All Forum Posts by: Chris Calabrese

Those are the original hardwoods, solid red oak from 1965. We pay our floor guy $1.25 a foot to sand and finish with 3 coats of poly, so about $1,000 for the living room, hallway, and 3 bedrooms. They came out great, and were cheaper than carpet!

That's a gray concrete sealer, can't remember the name. It won't flake off like paint, but it may not be quite as good as an epoxy coat either.

Sorry if this gets double posted, but I thought I already posted it.

This one was actually my first flip from last spring. Currently it's lease-optioned at $89,900 and $1,000/month. Got a good tenant with SS and pension, and will probably keep as a rental if the option doesn't work out. Paid $41,250 and spend $21,000 on rehab.

http://cid-a475e1f625517ba3.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=A475E1F625517BA3!198

Still catching up on photos as I work on our website. This was #3, on a huge cul-de-sac lot in a great neighborhood. Spent 2 months on rehab.

Paid $65,000
Rehab $24,000
Under Contract @ $145,900

http://cid-a475e1f625517ba3.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=A475E1F625517BA3!216

Andrew,

Paid $49,500
Rehab $21,500
Listed @ $119,900

Rehab took about 6 weeks and came in about $750 under budget, except at the last minute we decided to put a new roof on for about $4k, thinking that it could deter potential buyers and someone may ask for it anyway.

Here's the active link...

http://cid-a475e1f625517ba3.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=A475E1F625517BA3!156

Been around here for a while, but haven't posted many results or pictures. Here's some pics of our 4th flip. I think this one came out pretty good...looking forward to some feedback!

http://cid-a475e1f625517ba3.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=A475E1F625517BA3!156

I've invested in several REIT's...CIM, NLY, ANH, GOV, and more, and they definitely can pay some hefty dividends. Of course as with any high yielding investment, this comes with some risk. Because they're required to pay 90% of their income in dividends, they can be very volatile when their income changes quarter to quarter.

One interesting strategy that I've used is buying on secondary offerings. Because REIT's must pay 90% of NOI in dividends, they have to sell new shares to raise new capital. They offer the new shares at book value, which is generally lower than the stock price, so the price drops sharply on the offering day, and almost always recovers soon after. Of course, do your own DD and invest wisely.

I use an online service called ClearScreening. They make you go through a 30 minute training class on FCRA to set up your account, but don't require a home inspection like most of the other ones I found. You can pull credit, background checks, evictions, etc. at a reasonable cost.

A lot of people would rather destroy someone else's home rather than their own. :)