All Forum Posts by: Catherine Corrao

Welcome @Mike Lowery ! My husband and I are in the Milwaukee area and he is a firefighter as well. If you are like him then the rehab/reno part should go pretty well because all you guys are handy ;) We are also friends with James G. as well...both in the north shore area. Maybe a firefighter/investor club is in order! Good luck and hope to meet you at the next Milwaukee meeting.

@Dawn Anastasi we are two months in and is say about 65-70% done...still have the kitchen to install, finish the bathroom and flooring and then some finishing touches. It definitely has taken us more time but since we are mostly weekend warriors on this house it is taking time. Plus like we said we took the house down to the studs -pretty much the only thing that is staying are a few doors and windows :) it's a small house but still lots of work (& learning the process of a whole house remodel)

It was great meeting everyone during our Milwaukee meet-up on Saturday and chatting about our activities/goals, etc. Thanks @Nicole Pettis for setting it all up. The location was great. Sorry that Jeremy and I had to duck out so early. We'll have to arrange our schedule better next time as we definitely wanted to hear and participate more.

As you guys know we were also a little nuts as we are in the midst of this flip - learning a lot from it and we are definitely documenting as much as possible and will share as much as anyone is interested in listening ;) But thanks for giving us a pass on our quick download of what's going on...

Looking forward to the next meeting where my hopes are to be done with this house, sold and onto another property. We will see!

sounds great! My husband and I are planning on being there. Thanks for organizing!

thank you everyone for the quick responses. So on all three topics it looks like a knowledgable agent is the way to go. We do have a few contacts in mind so I know what I need to do now. In terms of the selling price obviously the market has changed over the past few years but the last person to sell a house on this block was me-so I think I have a pretty good gauge. Although with that house we did have an agent but a neighbor told a friend about it before we even listed it so it sold within 5 days. Every situation seems to be so different but I have no doubt that an agent would be our best resource on this property. Thank you all!!

So my husband and I are on day 36 of our first flip. Everything is going pretty well and (budgeted) money for all of the renovations continue to fly out the window. We are still enjoying the work, project management, long days, nights/weekends. We are learning a lot which was our #1 goal. I'm trying to get a website up for pictures along the way but haven't been able to fit it in yet.

Here are my current questions for the BP group:

1) When do you start marketing your projects? I know the answer will be day 1 but my challenge is the pictures (both interior and exterior) are not ready. We are aiming to be done in the next 3 weeks but our timeline is flexible. Just not sure when to begin this process because I want to show the finished product but also don't want to spend the balance of the year in selling mode with the holidays either.

2) How many of you work with a realtor vs. sell by owner in your flips by networking with others or just listing on mls? We already have interest from neighbors, friends of friends, etc. so not sure what to do here either. I've done both in past houses that were not investment properties.

3) How many of you have struggled with pricing based on comps in the area? It is a bit of a challenge to find comparable properties just like ours (size, location) and 100% move in ready. Most recent properties that I've found have sold much below our selling price because they are either bank owned or need a ton of remodeling (-$40K). Or I'm finding the opposite where they are well above ours ($25K+) because they have an extra bathroom or more sq footage, etc.

I realize these are probably not complex questions and the answers come with years of experience on multiple properties. I am just not there yet. We believe we won't have a problem selling the property based on how much we've put into the house. I'm thinking we are similar to other first time flippers because it's really easy to do too much in a house and not get it back on the other side because you want to do it all. Learning process.... ;)

Thanks for any input/resources to check out.

Thanks everyone! It will take me a while to feel like I know what I'm talking about but I am getting thrown in pretty quickly with my first flip - closing this week.

@Dave Carpenter - a little more about this property - this is something I'm treating as a learning experience. As silly as this may sound I am hoping for a profit but really took this project as a #1 priority to learn the process from start to finish. It may not be the best approach but this is the comfortable path for me. (So I realize going in - profit expectations are pretty low, effort/investment is high which I'm sure is opposite of what we are all looking for...) I found out about the house from family and the owner is an elderly woman who went into a home and needed to sell. (Paid for, not in foreclosure and not a desperate situation.. we just happened to know the home owner and power of attorney) She is the original owner of this house from the 50's and EVERYTHING needs to be done. The sticker shock on renovations is something to get use to and I think the next time around I'll search for a house that needs a kitchen/bath/paint/flooring update only ...but I am excited to get started for sure.

If anyone has ideas on where I could find more info on evaluating the purchase price on BP I would be most interested in checking that out for the next property ;)

Hello BiggerPockets Community!

My quick intro:

I am new to BP, real estate investing, even posting on forums! (ha) but not new to Milwaukee. I am excited to get started in real estate investing but it has taken me a long time to take that next step. Like many of you, I have been taking about it for years but my husband and I both have full time jobs and couldn't figure out where to begin. We will begin a renovation project shortly...in a matter of days...on a property that sorta fell in our lap. I've been listening to the BP podcast during my long daily commute but know that I may be on here for advice along the way during my first flip! Thanks in advance :) I noticed I just missed the first Milwaukee area meet up so I'm hoping I can get involved the next time around.

Cheers!

Catherine