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Funny Story LRT Line

Hello again

Today I would like to tell you a funny story that happened in my early days of fixing and flipping.

The city I live in has a railroad track that runs through it and city hall decided to put in a light rail transit / metro line right beside that. They needed to build a station so the city bought some houses and then knocked some of them down to make way for this station. When they were done they found there were a few houses they didn’t need so they put them back on the market.

As a side note the municipality or county you live in will often have property for sale so check in with them occasionally as that is a good source of houses for flips or rentals.

I ended up buying two of these properties, one across the street from the station and one backing on to the metro line. They were both the same size, the same age and roughly the same condition. So I fixed them up and put them back on the market. The one across the street sold fairly quickly for a good price. However, the one backing on to the metro took longer to sell. I kept having to drop the price and drop the price and I was starting to get a little worried. I had budgeted a discount in the sales price due to the proximity to the LRT line but I was getting close to that point.

However, one day my realtor phoned me with good news. Another realtor had phoned him to let him know that he would be by the house that day at 5 o’clock with a couple to view the property. This would be their second visit so he was expecting them to write an offer and I was supposed to stick close to the phone.

Love those calls. So I did as I was told but by 9 o’clock I hadn’t heard news yet. So I texted my realtor to see what was going on. He hadn’t heard anything at all either. The next day we heard nothing. Finally, he phones me the next night.

Seems they had gone to the house at 5. They did a walk through and loved it. They were literally putting pen to paper and writing up an offer when the 5:15 freight drain rumbled by. Horn blaring, the house started shaking and that couple couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

I had lost a sale because of the 5:15 freight train!

A couple of take aways from that experience:

  • If you have a property that is in the vicinity of something not very attractive – a highway, a train track or even a processing plant, remember that you should expect a discount in the price not only when you buy but ALSO when you sell. Make sure you fit that into your budget.
  • Secondly, make sure you memorize the train schedule and don’t let any realtors come by when a train is due to come by  🙂

Keep tuning into our blogs. If you would like to talk about how real estate investing can make your financial life fuller please feel free to contact me.

Thank you