Back for try number two

[Jake Loughrey]

Finally after 2 years since my first flip, I can see light at the end of the tunnel in terms of financial recovery. Im a career long, 25 year carpenter and I own a residential remodeling company. My first deal was a complete disaster. I got mixed up with a group of liars. The main lady assured me she did creative financing and could get the deal done with no money out of pocket. Always wanting to flip, I put the blinders on and chased a dream. This "creative financing specialist" told me that the rehab budget was too high and needed to come down 30k to make the deal work. This would essentially take my crew out of the picture and put it all on me. Still with blinders on I went forward. Two weeks before closing she decided to bail and said to talk to the lender she was working with. The lender needed to see 50k in available funds to proceed. I obviously didnt have this so I started pursuing other options and found a local hard money lender to pick up the deal. Things moved far to quick and the scope with 30k less was used with no opportunity to readdress. The lack of 30k ended up dragging out the flip and put me behind schedule. I reworked the deal with the lender and acquired the additional 30k since it put the LTV at 70%. But it was far too late. I finished the house and it sat. Numerous low ball offers. It was under contract and then they backed out, causing more grief and driving down trust. I ended up selling right at the balloon date for negative profit. Big mess financially. but lesson learned. It was the wrong house and the wrong deal from the start. Fast forward to today, Im ready to go again.

This time I have a financial partner thats willing to invest. A simple start up of 25k and hard money to do the deal. Its not much to start with, but I feel its totally possible. I feel my skillset and remodeling company gives me an edge. Am I wrong? Im confident we can get this done, Im just obviously a bit nervous. There are plenty of deals in the region. Some as low as 30k. Im thinking this time around, less full gut and more quick turn around. At least until I get a few under my belt. Im also thinking lower budgets. 100% of the deal being in the 150k range with a 3 month max turn around. So my questions here are, does this sound possible to a seasoned investor? This is my next and only shot to make this work. Any advice moving forward? Are there apps or memberships that anyone can recommend for locating deals? Im familiar with driving for leads, skip tracing and the like. Reputable wholesalers in the Pittsburgh, PA region? There are a lot of schemers and shady individuals in the wholesale game around here so its not easy to filter. What about foreclosures? Is this something to pursue at this point?  Thanks for any advice or input.