My husband and I were strolling around the neighborhood for exercise about 3 blocks from our home. I noticed a gutter hanging down slightly and told my husband that I felt it would be one of the houses we would buy. He said “No, look how well manicured the yard and the 2 big oaks trees are.” True enough, the yard was close to immaculate. So I did not pursue it.

A month later, we drove by the property and the gutter was still hanging down. I told my husband that I could not imagine that someone would live there and not fix the gutter, and that I would try to contact the owner to see if they were interested in selling.

There was no phone # to the house and based on internet research, it seemed that the owner could possibly be in her early 70's and possibly deceased, IF I had the right owner. I sent a postcard to the house asking if they want to sell, and that I would like to buy it. I got a call from the daughter 2 days later. It was her mother's house. Her mother had died suddenly 5 months earlier. The mortgage company had allowed the daughter 6 months of not making payments in order to do something with the house. She had one month to sell it or start paying on the note. She did not want any money for the house, only to get rid of it.

We immediately got it under contract. We believe wholeheartedly in making sure that sellers benefit when they work with us. We wrote the contract for $7000 more than the balance. This was her inheritance plus she had been maintaining the yard and utilities.

We were going to rehab the house, then retail it. After getting estimates, I decided it would require more time than I was willing to invest in one property. We decided to wholesale it and sold the contract to the second investor that we showed the property to. We made $7000, the daughter got $7000, and to date, the investor just completed his rehab and has the property for sale at retail. I expect that he will make conservatively between $30-40,000 profit. The investor became a friend and has inquired about us finding him another property to work on when this one is sold! Everyone is very happy! And to think it was ONLY 1 minute from our house!!!!

Lisa Flores
Plano, TX