House #27: The Waffle House

September 27, 2011 · 6 comments

We just got our 27th house under contract…

And after 27 houses, it gets a bit tougher to come up with good names. Especially for houses that don’t have any stand-out features or issues. Luckily, we were at breakfast — at “Waffle House” — while discussing the naming of this one, so The Waffle House it is… 🙂

I’m actually very conflicted about buying this house. It’s not that it’s not a decent deal, but it really should have gone to another investor. You see, I was representing a new investor as a buyer’s agent in purchasing this house (someone I’ve known for several years who is just getting ready to jump into rehabbing), but unfortunately, his hard money lender was charging some crazy-high fees, which would have made this a tremendously thin deal for him; so he decided to back out.

Because it was a decent deal, and because I hate backing out of deal (even if I’m not the buyer), I told the listing agent that I’d be willing to take over the deal with the exact same terms. It took about a week before the seller (the bank) agreed, but they ultimately decided to give me the contract.

Of course, I got the approval from the other investor before considering offering on this one (I would never do something like this without everyone being okay with it), and he was happy that at least he didn’t have to burn any bridges with this listing agent by back out. Plus, he knows that I’ll make sure he gets something out of it as well.

We’re scheduled to close on the purchase on October 12, and I’ll post more details — and pictures — in the next few days…






6 responses to “House #27: The Waffle House”

  1. Stephanie says:

    Can’t wait to see the rehab on this house. And by the way, the waffle house is a catchy name.

    Thanks;
    Stephanie

  2. kristeen says:

    What a yummy name for a house!

  3. ezra udoff says:

    J,

    I can see why you were conflicted about buying this house. Guess you could say you were “waffling”.

    E

    ps. sorry. best i could do!

  4. Congrats on the next house. Please don’t use waffle house colors for the exterior (or the interior for that matter). 🙂

  5. Vlad says:

    First, don’t be conflicted about the deal. Your client backed out, he was not undercut by you. Good thing you have everything in writing confirming this. You are above the board on this one. Congrats.

    Were you using your own cash to finance this or did you have a different source of funds, making this deal profitable for you but not the investor?

    Do you think your buyer client could have gotten a better financing deal with a different hard money lender?

  6. Great name for a house! I have done a lot of similar deals in the past, I think its great that you asked the investor if they minded if you purchased the house before moving forward….so few ethical people in your position.

    We are still finding that financing can be tough in the rehab arena. Do you have a local hard money lender you typically use?

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