All Forum Posts by: Bill Sargeson

After 22 years of working 60-80 hours/week I finally made the leap and left my full time job this past June and went full time into real estate!  We are able to support ourselves through our rental properties that we acquired over the last 10 years and it feels AWESOME!!!  I acquired my NC real estate license and started working with a national brokerage company and absolutely love my job now(no pressure to sell)!  The last six months have been a blur and I just realized it has been way too long since I have been on BP.   I also just realized that I started a thread about a house I was flipping the middle of last year and need to update so I apologize for that(turned out very well by the way).  I want to thank the BP community as you have all been an invaluable resource!

I am not sure by what you mean "going after each other's deals" The forclosures on the MLS often go "highest and best" meaning there are multiple offers on the same property, however I have no idea who to other people are.

@Cindi Boyer

I found my private sale on Craigslist.  He was selling two properties, when we got to talking about them he gave me his name, so I looked him up on the county GIS website and saw that he had 10 more properties.  The next time we spoke I said if you have any more properties that you would like to sell let me know...and he did...for a total of 6 properties.

The foreclosures I mostly found on the MLS....

Like many people on here....I also tell everyone(and I mean everyone)I meet that I buy real estate, so I also get a lot of leads that way....

@Cindi Boyer

 Yes, The majority of my properties were foreclosures.  Although I did purchase 6 properties from a retiring real estate investor through a private sale.

Sorry for the delay in updating the progress.  I was actually on vacation and out of town for the 1st week of work(thank goodness everything went ok).

Demo has been completed, all the old carpet, vinyl, cabinets, paneling in den, toilets and vanities were torn out and filled up a 30 yard dumpster.

I have never seen this before but in all the upstairs bedrooms the HVAC vents were in the middle of the room(ceiling).  We want to put ceiling fans in every bedroom, so we relocated the vents to side of each room and we are putting ceiling boxes put in the center of the rooms.

We also opened up two walls, one in the master bath, and one going from the dining room into the kitchen.

All the ceilings upstairs have been re-textured.

All the bedroom walls have been painted as well as the living room downstairs.

The upstairs hall bathroom had tile on the walls that was pulled out during demo and we are in the middle of replacing the sheetrock there.

Our goal for this week is:

1- Putting the upstairs bathrooms back together, new vanities, new toilets...etc.  

2- Framing in the new openings that we created.

3- New sheetrock and insualtion in the den.

4- Finish trim painting upstairs

5-Painting the rest of downstairs

6-Finishing a downstairs coat closet(currently not sheetrocked).

The 1st pic is the den, it was taken before all the paneling was removed

The 2nd pic is the kitchen, the soffit in the pic is now gone

The 3rd pic is the downstairs living room and dining room(that light fixture is going)

The last 2 pics are two of the four bedrooms upstairs.

We closed yesterday on the purchase of our flip house here in NC.  I hope to document to progress throughout the event.  Our goal is a 4 week turnaround.

Purchase Price $67.5k, (approved short sale)

ARV $135k. Comps in the area support this.

$25k in materials and labor

Monthly holding costs: $557(int payments, taxes, utilities, insurance)

House info as purchased:

House built in 1971 - Solid B neighborhood - Great Schools

2081 sq ft

4 Bed, 2.5 Bath

New Roof

New Windows

New HVAC

Vinyl Siding

Work to be performed:

New cabinets and counter tops

Laminate downstairs and carpet upstairs

New vanities

New light and plumbing fixtures(tubs staying)

New water heater 

Paneling removed from den and replaced with sheetrock

Window removed from eat in kitchen and replaced with slider to access the back yard

Small deck built off of slider

And obviously paint throughout.

We will probably price it under market value and hope to sell it quickly(30-60 days) at $125k which would give us a profit(after commissions, closing costs, and carrying costs) of $22k-$23k.  We financed the property through a credit line with our local bank(who financed all our rentals), 5% interest rate.

Below are a few pics and I hope to update the pics as work gets completed(which is starting today)

I look forward to hearing everyone's feedback as this is our first flip!

@William Byrd Sorry you couldn't make it out today, but hopefully in the near future you can come check it out!

One of my tenants called today and said there was a copperhead snake near the storage building in the backyard.  My lease clearly states that pest removal is the tenant's responsibility.  I always try and do the right things for my tenants but wildlife removal companies charge quite a bit of money for their services and most likely by the time they get out to the house the snake will be gone and even if it is not and they remove it there is a good possibility another could show back up.  My question is what is the liability if someone got bit, yes I know people can sue you for any reason but I was just wondering if any of you have through this before.

20 Properties Total

16 SFR

4 Duplexes

Paid cash for the first property

Portfolio loans for the rest

I have credit line secured by the 1st one that I paid cash for

The bank also gave me a fairly large unsecured line of credit

Both credit lines allow me to purchase properties for "cash" for quick closes

It took me about 18 months to get to 10 and about 3 years to get to 20

I want to start by saying I love a great deal when I see one.  I came across this house(foreclosure) in a solid "b" neighborhood at a great price.  As I was going through this house one of the first things I saw(you can see in this pic) was one of those tri-fold cardboard things that kids use to build science fair type projects with an award for it as well.  I go down the hall and enter one of the bedrooms and covering the walls was artwork from school projects, family vacation pics etc....as a parent of three young kids when I come across this it kills me. I always wonder what the story was and how this family lost their home...I was curious if any of you have had similar experiences....

I had friend of mine put an offer on a SFR and his insurance company went out and looked at the house and told him the same thing. I went and looked at it and it looked fine to me. He went with another insurance company and they insured it with no problems....