Millionaires in the Making – Phil and Cindy Salazar’s Screamin’ Deal

We got a call from a seller who saw a bandit sign.  He was a motivated seller who had a newer double-wide mobile home on about a third acre of property and wanted to move right away because he was tired of a long commute.  He was current on payments, but he had the property listed with a realtor.  He was frustrated that his house had not sold yet.  We told him that we could buy his house quickly, but he would need to cancel his listing.  We told him to call us if/when the listing was canceled, and we’d proceed.  The next day he called and said the listed was canceled.

The numbers are:  Mortgage Balance:  $71,000, Monthly Payments: $899, Market Rents: $1,200

We discussed the numbers and strategies with our mentors.  Because the monthly payments are lower than the market rents for the area, and there was some equity in the home, it was a great Sandwich Lease Option deal, and we’d have cash flow on it.  They walked us through and double checked all of our paperwork for a Sandwich Lease Option.  We discussed the offer over the phone with the seller on the closing call and he said to come on over and bring the contract.

When we got there, the house was fine inside, but needed some “prettying up,” a couple of the bedrooms had very bright blue walls, the carpets were old and needed cleaning, and other cosmetic stuff.  He is a young single guy who works long hours with a very long commute and has NO TIME to fiddle with his property.  He asked what he needed to do to get it ready for us to sell, and we talked about carpet cleaning, painting and light fix-up.  We could tell that we were on the verge of losing the deal because he just didn’t have time to do that.

We switched gears in the middle of negotiating and told him to just clean out his stuff, and we’d take care of the rest of the fix-up, but he would need to make the payments for the next couple of months and we would just sell it “as is” to the end buyer at a discount.  He said “okay, but give me 24 hours to think about it.”  We said, “fine.”  Five minutes after driving away, he called and said that he’d had enough time to think about it and to come back because it’s a great deal for him and he’ll sign.

He signed everything, moved completely out within four days and is making the payments while we market it to sell.  We paid a crew $280 to clean up the property and get the yard mowed and looking nice.  The first weekend, we advertised it on Craigslist, we had a ton of calls (we took all the information on each caller and now have a nice buyers list for our next property).

One couple called asked what the CASH price was.  They had just sold their home in Oregon and were moving here, and their uncle lived two streets away, and the rest of his family just down the street.  They met us that day and gave us a $500 non-refundable deposit and signed paperwork to buy it.

What we sold it for:  Sale Price:  $100,000, Down Payment: $80,000, Cash in Hand after Mortgage Payoff: $9,000, Holding Note for: $20,000, Monthly Note Payments: $600 (approximately 3 years)

Woooo Hooooo…Screamin’ deal!!!  Thank you, Ron LeGrand and to the mentor program!