Thanks daytrip for the support! From npr.org:
Meet Willow Tufano, age 14: Lady Gaga fan, animal lover, landlord.
In 2005, when Willow was 7, the housing market was booming. Home prices in some Florida neighborhoods nearly doubled from one month to the next. Her family moved into a big house; her mom became a real estate agent.
But as Willow moved from childhood to adolescence, the market turned, and the neighborhood emptied out. “Everyone is getting foreclosed on here,” she says.
After the collapse, Willow’s mom started working with investors who wanted to bid on cheap, foreclosed homes. Sometimes Willow tagged along.
One day, she went to a house that an investor wanted to flip. “It was filled with all kinds of stuff!” Willow says. “I was like, ‘I can sell this stuff if he’d want to let me have it.’ “
That was fine with the investor. So Willow sold the furniture and appliances from the house on Craigslist. She did the same thing with a bunch more houses. After a while, she was clearing about $500 a month, and saving a lot of it.
One day, Willow’s mom, Shannon, saw a two-bedroom, concrete-block home on auction for $12,000 — down from $100,000 at the peak of the bubble. Shannon was telling her husband about the house, when Willow piped up.
“I was like, ‘What if I bought a house? That would be crazy,’ ” Willow says. Willow wound up splitting the house with her mom. Willow plans to buy her mom out in the next few years, and put her name on the title when she turns 18.
The place was a mess when they bought it — “like there was a riot or something,” Willow says.
They cleaned it up and rented it out to a young couple for $700 a month.
As I was working on this story, I kept thinking that when a 14-year-old kid can buy a house, the market must have hit bottom. I kept saying this to Willow, and she’d sort of vaguely nod.
But it’s hard for Willow to see herself as symbolic of anything. To a 14-year-old kid in Florida, the housing collapse is basically the only world she’s known. It’s the landscape. It’s a Craigslist hobby.
She’s thinking she may save up for a second home. (Willow and her tenants below)
I heard this on NPR the other day; what an awesome story.
When I was 14, I thought I was ahead of the curve then because I had a part time job.
A very smart little girl. My first job was working in a bakery @ 12 yrs old. At 14, I was delivering newspapers.
So Foreclosing on houses allowed this girl to make enough money through hard work to buy a house.
Yes – foreclosures stimulate the economy!!
Love this story – what an inspiration she is. Some people are just born with a business mind and she is living proof. Hoping someplace like Harvard or Stanford reads this story and offers her a free ride. Her parents should be very proud of what an amazing child they have produced.
YOUR OPINION IS WANTED: I know there are people here who are smarter than me so help me out.
I am introduced to a short sale. A RE broker sent me MLS information of the property. Followed by his first email:
RE broker’s 1ST EMAIL:
Lender is asking for the higher price than is listed due to lender’s appraisal that came up higher than listing price. The reason for that is when appraiser of the bank appraised the property for the market valuation did not take the repair of it into consideration. Therefore, this offered price should be approved by the short sale lender. Lender wants much higher price than listing price. Lender is planing to re-appraise the property.
Regarding the repair please discuss it with Abe who can explain the extend of the repair.
The other issue is, this property owes about $12000 to the city and this fee should be be paid by the the buyer.
The above mentioned are the involved issues in this short sale .
Please let know if you have other questions that I could clarify.
When I asked for more clarification about “lender’s appraisal” I got below email:
RE broker’s 2nd EMAIL:
Good morning,
Property is vacant.
Lender will probably re-appraise the property after agent submits the offer along with the list and cost of repair and property condition(based on listing explanation).
Regards,
Something is fishy here. It looks like a AB-BC flip action and I am the buyer who is going to pay higher price.
What do you guys think? Thanks.
It sounds standard to me.
The listing agent expects that buyers automatically have patience and don’t ask too many questions, but he is also scrambling to get the value right since the appraiser hung him out to dry.
Who is your agent? Take their advice.
1) Should not future repair cost be subtracted from sales price not added to the sales price?
2) RE broker who sent me the emails is my agent, but I am not sure if he is an ethical person.
Thanks
Bruce – why are you not hiring Jim to be your realtor so then you would know you are protected and getting the best deal possible, rather than hiring someone else and asking Jim to give free advice?
Bruce, get Jim involved. This is personal experience talking.
I am not convinced that it is a good deal. If I ever want to pull the trigger then I will ask for Jim’s help. I do not want to consume his time unnecessarily so. Thank fellows.
That’s cool. I like helping people, and have no problem with inquiries emailed in about specific properties or situations.
I’m trying to figure how to monetize it on the website. Is there a need for an Ask-JtR feature for out-of-towners or others in a bind where they might pay $300 – $500 consulting fee for me to research their situation and give them an opinion?
I think it could be the future of the enterprise and a way for me to expand my reach.
For those who are local, my preference is to help you all the way through, start-to-finish. It might take a while too.
socalmtgguy from the blog “anotherFackedborrower” used to offer consulting on the side. For a flat fee, a person would send to them a copy of their loan documents and SoCalMTGguy would offer his/her opinion on whether or not the loan terms were good.
Seriously, Bruce. Quit screwing around and hire Jim. Qaulity, paid professionals will take care of the stress for you.
I could do my taxes myself or the Mrs and I could have planned our wedding ourselves, but we decided it is better to have someone else do the “stressing out” for us.
Life is short….hire a pro!
Hi Bruce, you may be out of town but even so maybe Jim could still be your realtor (assuming you are in state)? Rather than you deciding if it is a good deal (and making an erroneous decision) it would be good to have expertise to help you do so as it is complicated. You may walk away from a good deal that Jim would say to take. Just some thoughts….hope it all works out in your favor.
Jim: I think consulting idea has some real merit. In addition to offering it to the public, could you also offer it to realtors?
Agreed, awesome story. If anywhere has hit bottom it’s certainly a good portion of Florida.
That kid’s going to be rich someday.
I also believe consulting idea has merit and is valuable. Specially considering the fact that Jim is a man of integrity.
“14-year-old kid can buy a house”
sounds illegal to me. I don’t think she bought the house. I don’t think minors can own real property. They are barely allowed to work.
(“The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets wage, hours worked, and safety requirements for minors (individuals under age 18) working in jobs covered by the statute. The rules vary depending upon the particular age of the minor and the particular job involved. As a general rule, the FLSA sets 14 years of age as the minimum age for employment, and limits the number of hours worked by minors under the age of 16.”)
I don’t think it should be illegal. Just pointing out that the original article left out some very important facts and jumped to conclusions which may not be true. Typical of journalism.
Did a little research and (although it varies by state) it appears that generally kids can own just about anything. However, since they cannot sign contracts by themselves that ownership has to be acquired with parental and/or legal guardian help. The ownership continues more or less like a “blind trust”.
Jim,
The consulting thing definitely has merit. You’ve got my wheels turning… I’ll shoot you an email in a few days with some ideas.
Interesting. Pretty insane that you can buy a place for $12k and rent out for $700/month. That’s some unbelievable ROI.
Too bad we’re not closer to FL. If we were, I might to go out and try to buy some too. Would be willing to pay 20% management fees for too for those ROI numbers too.
I heard this story on NPR. The thing that stuck out was the drop from 100K to 12K. Yowzer. That’s insane on many levels. Plus, rent is $700 a month, or $8400 a year? If I could find any $12,000 houses that generated that kind of income I would buy all of them.
@Hopeful Buyer, the story alludes to the fact that her mom is on this and is eithe on the title herself or with the kid, because of the age thing. Mom’s also in it for half the money, and the kid hopes to pay mom off by the time she’s 18.
Without knowing exactly where they purchased, my recent experience with FL is that $12k homes require $15k to $25k in reno costs to make them nice and rentable.
I am currently buying $30K homes in Georgia that rent for $1000/mo. Unfortunately at this level of ROI, I have to sometimes compete with wholesalers who are dealing with all cash international investors.
Even so at 15K repairs you’re still in for <30K and getting a killer deal/ROI.
“Hoping someplace like Harvard or Stanford reads this story and offers her a free ride.”
As a teacher maybe? She could teach them a few things! 🙂