New to Real Estate · Long Island, NY · Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 12 votes
When I try to analyze a deal, I feel like there are so many steps within each step that make it more difficult to actually figure out how to do it. For example, when I get up to “estimating rehab costs”, for me it’s like it’s impossible to know how to estimate rehabbing costs without reading an entire book on it. Or being experienced enough.
It seems like I’m never going to be fully able to analyze a property until I read about each step into detail. Meanwhile I see people picking it up within days.
What am I doing wrong? Extremely frustrated. Any all-in-one, step-by-step recommendations?
Lender · Nationwide · Member since 2023 · 362 posts · 237 votes
2y
For rehabbing costs, do you have a contractor friend that can take a look at pick or better yet, walk the property to give you an estimate? For the cities I invest in, I work with a team on the ground that helps me estimate all the costs so I can make a decision remotely.
For rehabbing costs, do you have a contractor friend that can take a look at pick or better yet, walk the property to give you an estimate? For the cities I invest in, I work with a team on the ground that helps me estimate all the costs so I can make a decision remotely.
I don’t even have a property specifically. I’m just trying to learn how to do it online via Zillow and Redfin just to get my feet wet. I’ve been reading just book after book after book about REI and listening to 2-3 Rookie Real Estate podcasts every day for the past 3 months, but haven’t taken action. I’m still saving for purchase price and reserves, but while I do that, I heard on the podcast to try to just analyze one property a day and after a month or two it’ll become much easier. I’m just having trouble even analyzing one properly.
Investing will take a certain level of knowledge at every step and you can do this or build a trusted team. There will also be many unknowns that you can plan for or build a cushion if an assumption is wrong. People you hear about just going for it either have help in the background or have a high risk tolerance for failure (unlimited capital). If you don't have a contractor, shop around for the hardware (appliances, counters, flooring, etc..) to get an idea of the material costs then add in labor of hourly rates for the install. At least you can plan for part of the costs. You'll never have all the perfect information and it's good to have a healthy fear to force due diligence. It's common to be scared of making mistakes and sometimes you have to do things when you're scared.