All Forum Posts by: Andy Sabisch

Can you be a bit more specific....type of property, price range, how big a reno scope, will you manage or do it remotely....these will help give you more specific responses....

If you are buying a property that you can go see ad not virtually, take a detailed lok when you go through and get a feel for what you will  need to do.  The big ticket items like electrical, roof, plumbing and HVAC are items that I either budget for an hope to be pleasantly surprised if it is not needed (but the funds are there in case it is) or I have people that I have used before look at that specifically; i.e. call my roofing guy, my HVAC guy, etc.  If I need a few days to get them in, I put that as a contingency rather than a full inspection contingency.  SO my contract will say that I need 7 days to inspect the roof, HVAC and electrical for example that way the seller sees I am not going to do a full blown inspection and hit him / her up with a list of nonsense items.  They appreciate the focused inspection and typically take our offer over one with a full inspection that tends to create issues.

Aggressive goal but I would have to ask, what are you bringing to the table that supports that goal? Do you have experience doing this already or did you read a book / take a guru course on wholesaling and want to scale out of the gate? Do you have available funds to hire VAs to start making the calls you need to make or are you planning on doing it yourself?

Wholesaling seems to be the latest "get rich quick" program that people are getting pulled into on the Internet but the problem that it has created is that 90%+ of those that are looking for properties do not understand ARV, reno costs, having cash buyer lists, etc. resulting in properties being put under contract and never selling.  The seller is now tied up for some period of time, has a bad taste of wholesalers, and is out the time it was locked up.  Buyers waste time with properties that are over-valued and under-estimated on reno costs.  The wholesaler has waster their time and gotten nothing in return . . . . all three parties lose.

I have no problem buying from a wholesaler that understands the two key values (ARV and reno cost) and is not trying to take all the profit in the deal but in the last year, have yet to see one from one of the Internet courses that met even one of them.

There are successful wholesalers across the US so if you think you will be hitting areas that are not being worked HARD by seasoned wholesalers, hate to break it to you but you will not be.  Unless you are bringing something of value to the mix, looking at the entire US out of the gate is a tad ambitious.

Not trying to be a "Debbie Downer" but wanted to make sure you knew the wholesaling game is not all $$$ as many advertise it to be.  Be interested to see other comments especially from successful wholesalers.

I know this is short notice but I saw an E-mail from Hubzu entitled "Secrets to Finding Great Properties at Auction"

The announcement says:

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Start investing like an expert! Join Paul Viguerie of Hubzu and Max Chera of Express Capital Financing on Monday, July 31st at 2:00 PM ET, for an exclusive webinar on how to find your ideal investment opportunity on Hubzu.

This is your opportunity to get valuable insights directly from industry experts that can take your real estate investment goals to the next level. Allow these experts to take you behind the scenes of the auction block. Throughout the webinar they’ll review properties currently available on Hubzu live, and share their insight on discovering opportunities for profitable deals, how to avoid hidden costs for a fair investment, and how to structure your deal so you aren’t wasting time or money. You won’t find industry secrets from industry experts like these anywhere else!

This webinar will not be recorded. You must attend if you want to leverage our expert’s industry knowledge.

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I am not linked with this but we have bought properties from Hubzu at auction in the past and done well with them.  I just wanted to pass along the information on this webinar which is free and as we know, information can be priceless.  

The link to register is:

Webinar Registration Link

Remember, take the information as just that and don't feel the need to signup if something is offered.

As Matt mentioned, books are out dated as soon as they are published especially in recent years where prices fluctuate almost every time we look at them.  Lumber, electrical, etc. is worse than the stock market.  Many things are back ordered and that can kill your timeline and hence costs on a project.

You did not mention how much you plan on doing yourself versus contract out.  Also will this me a cosmetic rehab and flip and a total gut job?

I would join a local REIG and ask members a few things . . . 1) who do they use for jobs - referrals are gold, 2) what areas are worth looking closer at and 3) what do they use for estimating; i.e., they do it or they have a contractor on their team that does.

Again, first one will always show things you forget getting into the flip but learn and move on.  We are her to help

We have used the professionally applied product on several projects doing tubs, surrounds and even 1970's countertops in the bathrooms that came out looking like marble.  Two projects were a few years ago and we actually followed up with the buyers and they said the finish was looking as good as when they bought it.  I think the trick is to make sure the person you use preps the surface completely and then uses a quality product to finish it all.  I am not sure how the guy we used was able to breath but it needed a fan to get the fumes out.  I was amazed and even the agents that saw the final product were impressed.  It came with a 5-year warranty and the guy said he had not been called back to redo one yet.  It did take a few days to finish curing but the end result was worth it.  DO your research and find a quality installer . . . the do it yourself kits will not hold up as well.

Flipping benefits from experience but we all started without that piece.  Some brought cash, some brought credit, some brought partners, some brought construction skills but they all brought something to the table. 

Finding a deal is easier than many make it out to be.  The calculators on BP are invaluable and we have used them for virtually all of our projects over the past few years.  It can quickly tell you if the numbers work (assuming you put quality data in) and then you can use what you bring to see if the deal is for you.

Some people starting out look for cosmetic flips which are still out there.  Others are willing to take on a total reno or even fire damage. 

You should look into REIGs in your area and see when they meet.  Meet a few of the flippers in your market and see what they are finding in terms of areas, price points, reno duration, etc.  You might even find a partner on your first one where you find the deal and they work with you to do the reno - split the profits and now you have one under your belt and have seen some of the pitfalls.

Stay the course but be wary of many of the guru's that claim to have all the answers for a fee . . . use the family here which costs nothing and take assistance when offered.

Agree with Randy.  If you have setup the relationship and the scope of work correctly, you will have a timeline when specific milestones will be met.  Personally I do not care if my contractors are there for 2 hours or 12 hours as long as the work gets done as we agreed on.  I do not monitor them being onsite but I do monitor the progress . . . if things are off the timeline, we have a discussion but will address time on site.  If you start to monitor comings and goings, you will see tail lights heading down the road and not returning . . . and your reputation will get around pretty quickly

As you said, there are a ton of courses out there and all claim to have the magic potion that will ensure you are successful . . . with the support they all promise thrown in.  I will admit we got pulled into one and to be honest, found what we received through the Bigger Pockets network (tools, books, networking, etc.) far exceeded what we made many times for elsewhere.  You are ahead of most people that buy into the courses and mentors in that you have two properties and see it works.  Do you need a course costing $1,000's which could be put into another property?  That depends . . . do you need the motivation putting money on the line might bring?  Do you feel that putting the money in will force you to stay the course?  I can say in our case, it ticked me off tossing money away after getting information that was a one-size-fits-all that did not work as intended in my market, scripted coaching that again did not work for what we were looking to do and finally after getting a kiss off from the customer service group when I voiced my experience, I knew that we had wasted a good deal of money.  The courses / mentors rely on the success of a small percentage to show their programs work but you have to ask would they have been able to do it on their own for a fraction of what the program cost.

I did not see a cost associated with the Flipstress program after doing a Google search - 95% of what came up was from the Flipstress program itself which would have me question how big it is and effective the program is on a wide scale.

Before sending any money I would see if you can find anyone that has used the program and find out what it did for them.  Anyone can create a website and find a few students with killer deals to showcase but the question you asked is it worth the investment.

As you said, this is subjective.  We had been doing flips and location was the #1 thing we looked for simply because a few blocks made a big difference in the ARV. Then we looked at the reno scope to decide if we wanted to tackle a big project if some of our contractors were not available.  

We have moved and are finding more deals with MFR properties that we are holding due to generating a solid cash flow.  We find properties that are in areas that are in demand (see what is renting on Zillow for example) and then look for properties that might need some attention before renting for top dollar- we do not rent properties we would not live in ourselves and I know that there are those that do Section 8 and focus on D or C properties but that has never been an area we wanted to get into.

As Elliot said, define your criteria and that will define what you are looking for which narrows down your search.  If your area is one where prices are out the roof, then $50K+ for an average flip woudl barely get people interested.  Our last market, houses sold for $175K and under so the profit  per flip was less which made us look for more cosmetic flips than total guts.