North American Title has always been ‘fair’ to deal with before, but after today I will fight and go out of my way to avoid having to close a deal there ever again! My newest partner and I were buying a property from a wholesaler and we had all our paperwork lined up and ready to go.

…to make a looooong story short, the Title Lady had an issue with one partner signing the purchase paperwork and the other partner signing the loan paperwork. Both partners are members of the LLC and both signed a Statement of Authority, but she persisted in huffing and puffing about how “she” would never sign off on this. I politely (but frustrated-ly) said, “I don’t understand…please help me”. At that point, the OTHER Lady piped up and said…”I am the Fannie Mae representative and I am here to protect Fannie Mae from ‘Predator Investors’ like you from this kind of stuff”…”WE feel you keep pulling a bait and switch and this is where we end up!”

…at this point I was literally shaking, I was so angry! Still I kept my calm and asked the Title Lady who she was closing for (courtesy close). She sneared at me and said “Colorado Prestige”…”I don’t see how they could ever close on a deal like this, “I” never would”. (I’m thinking to myself at this point, who cares about your opinion and keep it to yourself!) Anyway, I proceeded to tell her and directed my snear towards the Fannie Mae rep that I just closed a deal identical to this transaction 2 weeks prior and didn’t have ANY issues. All the SOA’s were signed and everyone walked away happy. I guess the Title Lady got the hint and said she was going to go call Colorado Prestige and find out.

Two minutes later she walked back in and threw a piece of paper at my partner and demanded a signature so we could continue with the closing…mind you, she was still huffing and puffing about the whole thing. I couldn’t take it. I had to fake an incoming phone call so I could get up and leave the room. There was nothing but negativity and lack of professionalism from both the Title rep and the Fannie Mae rep.

It still boils my blood to share this with you via blog, but I have to tell someone! I really want to go back and give that lady a piece of my mind, but then I’m stooping to her level. What recourse do I have? I know that despite my best efforts I will have to close another deal with her. Do I want that kind of emotional charge to jeopardize a deal?

Sigh. Do you have any good advice for me? Thank you for listening to me vent, I needed to get it off my chest.

Can you believe this Diamond in the rough has FIVE bedrooms and TWO full bathrooms? It looks so small and cute from the outside, you’d never guess by just passing by…

For example, I found a property that has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a 1 car garage with 1666 sqft in the Pikes Peak Park area of Colorado Springs. Because of the neighborhood, a seasoned investor would know that the house will only afford 120k – 130k tops no matter what time of year.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind other people making money with Real Estate, there are plenty of houses out there. My beef with this deal is that the Realtor playing Investor paid 10k too much for the house, spent a minimum of 20k to fix the place up, and is now asking 10k too much for the property. It’s listed at 139k when they should know that they will only get 130k TOPS! I almost feel bad for the person (ALMOST), but it burns my butt that the Realtor works with the listing company and they so happen to outbid all the other investors AND will only end up breaking even AT BEST!

Realtors: Do your job and be a Realtor.
Investors: Do your job and be an Investor.
Don’t mix and match, it just messes up the comps and makes us mad.

A good friend of mine, Michael Jake, secured this property under contract and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Buy it for 73k, put 20k into it and then retail it for 125k…? Not a bad deal. A mutual friend of ours, Shane Bruckner, had a buyer for the property that qualified for 90k. The buyer really wanted the house before Christmas, but could not buy it in its current condition.

Michael calls me up and asks if I wanted to buy the property from him, fix it up to meet the buyers’ lenders conditions and then sell to the end buyer for 90k. It sounds good, but it’s getting a little skinny now.

I called up a couple of my contractors to see what they could do for me. I told them the situation and I got one to work with me. We put less than 5k into the property, took a week to fix’er up, and the rest is history!

Normally I wouldn’t do something this skinny, but that’s the joy of being a full time investor. I was able to do this deal, give someone a nice Christmas present, and keep my contractor working during the hardest time of year. Even though I didn’t make a lot of money on this deal, I was happy to just to pay it forward!

Cost of Aquisition: 78k
Cost of work: 5k
Sales Price: 90k
The smile on everyone’s faces who participated in the deal: PRICELESS!