All Forum Posts by: Terri Pour-Rastegar

Thanks J! This is just the sort of thing I was looking for! I realize there are many variables, but these sort of figures are a start. Your focus is on flipping low-end homes to 1st-time buyers, and my focus is on making properties rent-ready. I like to provide good quality to my tenants as I find it draws a better grade of people, if you will. So I really think your numbers/approach would be on par with my goals.

So this really helps me out. Thanks! I'll take more examples of numbers if anybody's willing to give them up! ;)

I myself am just now coming out of my own fog of self-doubt and worry.

I'm quite successful at investing, by most folks' definition. I don't flip 20 properties a week or own hundreds of rental units, but I've got several really strong rentals with fantastic tenants. Never a big problem. Never an eviction (yet). My biggest flip netted me nearly $200K. That was pretty sweet. (Although it makes a $15K profit on a flip look like chump change. I gotta learn to get over that!)

Then, the last property I purchased, my husband involved himself in the purchase negotiations and agreed to a price higher than I would have paid. He's never done this before and feels awful about it to this day. Anyway, it was done. I hired out all the work for the first time and got royally screwed. Without boring you with all the details, I paid too much for the rehab and let the guys walk all over me--they ended up taking a full year to finish. And in the end, I had to finish up the last 2 weeks of work because they disappeared (jailed for non-payment of child support).

While all of this was going on, my and my husband's family suffered some serious trauma. Without getting too specific, my mom died unexpectedly, another family member contracted emphysema, another succombed to alcoholism, another was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and fought 2 years with chemo before passing away, another had 6 heart attacks in one summer and a stroke the next year . . . Shall I go on? Some of these people lived in our home, so we dealt with these problems face to face, 24/7.

Needless to say, all of this crap stopped me in my tracks. I felt like a failure on my last project, and all of the catastrophies left me waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was afraid that if I bought another property, I would fail at that too. In fact, I was certain of it.

A few things have helped.

I read somewhere (I forget where) that if you focus on what you think will go wrong, you will talk yourself right out of doing anything. It's not that you should ignore your fears--my conservative approach (based mostly on fears!) has usually served me very well. But--and this sounds obvious, but it's true--if you focus on the potential good that can come out of an endeavor, those rewards will help to propel you.

I find I'm often frozen by my fears, or what I call "analyzation paralyzation." I will analyze a deal to death and beyond, to the point that someone else takes it right out from under me. This is partly because I'm mildy ADD. Sometimes, the mountain of steps involved to reach the goal seems insurmountable. So, I have learned to break down my projects into little chunks, or baby steps. If there are 200 things on my to do list today, we all know it's never going to happen. I pick a maximum of 10 things to get done that day, and of those 10, I highlight 3 that must be done before all else. I also tackle the least pleasurable tasks first. That way, they're outta my way and I don't have any reason to procrastinate or worry about them.

Also, my husband has been amazing. I wish I could loan him out. He sat me down and told me that he expects we will have more mistakes and slip-ups and woulda-coulda-shoulda situations down the line. It's bound to happen because we're human, and he's OK with that. Sounds obvious, but until someone actually says it for you, sometimes it doesn't sink in. Once I let myself accept the fact that I'm going to make mistakes and that it's OK, I felt so much better.

It seems I've found a really good local realtor who 'gets' the investor approach. She's been showing me so many deals, I'm not sure I can buy them all!

So I'm focusing on making sure I've got tons of equity in these deals--room for error, if you will--until I get back on my investor's feet again and get myself back up to the level of confidence I used to have.

I'm really excited for the first time in a long time, and a little fear still comes along with the excitement. But it's OK. I'm grateful to be able to voice my fears and share my experience in this little "Bigger Pockets Therapy Group." ;)

I've considered putting the systems up on the roof--just always afraid that a bad install will ruin my roof--just as expensive as a new HVAC! Any others have good success putting their systems up on the roof?

I like the idea of painting the copper. At least it'll deter some of the crackheads who are too lazy to work a little harder.

I heard that they usually get only about $100 for the amount of copper they get out of a condensor. I've thought of putting up a sign that says: "Attention crackheads: Instead of destroyig/stealing my expensive equipment, why don't I just give you $100?" ;)

I close in 2 weeks on my next rental acquisition, and dirtbags stole the entire HVAC system. I can see someone began installing a fence though. There are 4 4x4 posts in concrete ready to receive a 6-8' wooden fence of some sort. I think I'll take advantage of this, installing locked gates for easy access, and reasonably spaced pickets for circulation. Not sure what to do about keeping them from climbing over the fence. I suppose some variation on a roof or something. Open to suggestions. (If anyone's done something like this, I'd LOVE pictures!)

I need to figure out how to stop this mildew or algae stuff that shows up on one of my rental house's older vinyl siding.

I end up having to pressure-wash this crud off at least yearly, but it really needs it 2-3 times per year! It's really ugly. What can I do to prevent it from coming back all the time?

The siding is otherwise in excellent condition.

I need some handy little sheet that gives me some ballpark figures or range of figures to help me estimate the cost to do some typical rehab work.

Please let me start by explaining that I am not new to rehabbing. My husband and I have rehabbed 7 houses ourselves. As you can imagine, we're tired. I want to be an investor, not a renovation specialist. So, we're hiring folks to handle the work from here on out.

However, I feel like I'm starting all over with the cost estimates. I can tell you how much a sink or tub costs, or how much it costs to rent a floor sander and buy sanding pads/paper, etc., I do not know how much it costs to have someone else install that sink or tub or to refinish my floors.

I realize that 3 different people will spend 3 different amounts to do the same project. I'm just looking for a nice, convenient place where I can go to glance at some general ideas of typical expenses.

For example (keeping in mind, I'm rehabbing to rent places, usually):
Paint = $? per sf (including paint; walls beige, trim white, basic stuff)
Carpet = $? per sf (including tear-out, new pad and carpet).
Replace toilet = $?
Replace vanity top = $?
Replace vanity faucet = $?
Vinyl flooring install = $? per sf
HW floor refinishing = $? per sf
Upgrade/replace breaker box = $?
New exterior door = $?
New interior door = $?

See where I'm going? I'm certainly not the first person to need this, so I'm certain what I'm looking for exists out there . . . somewhere . . .

Experienced, direct-buy real estate investor here, seeking truly great deals to help expand my rental portfolio.

Greater Charlotte NC region only, including York County SC.

SFHs or multi-family OK.

CASH BUYER!

Please do not bring me anything anywhere near market value. I need real deals here.

Thanks!!!

Hmmm . . I've always focused on 3-BR SFHs, but have also wondered about letting myself wander into 2-BR territory. Also wondered about doing Section 8. I'd love to hear others' experiences along this line, especially in my town--Charlotte NC and the surrounding regions.

My husband (and business partner) and I are running calculations to determine how many properties we need to buy to replace his income so he can retire very soon and join me in this work (which I do full time). We have a certain amount of cash to invest and we've applied a little formula to try to keep us on track to achieve good cash flow on our properties:

Rent = 1.5% x my investment.

So if I have to invest $50K in a property, I must get at least $750 in rent. This seems to work for us whether we pay cash or finance the place.

Anyway, like I said, we're running scenarios to see how many properties we need to get to retire my husband early. We're running the numbers without financing and with financing. With financing some of the properties, we can acquire more properties, obviously, so we'll grow faster, which definitely has its advantages. But I've also been trying to get him to see that if we just pay cash and never finance, we may acquire fewer properties, but those fewer properties may be enough to do the job. I'll let you know how it turns out.

As for management, I think I could handle up to 20 properties myself. Of course, let's see how that works out when I get there. I currently manage 4 rentals VERY EASILY. Because we rehab them very carefully and thoroughly, there are few repairs needed. I have very little turnover because I focus only very attractive 3-BR SFHs in good family neighborhoods (no warzones, no hardcore low-income areas--I've gotta feel safe working at these properties alone, y'know?). We do all management and repairs ourselves (except HVAC and appliances--we're clueless there). I am trying to get away from doing the rehab work ourselves because it takes my focus away from what I'm good at: making deals on new acquisitions and landing good tenants.

I'm happy to try to flip, but it's not really my focus in this market today. I'm working harder than ever to take advantage of this market and expand my rental portfolio.

So, that's my take on this, for what it's worth.

When I started out with rentals, I went a little overboard on amenities: side-by-sides with ice/water on the door, garbage disposals, ceiling fans, etc. I will defend myself by stating I did this because I could not be sure I would be successfull right off the bat--I had to make sure these properties did not look like your typical rentals and could be flipped comfortably.

In the meantime, I've had expensive repairs on expensive refrigerators that are only 2 months beyond their warranty. I had to completely get rid of a 6-year-old fridge because the compressor repair was going to cost $600. It was cheaper just to replace the unit altogether. Also, I threatened to evict a tenant if she did not stop putting shrimp tails down her disposal.

Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm no longer putting these amenities in my rentals: No ceiling fans, no garbage disposals, no fancy fridges.

I've heard of some landlords not even providing appliances, but I do not want a tenant carelessly dragging a heavy fridge across the vinyl floor, ripping it to shreads and destroying doorways along the way.

I've also heard some landlords specifically do not provide service to their appliances. I'm not sure how well this works out. Anyone have any experience with this? I might like to go this way in the future. I'll provide the appliances, but you're responsible for repairs. I'd like to hear other successful landlords' take on this aspect.

Some local investors use an appliance supply company that provides refurbished appliances. You can buy a basic fridge for less than $300 bucks. They deliver same day, set it up and take away the old one. Sounds good, but does anyone want to chime in on their specific experience with using refurbished appliances? I'm willing to give it a shot. Heck, if the fancy stuff I used to buy is going to die in 5 years, I may as well buy disposable appliances to begin with. Besides, this company will attempt to refurbish my old unit, so I figure I'm doing the environment a favor.