think I brought the key, is it important for you to see the inside? I said yes of course, we need to know what we’re buying. She was really hesitant but went to her car and brought back a key ring and says, I really don’t want to show you the inside because it’s a mess. I told her, oh, don’t worry, we have seen much worse, believe me.
Little did I know what we were in for! I was also a little confused because from the outside the roof looked good and I didn’t understand why she said the roof had collapsed. Richard and I then walked into the HOUSE from HELL.
I have been in some nasty structures – from hoarders, homeless, burnt out – but nothing prepared me for this. It seems pigeons had been living in her attic for years; I’m talking maybe decades of accumulated pigeon droppings that eventually got so heavy the sheet rock ceilings had collapsed into the house.
She must have moved out in a hurry because none of her furniture had been removed and all of it was covered in huge amounts of poop. The TV, living room furniture, kitchen table, I mean everything with was covered in 2 feet high mounds of bird poop.
Now the birds were not just living in the attic anymore, they were all inside the house living happy as can be. The birds were startled when we entered and their wings were flapping and the thick disgusting pigeon poop dust started rising. The sight and stench was indescribable.
Richard and I had to hold our breaths as we walked thru and I snapped a few photos. Martha and her niece stayed outside & wouldn’t come in – who could blame them! After a quick walk thru we had to rush outside to gasp for air. I wondered what kind of toxic disgusting fecal dust I had all over me including in my lungs. The thought of a disease called Hantavirus from rat droppings came to mind.
I was in disbelief. All 4 of us stood on the old rotting front porch speechless for a short time. After my initial shock my brain finally started to function again. I told Martha, “Wow, I didn’t expect anything that bad”. Can you give us some kind of price break? She asked what price are you thinking.
I told her $30,000 and I don’t know if I can make a profit on it at that price. I was wondering, once the buyer seen this horrific situation would he run for the hills. We soon settled on $36,500. Martha even had her Grandsons clean out the property, and our buyer was happy to get it at 45K.;
That means Richard and I split $8,500 We both picked up checks for $4,250 each. House took longer than expected to close and sellers were getting agitated and so were we, but it did close and we both picked up some healthy profit.
Richard and I used some of our profits & teamed up on a direct mail project and split costs & did several other deals also.
Later Richard actually flipped a small apartment complex on his own and made $11,000
Let’s make some MONEY….
Randy Phillips
Clovis, CA
We love your feedback and welcome your comments.
Please post below: