Slowly But Surely
I’m still in ROBOT mode and plan on being there indefinitely. Since I’ve ramped up my offers, I’ve got 1 more potential deal in the works. Just to give a brief synopsis of it, it’s a property that’s literally 2 blocks from the wholesale deal that I’m currently working. This property is listed and has been for a long time and for a price that’s way too high. Way too high when you have the intel that I do. And that is, after some research, I know the property is just a few months away from tax foreclosure. It’s been tax delinquent for 3 years and in the state of Illinois the owner has a redemption period of 2.5 years from the date of the first tax sale. Translation: this owner’s redemption period runs out by April 2010. Once tax-foreclosed, it’s a wrap for them. I hope to get in and seal a deal that get’s them a few bucks for moving expenses and that’s it. I’m not the type to take advantage of people, but this property location and it’s condition won’t allow me to do more than that. Hopefully, I’ll have some good news about that one soon.
Also, the current wholesale deal is moving along…still on life-support however. One decision by one person can make or break this deal. That person is the head-honcho in the liens department of the Illinois Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS). He received my short-sale package earlier this week and we spoke about it. He wasn’t satisfied that I only had a Realtor-prepared Comparative Market Analysis done on the property, he wanted an official Appraisal. He claimed that the CMA wasn’t good enough because “the Realtor could be your friend”. He wanted a bona-fide appraisal by a licensed appraiser who would by default be “putting their license on the line”. So that’s what I did. The appraiser did his thing today and reported to me out of all his houses that he’s ever appraised, this was the lowest. Music to my ears! So now, I’ll just get the appraisal to the DHFS and it will be time to talk business. One good thing that I learned from my most recent conversation with the DHFS is that they’ll most likely reduce their lien to compensate for the liens held by other government entities (City of Champaign Neighborhood Services, Champaign-Urbana Sewage Department, etc). That means that I need only worry about the DHFS. Hopefully, we can begin negotiations as soon as tomorrow, if not early next week I should have a yea or nea to report. Once I get the nod, I just need to get the seller to an attorney (that I might end up paying for) so he can get the (heirship) docs he needs drafted for the title company to close.
On the short-sale front, the homeowner that John Michailidis and I are currently working isn’t looking so good. This lady keeps getting cold feet about committing to the short-sale process. I have a feeling that she is going to wait too long and end up getting foreclosed on. Oh well, we can’t say we didn’t try. Hopefully she makes the right (prompt) choice. There are many more people to help. And now that we have our team in place, it’s game on.
