Success Stories
Dan Voegeli - My First Rehab Story
By
May 5, 2005, 13:03

Dan Voegeli's First Rehab Story

The 2003 year was very rough for me and my family. I was laid off from a good paying job in manufacturing with no chance of being called back. I had found a couple of temp jobs to help keep us a float. I desperately started searching within myself for ideas that would interest me to turn the corner on our financial distress. One day I'm looking through the paper and saw an ad by one of the big real estate guru's on a free seminar. I knew it was some sort of sales gimmick, but I went anyway. I didn't pay the excessive price for the three day seminar, but it did get my juices going on ways to make money. 



About one week later I found a real estate investment club in Milwaukee, and started attending. I listened and learned as much as I could. One particular meeting, Steve Cook happened to be a guest speaker. He totally impressed me with his knowledge and ideas, as well as his laid back personality. Nothing like the 'other guy' seminar. I bought a couple of his books and started reading immediately.

It wasn't too long after that that I found a decent paying job again, but I was hooked on the idea of getting a home to rehab. I started interviewing Realtor's, and was amazed by the bad attitude of some, but eventually found a good one. He found a VA foreclosure for me within two weeks of our first meeting. Realizing I didn't have to find hard money for this project, I took a home equity loan on my own house. I put in an offer of $44,000 on the three bedroom, one and one half bath cape cod. I happened to love cap cods as it were, so I was excited about this one. 

I was quickly able to round up a good crew of workers to help me get this house back on the market. Neighbors came out in droves to see what was going on, and I hired a couple of them for jobs here and there. People were actually asking me to buy the house before I was even done. I did sink more money into it then I needed to, but I liked Steve's thought on putting in quality repairs. I didn't want it to look like it was just slapped together to get back on the market. I repainted the exterior, put in new concrete along with a new patio and sidewalk, brought the lawn back to life, put in new entrance doors and put in ceramic tile in the entrance halls front and back, patched all the holes and repainted the interior completely, put in new light fixtures and switch plates, put in new carpet throughout, refinished the kitchen and floor.......You get the idea. With some help, I did a lot to this place. Hardly anything was left untouched. It's a home I would have been proud to live in myself. I sunk roughly $16,000 into it. 

When it went on the market I had lots of offers between $72,000 and $77,000, but found that getting someone qualified to buy it was starting to be a problem. Then I remembered how Steve had said that you should be the bank too. I started thinking about that and wondered if I should just sell it by land contract. I eventually found a mortgage broker who had a lot of success in the B/C market. They helped me get licensed in origination and I started referring people to them. Next thing I knew I had a qualified buyer and also other commission checks coming in for referrals I had sent them. 

To make a long story short, I had the house for about four and a half months, start to finish. I sold it for $77,000 and gave some seller concessions to get it moved. With other costs(taxes, utilities, etc), I figured my profit at just over $10,000. This doesn't include the commission checks I received in the amount of $2,450. Wanting to be in charge of my job, I left manufacturing recently and became a full time originator. I am currently looking for my next house to do. Steve's knowledge helped me tremendously. Good luck to all, and God Bless.

Dan Voegeli