TAKE YOUR POWER BACK- IT'S TIME TO WIN.

In sellers markets like these, one can spend months bidding and bidding and never winning. Tired of being one of 26 offers? Tired of having your starting bid start at 100k over asking just to be in the top 5? I know. We have been there. Why not try something else??  What have you got to lose?

TRY SOMETHING NEW.

Instead of looking at new listings by what comes on the market day by day, hour by hour... lets flip it. Set your listings for what is aging on the market. I like to use Redfin, everyone has the interface that suits them best. I like to, once in a while, set the search values to what is older than 45 days on the market, older than 60 days, then 90 days.  When you do this, something very interesting happens...

THE POWER DYNAMIC FLIPS.

Sellers with houses or multi-units on the market a long time WANT TO SELL. Why didn't these houses sell? It could be a number of reasons. Usually they are poorly listed. They are hard to show, maybe the owners are still living there, the agents aren't responsive.  I see dozens of multi family units listed as townhouses... Why? I have no idea. They are listed in the wrong categories.  Maybe there is something scaring people off, I say GREAT! Let me tell you... don't get scared off till you're scared off.  Most things have solutions.  You can fix almost anything.  Take a measured and pragmatic approach instead of an emotional approach and do some math. 

This is your "Under the radar" opportunity. Don't write them off.

Maybe spend 25k fixing a foundation on an old listing but you've avoided that 100k overbid. Foundations often scare off buyers. Fix it and you still come out ahead. 

Is it a hoarder house? Spend 12k to hire someone to clean the place out, and you come out ahead of everyone else who was scared off.

Spend 60k on a whole house skinny remodel but save the 125k overbid on the flipped version down the street. You get exactly what you want and still come out ahead. 

Does it have a tenant, but you want to live there?... OK. trickier, but the laws say if you want to live there, and you buy it, then you can. So you go through a process, spend some money on that process, act with kindness and sensitivity, and in the end, the home is yours.

THINK CREATIVELY.

Every property we have purchased has had challenges associated with it,  obstacles that were big enough that we could have talked ourselves out of the purchase. We talked to experts, did a lot of math and aggressively solved problems. We turned what were "problem" properties into assets.  We were willing to take them on because our creative vision allowed us to see past whatever the obstacles were. Just to be clear, there were plenty of problem properties we walked away from when we didn't have a clear solution to a problem. That is ok too. Don't be afraid to walk away.

ECHO PARK KINDA COOL OPTIONS....

Bad photos are a BIG DEAL.  If a property is poorly presented by the selling agent, the number of buyers willing to give it a look go way down and the possibility of getting an offer goes way down.   Here are some listings where the photos suck.  But lets do a little digging and see what might be hidden here. 

Here are a couple listings and my initial creative vision for what they might be.

936 MARVIEW AVE, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012    

2BED/1 BATH, BACK YARD.  ECHO PARK, WALKING TO WINSOME.

WHAT WE KNOW

This is a 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. 1066 sq ft (not super small) single family home. It says it has a backyard, a tiny front yard and a basement. HMMM. Basement. That's worth checking out. Maybe you could somehow add it to the sq. footage or combine it into the house... You have to see it first, but it's worth understanding what basement means.

It also says Beautiful Original details throughout. THAT SOUNDS GOOD.  I would imagine that to mean moldings and built ins, maybe pretty doors or nooks. It sounds promising.

$695k. Well. Here are some positives. NO BIDDING WAR. It's been on the market 152 days. Maybe they would be interested in taking less?  It's always worth asking.

Another HUGE thing. This house is just a hop and skip from WINSOME, the coolest, hippest little coffee shop. A hip coffee shop can mark the transformation of a neighborhood. So... the timing is pretty good to invest in this little enclave of Echo Park. Also you are just a short walk from the new lineup of super-cool storefronts on Sunset such as ESQUELETO, EIGHTFOLD COFFEE, BEL KAZAN AND GUISADOS TACOS. I love this lineup.

One More thing... Secret weapon time... STREET VIEW.  Don't forget to Street view.

Here is a street view shot.. WAY CUTER right? Take those bars off the windows and imagine this house empty with what I am assuming are wood floors and built-ins since it was built in the 1920s. You might be able to score an under the radar bungalow minus the bidding war. Granted you won't be able to see a beautifully staged vision swarming with other affirming people making you think you need to pay 900k for this... You will have to imagine all the possibilities on your own.. But don't worry, We love that part. If you need help. we can help you IMAGINE. That is the most fun part.

901 MARVIEW AVE. LOS ANGELES, CA 90012.

DUPLEX  1/1 EACH. 1623 SQ. FT TOTAL WITH GARAGE. CORNER LOT.

This listing has been on the market 56 days. It seems to be owner occupied in each unit  The way the listing is written, I would GUESS it can be delivered vacant. (we'd have to check that out) That is not advertised. (If so, this is another example of a bad listing) There are a few things you can do here.

1. Live in one unit and rent out the other. Do a remodel, make them cute inside. An 800 sq. ft one bedroom can get close to $2k/mo. It would pay half the mortgage as you live in the other unit and build equity. 

2. Keep it as an investment property. Rent each unit out for 2k. Thats 4k/ rental income.. You will just about break even on this investment.  However.... you will also have an investment paying for itself in a quickly expanding pocket of Echo Park just starting to blossom with awesome local hot spots. This is literally next door to the listing mentioned above, so all the cool things I mentioned a minute ago apply here as well.

3. Third thing... this is the thinking out of the box thing. Get ready. This is a 1623 sq ft footprint with a separate garage and wrap around little yard. Combine these two 1 bedroom units to create a 3 bedroom house... Think about it. Rearrange the floor plan a little. Subtract a kitchen, combine living rooms to make a large open concept... I'm not sure how yet as I haven't been inside, but I bet you there is a way to make this 1/1 duplex a pretty cool single family house. You can change the use through the city. A 1600 sq ft. 3 bed 2 bath house in echo park usually goes for 1M or more, so it would seem you could create quite a good deal for yourself here... just by thinking out of the box.

So here are two scenarios, both relatively cheap compared to the hot bed of bidding wars you would normally stumble across in Echo Park... and both just quietly sitting waiting to be noticed.

My last trick... for an instantaneous makeover, and it applies to both houses equally...  REMOVE the bars on the windows.  LET THE LIGHT SHINE IN.  Take down curtains... LET THE LIGHT SHINE IN.  And REMOVE THE CHAIN LINK. Instant upgrade. INSTANT!!

This is the way we work for ourselves, It's a little scrappy.  But it works.  If you want to think with us outside the box about yourself and your unique real estate investment situation, give us a shout. Check out the BUYERSandSELLERS page on this site and connect with Craig.

Craig@maisonrealestate.com

(310) 266-2776.  

xo.