End of the First Quarter-What have you accomplished?

Question

I enjoyed the original post at the beginning of Feb asking for reports of what we have accomplished in January but it seems that it has not continued so I thought I would revive it.

1/4 of 2012 is now in the books.  What have you accomplished toward your goals?  How are you compared to your schedule and where you though you would be?  What are you going to do with the remaining 3/4?

Account Closed · Answer

Stinson Bland:  Thanks for sharing your first quarter.  You've been busy! What do you think is going on with 5000 marketing letters and no real leads?  This is probably a topic for a different thread, but if you'd care to start it I'm interested brainstorming about both your message and your targets.

Account Closed · Answer

Thanks for asking.  In December I discovered J. Scott's and Flipping Junkie's blogs.  I was inspired how posting deals to a blog could really keep one focused on accountability to a plan.  I used J. Scott's deal analysis spread sheet for my next two deals and was up to the minute in costs for the first time ever.

1) 3/2 Rehab Re-Sale:  Closed on a 3/2 SFH in December.  Did a light rehab in first two weeks in January and closed at end of January.  Bought for $65.5, sold for $95K.  Property wasn't listed and I still had flooring to install.  A buyer's agent showed up at the door and brought one of his investors to the deal.  I got my asking price, sold as-is and paid no commissions. Projected profit was $20K.  Came in at $19.5.

2) 3/1 Re-Sale: Bought a 3/1 rental prop, counting on landlord buyers in the area to scoop it up. Bought it for $25.5K on Feb. 10 sold it for $36K on March 26.  Projected profit was $6K.  Came in at $6800.00.  Didn't do anything except add lock box, clean yard and haul junk.  Listed on it the MLS for a flat fee listing. Accepted an offer within 24 hours.  The MLS listing was fun!  Lots of interest and WAY better offers than the two weeks when it was FSBO.

3) Direct Marketing:  Total of 375 letters for the quarter.  15 calls.  3 serious leads that I'm still working.  Craigslist ad:  12 calls.  With the exception of an MH lead, they were all a waste of time.  Still working the MH lead.

4) Signed up for Bigger Pockets!

5) Thinking hard on what the plan should be. Trying not to freak out in between deals.

Stinson Bland · Answer

Thanks for asking.  It looks like many of us are seeing positive results so far this year.  For me, 2012 started really slow but I am quickly gaining traction.  So far I've completed the following:

3 Wholesale deals assigned and closed

1 low-end rehab completed and sold to a cash buyer

Revamped the Dallas HomeVestors direct mail campaign (I am very excited about this)

Experimented with Yellow Letters (over 5,000 sent with very poor results thus far: no appointments)

Acquired 20+ Cash Buyers for my wholesale deals

Opened a line of credit for rehabs (70% LTV: 20% down, 1 pt., and 6%)

Cleaned up my books and got more organized

Over the past couple of weeks I've put 3 houses under contract and I have 2 more that I believe I will get a contract on by Friday.  Of the 3 homes contracted, I plan to rehab one of them (high-end home near country club), wholesale another (deeply bought Plano home), and list one as-is (great condition).

Spring is here and I am expecting to buy 10+ homes over the next couple of months.  Wish me luck!

Cheers to a very profitable 2012 to you all!

Scott Pirrie · Answer

My shortlist:

Closed on 3 lines of credit
Closed on 1 local rehab- rehab in progress
Rented- 3 units still have 1 to go
Participated in rehab in Indy- rehab in progress
Working with sellers on two apartment deals- hoping to close on in the next couple months
Pushing my commercial investment group meetings I started in October along as we all go to the next level with our investments.

Michael Zuber · Answer

Purchased 3 deals (7 units), recycled 90%+ of capital via private investors. My goal was 5k in cash flow and I estimate we have generated about $1,700 so far

My market is changing fast with less inventory and more buyers

So the rest of year should be fun

Thomas Handy · Answer

Bob Hines I'm glad you liked the posts.

You must have missed the threads I posted for March and April.  I think the April post my title probably confused a lot of people since I tried to blend it with April Fool's Day.  Oh well.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/71388-its-march-2012-what-did-you-accomplish-in-the-second-month

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/72356-its-april-1-and-i-won-the-mega-millions-lottery

Tom

Monica Breckenridge · Answer

This year I have bought 5 rental properties.  4 I am getting loans on myself or with credit partners.  1 was a subject to deal.  All the properties I got loans on are cashflowing $500 +, my sub 2 deal is cashflowing $275.

I have bought 6 fix and flips.  One just closed yesterday and we made a profit of $40k, but we split that with our partner so our actual profit was $20k.  Another rehab we did just got under contract today and our estimated profit is $30k.  That rehab was only $5k today.  This one was our test rehab, we were testing the market to see if we can get away with a lesser rehab, stick it on the market faster and sell for sell and still make the same profit, and we actually got a bigger profit so I think we'll be doing more light rehabs now.

My goals are to buy 12 rehabs and 12 rentals this year but I think we'll pass those goals.  I have several short sales in the pipeline that are getting ready to pop.  5 more rehabs and 4 more rentals within the next few weeks.

This year seems to be going better than last year for us. We are getting more deals closed with bigger profits.

Bob Hines · Answer

So far this year I:

Rented the house I bought in Dec and, hopefully, finally have all the little things fixed.

Closed LOCs on my 3 rental houses.

Viewed 50+ properties

Was either a day late on putting an offer in or house went under contract on last day of OOs only on 4 properties.

Worked 3 weeks with a bank on a 2 family only for them to end up working with someone else.

Got  same 2 family under contract 6 weeks later after the other deal fell through and an 11k price drop (I have no idea why the bank didn't come back to me first but I'm ok with it).

Viewed 50+ properties

Very close to putting offers in on 2 potential rehab projects (probably this week but that's the 2nd quarter).

Zachary Dosch · Answer

Aside from the deals, Im going through the eviction process for the first time! Hopefully this is a good one to cut my teeth on... I just hope they don't trash the place on their way out!

Sam Craven · Answer

I'm a newb but i still have plenty to do leading up to my technically second deal:

Current home will wind up being a rental when my wife finishes school, i have done some yard cleaning, installed back splash in the kitchen and painted the baseboards around the house where needed.  Most renovation was finished Q4 last year and we have very little left to do.

I have joined the local REI club, attended a few meetings and have started to make some good contacts.  I am searching the MLS and other sites with a known set of criteria and evaluating them with a spreadsheet i have made to determine the viability of the deal using hard money.  Even with a family tragedy we still manage to save over 65% of our income to build up liquidity to comfortably do our first deal.  I have also been able to get aligned with some good, and some bad wholesalers that send me deals.

I have a list of CPAs, attorneys, and Local banks i want to visit and have met with a few GCs who understand I am starting out and have picked a few that i will be calling to bid the first job.

This month i will file for my LLC, secure a HELOC against my current home, learn more about seller marketing to hopefully build some lists in 2 months time, and if i have time between all this and my job, meet with some agents that do a lot of work with REO/short sale to learn more and get inside that loop.

Assuming we stay on this path, we should be well poised to ink our first deal in May-June.

Without BP I would be confused standing in the forest with no direction.