All Forum Posts by: Scott E.

No. I wouldn't waste my realtors time. Instead I make just a couple of lowball offers at a time, on deals that I can perform on in the event my offers get accepted.

I'm curious exactly how much of the house the robot can 'print.' The article isn't clear on that.

I can't imagine these robots taking on building the pad, digging undergrounds, pouring the foundation, framing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, drywall, tape and texture, paint, cabinets, countertops, flooring, etc.

Seems like even if the robots can frame up the house with a 3D printing method, there will always need to be a good amount of manual labor from humans.

I love this story. It demonstrates the stress and pain that sometimes comes with hard work, following your intuition, and taking risks.

What a shady move on the sellers part. I guess the lesson learned here is don't trust anybody during due diligence. Thankfully your were able to carry the note during the period of vacancy but this deal had the potential to bankrupt you.

Nice job. Thanks for sharing.

Most hard money lenders will fund ~70% of the purchase price and 100% of the rehab.

This means that on your $200k purchase price you are going to need money for:

 -30% of the purchase price ($60,000)

 -Closing Costs ($5k)

 -Interest Payments ($1600/month)

 -Rehab Overages ($10-$20k)

Depends on how "lowball" we're talking. If you send 50-100 informal emails with offers that are within ~10-15% of the asking price, you're going to get some sellers attention.

If you send 50-100 informal offers with offers that are half of the asking price, you are going to get laughed at and not taken seriously.

Having a real estate agent help you with presenting these offers verbally is usually a good plan. They can present the informal offer to the sellers agent over the phone, and build some credibility around your offer by sharing your experience as an investor, that you're well funded, that you will close on time, etc.

Please share some more detail about this opportunity and we'll be able to better guide you..

1. What market is the property in?

2. What price would you pay for the property?

3. What is the appraised value of the property? (are your parents giving you a deal?)

4. What is the current condition of the home?

5. What I the current rent rate? Is it at or below market rents?

6. What are the terms of the current lease?

7. How much money do you have to put down?

My opinion is that it's not a good plan to focus on # of doors. Talking about the # of doors you own will give you some bragging rights at a dinner party. Or it'll give you a great title for your next blog post. But in real life, the # of doors you own alone is kind of a meaningless metric.

Instead focus more on buying quality properties, in strong locations, with a long term strategy in mind.

Regarding your question around raising money, you should start having conversations with various local lenders, other local investors, and high-net-worth people in your network. Share with them some potential deals you have in mind and your investment goals. Start to get a feel for who has money to deploy and who has an appetite for investing with you.

I looked at doing this with a ~25,000 square foot office building last year. Turned out we could fit about ~18 apartment units in there if we wanted. Converting office to residential is a great plan with many companies shifting to a work-from-home posture.

Admittedly I would have been getting in way over my head to do this deal. But the office building caught my eye as a perfect fit based on location and the layout of the existing building.

I brought a contractor out there who specialized in office conversions. He has done 4-5 in the past couple of years. I learned that the entitlement process is grueling. It takes about a year and you usually will face some opposition from surrounding owners and tenants.

He structures his deals where the due diligence period is very long, and subject to the ability to rezone the property. Of course most sellers wont entertain this, but some motivated sellers will.

Lol. They aren't "getting weak." The forums have always been this way, and they always will.

Why? Because real estate investing is not rocket science. There are only a handful of strategies, and there are only a handful of ways to do deals. Plus when people join or have a question, it's nice to give them a personalized experience by answering their exact question about their exact situation, instead of having them dig up some response from a few months ago. 

That's what makes forums awesome. Sure they are often redundant, but they are a source of never ending real time human interaction. If you are here to help people, you will learn to enjoy the questions from new aspiring investors. If you are here with ulterior motives, you will find that over time, the forums are getting weak.

@Trevor Richardson nailed it. A good contractor will guide you through the process. A lot of them have an architect or draftsman that they can refer you to as well (who will have their own engineers/consultants that they work with).

There are a ton of house flippers all over town who try to get away with doing big remodels without permits. And in reality, most of them do get away with it. But it's best to do the right thing and get your permit when a permit is required. Many buyers will be wondering if a permit was pulled when they see extensive work was done to the house.