Investor & Contractor in Fredericksburg, VA

Investor & Contractor in Fredericksburg, VA

Investor · Fredericksburg, VA · Member since 2015 · 10 posts · 3 votes

Good afternoon from a long-time lurker and first-time poster.

My husband and I are currently on our third real estate investment--and the first one that hasn't also served as our own home. The current investment is a fix and hold SFH in Fredericksburg, VA that we are remodeling from college student dump to an upscale small rental home.

My husband has a background as a high-end builder and has his contractor's license in Virginia. As this puts us in a bit of a different situation than many investors, we are currently trying to determine the strategy that will work best for us. He does not necessarily want to be a full-time contractor for hire at this point because we have a young son and he needs to have some flexibility in his schedule as my job requires a fair amount of international travel.

Our plan is to focus primarily on fix and flip properties for the near term to capitalize on his abilities. The project we're working on currently was purchased really just to get us off the sidelines and back into doing something. Fix and hold really isn't what we are looking to do at this point, but it made the most sense for this property.

At this stage, our biggest issue is trying to figure out financing that will allow us to queue up multiple projects at a time (and not miss out on good deals because our capital is tied up). We haveaccess to private capital to fund one property at a time, but in order to hire a couple of reliable laborers we need to have the next project ready to go as soon as the previous one is complete. I believe hard money is going to be the next step, but I'm still doing my due diligence in figuring out if that is the best option.

My goal in becoming more active on this site is to learn (of course!), to help refine our strategy, and to network with other investors and wholesalers in the area. I would also welcome any advice/suggestions with regard to our strategy/situation. 

0Reply
15 views

5 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Marlon FongPro Member
    BiggerPockets Support · Bridge City, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 367 votes
    9y

    Hey @Anna Shaw! Welcome to BiggerPockets. Glad to have you here!

    BiggerPockets
  • Specialist · Fredericksburg, VA · Member since 2015 · 69 posts · 19 votes
    9y

    Hi Anna, welcome to BP.  Congratulations on your first 'real' investment property.  How did you acquire it?

    Let me know if there's anything at all that I can help you with.

    Good luck!

  • Investor · Fredericksburg, VA · Member since 2015 · 10 posts · 3 votes
    9y

    Hi Evan, thanks for the welcome.

    It was a straightforward purchase listed on the MLS. We realized going in that it wasn't going to be a huge moneymaker, but felt comfortable with the numbers if we renovated and re-positioned it from a rundown rental marketed to college students to an upscale rental marketed to professionals.

  • Investor · Stafford, VA · Member since 2014 · 246 posts · 83 votes
    9y

    Anna,

    You really just need a decent sized business line of credit from a small community bank.  I drove east on Rt 3 from I95 and passed two options that both offered me solutions.  I can't name them but you can find them pretty easy from what I've described. 

    As far as keeping a crew busy on a constant basis, I admire your ambition.  I don't see how it would be possible without about $1 million credit line to constantly churn.  If you were to offer them up to the investor community at large to fill in the gaps, that may fill some voids in their schedule.

    It's definitely been challenging for me to find reliable, cost effective labor in the area.  I still don't have a plumber I'm happy with.

    Eddy

  • Investor · Fredericksburg, VA · Member since 2015 · 10 posts · 3 votes
    9y

    Thanks Eddy, that is helpful.  I think a credit line is probably the way to go to in order to do what we want to do.

    I've also been thinking along those lines with hiring a couple of people that we can sub out to keep them busy if we don't have work for them.  I like the idea of subbing out to the investor community, as I think it could be mutually beneficial.

    We've struggled a bit with the labor as well around here.  Two houses in Fredericksburg recently, and the only sub my husband is happy with is the electrician (and maybe the flooring guy). 

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.