All Forum Posts by: Bruce Glenn

Hey Chase. Rob is right, there are a number of groups here in Birmingham. Check out

http://www.alareia.com/. An investors club that meets once a month and always has a lot of great information and a lot of like minded people there that can be a great help.  

I'm an appraiser in the Birmingham area and flip houses here also. Like Casity said, I would prefer to have someone that knows the area to actually pull comps for you. Being an appraiser I obviously do all my own research, but I know a lot of great Realtors that can do what you are looking for. I also would be hesitant to go by zip code. For instance, I flipped 2 houses in a small 10 block radius last year. I knew a 3/2 with basement maxed out in the $225,000 to $230,000 range. I was able to buy 2, each for under $100,000 and sold both in the $235,000 range. I do my houses pretty nice and push the values in the neighborhoods I am in. I mention this to say, there are houses within 1 mile of mine that are in the same zip code and sell for $100,000 more and then in the other direction sell for $75,000 less when fixed up. If I just pulled zip info, I would never have gotten my little neighborhood values right. 

Hi Gabriel,

I've been flipping houses for 30 years now and back in the day I had a line of credit and could just stroke a check. Then the downturn came in 2007, 2008 and I basically lost it all and my good credit. Since then I have used all private money. It started with a friend that had a nice savings that he didn't mind using for investing in properties. In the last 4 to 5 years I've done nearly 20 flips and my problem now is finding houses, not money. I do have an advantage with all the years experience, many individuals are more comfortable with my track record and giving me money. But, if you can really show the numbers to someone with money, they might consider. I give a detailed account to my investor; purchase price, rehab costs, time frame, ARV, time to sell, etc. Then if the profit looks good to them, they can proceed.

There are pros and cons to it all. I like the JV deals because there is no dealing with the lender, no high money costs and with a number of my people the trust is so great that they never even go see the house. They leave me to do what I do.

Many ways of doing this business out there, just thought I'd share what has worked for me.

I understand. You still have to be realistic, but I just don't like leaving too much on the table. There are a lot of factors and time is a biggie. I just sold one that we had a back up contract that would have netted us about $6,000 more but the first was able to close in 4 weeks so we stuck with that. A quick sure thing has a lot of value to me.

I've been watching your progress. Great job for your first flip! My only comment is that when the inventory is low where I am and I have a total renovation I will push the market. You can always come down and you are going to have it listed early, before Spring so you have plenty of time. I'm an appraiser also so I always do a lot of work researching before I buy so I know what I can sell it for. I always have a long list of every little thing I have done for the appraiser. No dollar amounts, but a list of all the updates. So they know they had better find totally renovated comps or make substantial adjustments for all my updates.  Also, if you get to the point you get multiple offers be sure to let the appraiser know that, too. If I know a home has had multiple offers that means more than one person thinks this house is worth it and I really am going to try and make it work! Good luck!