All Forum Posts by: Chris Svendsen

I personally would pass on this as looks like you be loosing money every month.  Not enough gain to take this large of a risk.  The reno budget may be light too, especially if you never did this before and timeframe probably be much longer than expected.

I used https://www.1031.us/ to do our exchange.  We sold 1 house and bought 2 with the exchange.  They were very helpful and very responsive and extremely fair prices.  Would us them again in a heart beat.

Best way I have heard it explained was that if you take purchase price of home, say $100,000 and multiply by 1%, which gets you $1000, you should be able to rent the property for this amount, or more, to be able to cover your cost and turn a profit. It is a very general rule for quick evaluation of home to see if worth doing a deeper look into it.  If you were looking at a $200,000 house, 1% gets you a rental amount of $2,000 a month you should be collecting to make deal work.  If area rents are only $1000 a month for such a home then it is probably not going to make you money.  It used to be the 2% rule was the quick math rule, but times have changed over the years.

Hope this helps.  Others will surely provide further clarification I am sure.  

This crap been around for a long time.  I remember someone trying to sell me on doing this about 20 years ago when we bought our first house.  For my sanity I just follow the basics, none of this crazy stuff.  If you decide to get into it good luck.  As others said, to much risk for my liking.

Erika,I am jumping in on your post for selfish reasons.  My wife and her family are from the area, Tyrone to be exact, and we are moving back to the area ourselves, as we love it too.  If have any leads on houses in Tyrone, State College, Port Matilda, Warriors Mark or anywhere in between and not of interest to you please let me know. We having a heck of time finding a house for us to live in right now.  I will gladly do same for you.  Market is nuts in this area right now.  

I switched over to state farm for all 5 of my houses.  No issues and good rates for same coverage.  On average saved about $200 a year on each house. One was $500 lower than previous provider.  

Quote from @Sophia Remley:

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Front Royal.

Purchase price: $60,000
Cash invested: $31,500
Sale price: $230,000

We sourced this property from a seller who had been through the wringer while owning it. We were happy to let her walk away and start fresh. It was a beat up 2 bed, 1 bath on the mountain overlooking the Shenandoah river. The homes kitchen, bath, flooring, roof and entire exterior were remodeled while staying cost conscious. The small footprint and quick projects were great to start off our fix & flip journey.

Great job.  How did you find the deal originally?  That was a great score. 

OMG this post is giving me anxiety.  Starting your first ever home build of this magnitude, with hard money loan, and no knowledge of house to build a house is quite a risky venture. This isn't a $100 lego kit you are building this is a 1.5 to 2 million dollar home and have no idea how to build one.  This price point, location is not all that matters.  Finishes and design are huge for this level of buyer.  I have no business giving advice on this as I never built a home.  I know all the steps to do it, time frames it takes, and various contractors needed due to working in the building industry for 20 years but would never jump this far in my first time building an investment home.  That said hard to say what happens with market but if things begin to shift that is when people who have no idea what they are doing usually suffer the most because they are taking the biggest risks. I suggest you find someone who actually knows what they are doing, reach a deal where you provide the lots, they build on them and you split the cost. Setup a contract that protects you.  Way to many areas you could end upside down and loose everything.  I hope it works out for you but this whole thing scare the crap out of me for you.  People make plenty of money building house that have no idea how to build a house.  I work with many of them.  However, they are smart enough to surround themselves with the right people who do know what they are doing and everyone benefits. 

Good luck sir. You got a lot ahead of you. Sincerely hope it all works out for you.  

In the moment it happened wasn't funny but by end of day all I could do was laugh.  Was at end of a full year of renovating a house.  Was doing final inspections with county and he is testing all the plumbing.  No bid deal as we be using plumbing entire renovation. As we go through house we head to basement.  Being old house I had a dehumidifier setup to run and empty into sump pump. We heading down stairs to basement he say "oh you got water issues!" I couldn't see around him but was saying no we run that just to protect the basement as assumed he was talking about dehumidifier in basement.  He stops on stairs and turns, "no you got water issues!" and moves to the side so I can see. I see a geyser of water erupting from the basement floor drain.  Nice smelly sewer water.  All this less than 6 hours from the buyers having their home inspector showing up.  As I finish up with inspector I get on phone, 3 hours later plumber there snaking lines.  At very end of line when about to go into main sewer he pulls out 4 paint rags.  No idea how they got there but he pulls them out.  Funnies part was watching him with his bear hands pulling the once white, now black, rags apart amazed they made it into the system.  Somehow I managed to keep my lunch in my stomach.  After seeing him out, without shaking his hand, I ran to the store, bought rags, gloves and cleaners and disinfected everything in basement.  Got done and out of house a hour before clients inspector showed up.  At end of day I sat at home just chuckling as I drank a beer just thinking about the plumber sitting their analyzing the rags amazed they were in the line and just using his hands pulling them apart in all that filth.  Still gives me shivers thinking about it.  

I been using state farm for all properties last 3 years, no complaints. Rates good, service great, and no issues.