Most of the real estate investing tips I share with you have come from personal experience from my own real estate investment activities.

I’ve never wanted to talk down or get on this “I’m better than you” guru kick.  The reason I started this real estate investing blog was to share what’s worked and what hasn’t which brings me to today’s topic of discussion.

Recently, I had a pre foreclosure deal that I had no clue if I could make it work, but the homeowner was on board begging me to do something to stop their foreclosure sale.

By the way – the sale was less than a week away.

I’m going to shoot you straight – I had no clue if I could do anything with the house because it was a little farther out than what I like.

I’m not a big fan of buying a house in the middle of nowhere.

You gotta have some traffic…

Anyway, they owed somewhere to the tune of $83K and the house in it’s current “as is” state was worth about $65K

I collected all the information to do a short sale, submitted the Loan Authorization to the bank and they immediately stop the sale.

Didn’t even send an offer letter, no proof of funds – just the stinking Letter of Authorization.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Banks don’t want to foreclose – they’re up to their eyeballs in REO’s and will bend over backwards in an attempt to make a deal work.

Anyway – here was my plan…

1. Get control of the house with an option or a contract.
2. Make no promises to the seller on what I could do.
3. List the house with a Real Estate Agent.
4. Get an enormous discount from the bank.
5. Get a buyer lined up while obtaining the discount.
6. Close on the purchase of the house
7. A few minutes later sell the house and walk away a big check.

Not a bad plan.

I know folks that are doing several deals every month from deals just like this.

My problem – I listed with the wrong Real Estate Agent.

In order for this deal to work – the agent has got to be completely on board or your wasting your time.   Stick with the Agents that are accustomed to dealing with investors and that don’t mind getting a little creative.

Wondering what happened?

Well, I de-listed the house after the agent kept calling me asking if what she was doing was illegal.

The Board of Realtors, the broker, and an attorney were all informed over my deal and gave clearance and said there was nothing wrong with the transaction.

However – it was just a little too much for her to grasp and she was never able to overcome the fear from doing something outside of the box.

I admit this was not your traditional deal but that’s what I deal with and that’s what I make money from.

(The Realtor is a great person, a real go getter and sells a ton of real estate.  I think the world of her and consider her a good friend – The deal just wasn’t a good fit)

Anyway, I de-listed the house and completely backed out of buying the deal because it seemed more trouble than it was worth since I was having to explain myself over and over again.

So, I didn’t make any money – but I did do something pretty cool.

Even though I backed out of buying the deal – I got the seller approved for a short sale somewhere to the tune of $51K and lined them up with a buyer and the last I heard it was set for closing.

So, the lesson here is simple – be sure to get a Real Estate Agent on your team that you can depend on and willing to do deals even if they’re outside the box.

And that they have the mindset to defend you.  (Sometimes when deals aren’t the traditional type deal – people will question you).  So be sure they have your best interest at heart.

And don’t be afraid to move on with the deal or with getting a new agent.

With this deal, I really didn’t want it to begin with, but still felt I could help.  After dealing with numerous phone calls and being woke up to someone questioning my ethics – I felt it was necessary to move on to the next deal, but I still wanted to help out the owner and that is why I did pretty much everything without compensation.

Keep in mind – Karma can be a good thing….