Millionaire in the Making – Andrew Hartzel

I posted a question in the Gold Club forums about two months ago in regards to a deal I was nervous about. I got a lot of encouragement and great advice, but I remembered I still had a few days left of access to the hotline. I called and spoke with Dan, and he was able to clear up my confusion. I was stuck on the notion of what would happen if we asked the seller to move out but couldn’t find a buyer in 90 days. I didn’t want to tell the seller “Sorry, I couldn’t sell it so now you’re stuck with two payments,” or that I would have to make payments myself. Dan straightened me out by letting me know we inform the sellers not to move until we have found and settled on a buyer. Once I heard that, the light bulb went on and I knew what to do.

I picked up the phone and called a seller who had contacted me through my Craigslist ad. She owed $97K, was behind two and a half months and unemployed. I did a quick comp check and found her house to be around $175k. We agreed to the following terms: Sell price of $120k with $10k down and I would make her monthly payment of $612.50.

I made the appointment and went to see the house on Saturday. I had it under contract about an hour after I arrived. Prior to all this, I had built a small buyers list for that area a month or two before. Once I had it under contract, I picked up the phone and starting at the top of the list, made calls to potential buyers. The first guy didn’t answer, but I left two messages. The second guy I called was interested once I told him where the property was. He wouldn’t let me off the phone! He told me that he had been looking within a mile of the place. I arranged a showing for the next day, but couldn’t be there as I had to drive back home. (It was Sunday and I live five hours away.)

The buyer called me that evening around 8:30 PM, and told me he wanted the place. We agreed to a purchase price of $160k with $15k down, and $1,000 a month. I was able to borrow the money to bring the sellers payments current prior to getting the buyers down payment, then withdrew that amount from the sellers $10k to pay it back.

All-in-all, the deal took about a month to complete-from getting the seller out, the buyers in, and the money in the bank! This deal has a potential profit of $40k, and a monthly spread of $387.50. All for a few hours of work!