Had a house I looked at buying last year after one of my yellow letter campaigns in neighborhoods where I already own. Gal and her husband own it, but you can tell who gets stuck with all the work (her). When I pulled up to see it the first time, there she sweeping out the place. She'd been working on it for 2 hours after the last trash out....and I could tell she was sick of it.

Well, she's okay with selling it for what they owed. Unfortunately, they owed just a little too much....not too too much, just a little. Anyway, I couldn't make an acceptable offer, so we parted ways with, "Let me know if something changes" on either side.

6 months later... they're going thru a bankruptcy and are a bit more motivated to sell. I checked the place out again. They still wanted a bit too much, but the motivation is higher depending on what the court will make them do. She's supposed to get back to me once the BK is finalized (this is Nov 2016)...silence for 3 months. I checked back in Feb 2017. Still working thru BK, but she'll be in touch....

Silence until yesterday. I send an email, "Still interested in selling?" YES, they're good to sell now and have a much BETTER price for me. This one should be turn key except for maybe paint and flooring...cosmetic only. Plumbing and electrical are all updated, and it's 2 block away from my existing plex in that same hood. I think it's gonna be a good one.

Yep. I took one from 90k asking down to 52,500 which was my original offer. Took a year to get it.

I offered 52,500 and he wanted to fix it up a little so it was worth more.

I called him a year later and asked him if he was ready to sell and he said he was getting closer to selling and I asked to walk through it again.

This time the upstairs copper had a constant drop into the 1st floor hardwood and was making a mess. He said that he needs to get a plumber in here and get the pipe fixed. I told him I'll take it with the plumbing leak and he doesn't have to do anything else if he sells it to me at 52,500 and we close in a week.

He said he'd sell it.

So it absolutely pays to follow up and it pays to listen to the sellers and use their issues for your benefit.

Go SID!

One thing I like about real estate - it never goes away. It might change hands but that building is still there.

And things change daily.