A DOLLAR WILL DO

One of the most interesting stories of a win-win situation is that of my daughter Clarissa’s first acquisition. My son and I had purchased a house, fixed it up, and sold it to a young family. The house my daughter ended up buying was next door. I had looked at it… went inside… the floor had large holes in it… and most of the windows were broker. It needed a new roof. The roof was sagging in a few places. It was in such bad condition that I secretly wished some one would just burn it down. It really looked bad, next to the house we had just made to look brand new.

One day I get a phone call from a man saying he wanted to buy that house. He didn’t know, I didn’t own it. My reply was, “Let me talk to my family and see if they will sell it to you.” As soon as I got off the phone, I called my daughter into the room. At the time she had just turned 18 years old. I said: “Clarissa, we know a man who owns a house, but he doesn’t want it. I have just gotten a call from someone who wants to buy that house. I think there is a potential here to make some money.”

I told Clarissa to “Call the court house and find out how much back taxes were owed. And call to find out what liens were on that property.” After obtaining the information, she wrote a letter to the current owner stating those numbers. In her letter she explained: “She had prepared and enclosed a deed for him to sign, along with one dollar.” She asked “if he wanted to get rid of all the problems, such as the back taxes, the liens and she added the comment: “The grass still needs to be mowed.” He could sell his problems to her for a buck.

Low and behold, a few weeks later Clarissa received the signed deed in the mail. She was now nervous and wondered what she should do. I replied: “She should make a phone call to the man who had called me originally. Tell him, “you would like to sell him the house and you want to meet with him in the front yard.” Clarissa never saw the inside of that house, she had heard me talk about the holes in the floor and all the other non appealing aspects. So she arranged to meet on the front porch. After their meeting she said: “I think I did it all wrong. I never asked him where he worked. I never even asked him his age nor social security number. I didn’t ask if he was a United States citizen. I told him that what I wanted for the house was $250 a month for the next five years. I told him I didn’t want a down payment and I did not want payments for three whole months. That money was to be used to cure all the back taxes and liens on this Clarissa offered to go with him to the City of Houston offices to negotiate a payment schedule for the back taxes and liens.
house.”

What an acquisition… think about it. One dollar turning into two hundred and fifty dollars a month, for a real long time, is a very profitable arrangement. I asked her what interest rate she had charged him. She said: “Oh, I guess I messed up there too. You see, I forgot to charge him an interest rate.”

Now, you and I know, that was kind of nice. He will probably want to refinance to get a homeowners improvement loan at some date. And when he does, he will pay her off with no discount.

The man she bought the house from had no emotional interest in that house. Clarissa found out that Mr. and Mrs. Henry, bought the house over 30 years ago. Mr. Henry died. Mrs. Henry married Mr. Pots. Mrs. Henry died and Mr. Pots married a woman from Louisiana. When Mr. Pots died his new wife died sometime later. The property was now inherited by her nephew who still lived in Louisiana. He had never seen this house and he was getting letters from the City of Houston. They can sound really threatening. He didn’t ask for all this trouble. He was a victim of circumstances. You could only imagine the frustration and fear that came with his inheritance. All of this is how he came about taking a dollar for the property in order to get rid of all the back taxes and city liens and harassment.

The man who bought the house from Clarissa was very pleased that now he lived next door to his daughter and grandson. We found out he had several sons and son-in-laws to help him fix the house and get it up to livable standards. Everyone had a problem. In the end, everyone was happy with their solutions. And the neighborhood gained as well.