The power to believe in the unexpected is nothing short of a miracle. The way we got into the real estate business has been quite unconventional. The first house that was technically a flip which we sold in 2011 was in a ‘garage sale’. My wife/partner who is very organized, clean, and meticulous had a garage sale one weekend and she called me saying ‘Someone is interested in seeing the house and they are interested in buying it. Of course, I am like, ah that will never happen. Turns out they see the house from the inside and they like it. We talk about the price for a little while and we decide on a number that works, and a simple Purchase and Sale Agreement is sent to the lawyers.
Mind you, we had a good idea about the price as we had a realtor come and give us max numbers for the house not more than a month before this day. We had not gotten back to them on that. So the price was a bit higher than what the realtor mentioned and we saved the 5% which we would have had to pay extra. Additionally, the deal was super simple and clean and of course, we did not need to market it or anything else. Most unexpected but fully possible.
Wait, then it comes back again and again in our real estate journey. The next property we bought in Austin was a fixer-upper which we fixed in 3 months. Stabilized it, and there was a parking lot that was zoned commercial so we took pictures of that lot and put it on craigslist for rent. Turns out we had an inquiry that came in and said they wanted to buy the entire property, and we were taken back. Out of craigslist? We gave a price which was double and they said yes. We were sitting in Mcdonald’s with a 1% broker on their side to administer the deal, and the deal closed. Again, not conventional but fully possible. Also note, realtors in most cases will discourage you from these deals and situations as of course it cuts them from the deal and their livelihood is connected to the transaction. That is why the 1% was paid by the seller as he had never done the deal like that and thought he could make some mistake, and you have the option of doing something similar.
These are the first two deals that happened and then it continued time after time in different situations. The lesson from here is that we must keep all possibilities open. Sometimes the most unexpected things happen and selling off-market can actually be to your advantage in many instances. In real estate, the best-case scenario is if the buyer knocks on your door, you will always see a premium in that situation as they want it (either for adjoining lots, development, location, etc).
- Please note: While craigslist or any other third-party website is a good resource it should be treated with utmost care and due diligence. For every decent person, there might be a couple of scammers or robots trying to get the best out of you.
