All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Charles

@LaTiera Williams

Welcome to bigger pockets.  We completed the rehab on our first flip last week and it definitely would not have gone as smoothly without the information we learned on this website.  Although we are not in LA county, we are only one county north of you. Please let me know if there is anything that we can do to help you on your journey.

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 157 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – No blog posts written or posted. We need to get back on track with these. The final Falkirk walk-through video was posted along with the video collage made by our photographer.

Networking – No networking events attended

Offers – No offers submitted.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters. We will be switching from hand written white envelopes to printed red envelopes for the holiday season. Our hope is that we will get a higher open rate when people see the “holiday” colored envelope.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts.

Networking – No networking events planned for this week.

4509 Falkirk Bay

Our GC finished up the work on our punch list last Wednesday. My wife and I finished the landscaping Thursday morning before we went to relatives for Thanksgiving. We then had the house staged Friday morning and photographers take photos Friday afternoon. My wife officially listed the house on the MLS on Saturday and held open houses on Saturday and Sunday. We were expecting the traffic to be a little slow because of the holiday weekend, but we figured we didn't have much else to do, so we might as well hold an open house. We were actually thinking about not listing the home until the following week because of the holiday weekend and trying to keep our DOM as low as possible, but my wife's broker thought it would be best to list it anyway. We have had some good feedback from agents so far, but not offers submitted yet. My wife will be hosting a broker's open on Wednesday and more open houses this weekend, so hopefully we can get an offer or two by the end of the weekend.

I can’t use any links in this thread, but if anyone is interested in viewing the listing, you can enter 4509 Falkirk bay, Oxnard CA into your real estate website of choice. I also have a full walkthrough of the finished product on our website (along with videos from each week of the project). If you want to see any of those, you can find our website by looking at my profile on Biggerpockets. You can then click on “recent projects” on the menu at the top of the screen and follow the links from there.

Other

Now that we finished the rehab, we need to start finding more projects. We never stopped our marketing, but our leads from our direct mail have dried up and the MLS is the MLS. I want to increase our marketing budget and start a different direct mail campaign after Falkirk sells, but that may be a few months down the road. We need to find a way to get out there and start meeting people in the real estate world other than the same people who always attend the local REIAs.

@Desy Willis

We used Pacific Coast Title Company for our latest purchase.  It looks like they have branches throughout Southern California.  We used the Westlake Village branch and they were very helpful.  We are new investors and they took the time to explain everything to us and we never felt like we were bothering them. 

@Peter De Bear

Welcome to Bigger pockets. My wife and I are almost finished with our first fix and flip project in Oxnard.  Please let me know if there is anything that we can do to help grow your business in the area.  

I’m gonna change it up a little bit this week and start with the “good” stuff first. Our first project is still not complete after we were hoping to have it ready by the end of last month. We realize that most projects don’t finish on schedule, but this is a pretty small property and even the GC admits that nothing unforeseen happened and everything was in better condition than they expected. Fortunately, the only major item left is the installation of the shower enclosure in the master bathroom. My wife, our partner, and the GC will be doing a walkthrough tomorrow to come up with the final punch list. There are plenty of minor things that need to be corrected or touched up. We are hoping that the shower enclosure and all the items on the punch list will be completed by COB Tuesday. I won’t be holding my breath though. With any luck, hopefully we can get this thing finished, cleaned, and staged to be able to hold an open house this weekend.

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 242 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – One blog post written and posted.

Networking – Attended The Real Estate Candy Shop.

Offers – No offers submitted.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts.

Networking – No scheduled events for this week.

Lessons Learned

We haven’t submitted any offers in a couple of weeks. We drove by a house that we looked at a while ago and saw that it is still on the market. We will be submitting an offer on that one today.

Also, my wife has a few days off this week because of the holidays. I am hoping that she can make some appointments with divorce and/or probate attorneys and do some networking to see if we can find a mutually beneficial way to do business together.

@Ludmila Hill

My mortgage lender said that he can do a non-owner occupied loan for 10% down. We used him to fund our current project (although not with the 10% down loan), so I can at least vouch for his professionalism.  I also have been in contact with two hard money lenders who claim they do 100% purchase AND rehab loans for a good portion of the project (depending on the specifics of the deal, of course).  However, I have not used them before, so i cannot vouch for them.  But if you are interested in any of their contact information, feel free to send me a PM. 

@Robert Taylor

If you are talking about the 3-day seminar, it will only get into the very basics (70% rule, pulling comps, etc.). If you are brand new and know next to nothing about the subject, you will probably pick up on a few things. If you have already done your homework on the subject, there may not be much more that you learn there.  I attended the 3-day seminar almost two years ago, so there might have been some slight changes since then.  

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 245 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – One blog post written and posted. The 8th Falkirk video was posted earlier in the week. That will be our last video until the final product is complete.

Networking – Attended the Ventura County Real Estate Investors Club Meetup. Was not able to make the Fun Happy Hour Networking for Business Professionals’ Meetup

Offers – No offers submitted.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts and post week 8 video.

Networking – Attend The Real Estate Candy Shop.

4509 Falkirk Bay

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We did not finish on Friday as we were hoping to. There was an issue with some of the plumbing hardware missing from the packages we bought and the shower enclosure did not arrive on Friday as planned. We need to have everything finished up so that we can start holding an open house this weekend.

PAST WEEK ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Laminate and carpet were installed in the living areas and bedrooms. Baseboards were installed throughout the entire house. All of the light fixtures have been installed and tested. The front fence and gate were completed and have been painted as well. The garage door and (opener) were installed and add nicely to the curb appeal.

PLANNED TASKS FOR NEXT WEEK

• Install shower enclosure
• Complete plumbing installation
• Complete deck painting
• Complete landscaping
• Start working on punch list while waiting for parts to be delivered

I’m a little week posting this week’s update. The last three days were pretty busy, both business and personal. With that said, let’s get to it.

Past Week Accomplishments:

Direct Mail – 243 direct mail pieces sent out.

Online Marketing – One blog post written and posted. The 7th Falkirk video was also posted over the weekend.

Networking – There were no networking events last week.

Offers – No offers submitted. There doesn't seem to be very many properties that fit our criteria coming up on the MLS in our county. Not sure if it's the time of year or just the real estate market over here in general. At this rate, not sure how we are feasibly going to submit enough offers to meet any future goals.

Goals for this week:

Direct Mail - Send out weekly batch of letters. We still haven’t sent out the postcards that were due a few weeks ago. We have been busy trying to get the project moving at a reasonable rate and stay on top of the letters. We haven’t forgotten about the postcards though and will catch up on them at some point soon.

Online marketing - Write and post 2 blog posts and post week 8 video. I don’t think we are going to do a week 9 video, as we should be close to completion by the end of this week, so I’ll probably just hold off a few days and do a final video.

Networking – Attend the Fun happy hour networking for Business professionals’ meetup and the Ventura County Real Estate Investors Club Meetup

4509 Falkirk Bay

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We are scheduled to be finished this week! Although there is still quite a bit of work to be done, everything and everyone is scheduled and on the same page. Our goal is to be on the market by mid next week

PAST WEEK ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Tile flooring in both bathrooms has been laid. Kitchen countertops have been installed. Both bathroom vanities have been delivered and are in the process of being installed. The fence replacement in the front yard has been started. Deck railing replacement has been started as well. Landscaping in the front has begun and will finish up this weekend when the fence replacement is complete.

PLANNED TASKS FOR NEXT WEEK

• Lay laminate flooring throughout living areas
• Install baseboards
• Finish installing light fixtures
• Continue installing plumbing fixtures
• Finish exterior painting
• Finish deck and railing
• Finish front fence and walkthrough gate
• Install carpets in bedrooms
• Install new garage door
• Install glass shower enclosures in master bedroom
• Finish landscaping
• Get appliances delivered and installed
• Compile final punch list and get this thing on the market!

@Brent Bridgman

If the format is the same as two years ago, the first session is free and last 2-3 hours.  It gives you very basic information about residential real estate, and if I remember correctly, not enough to really do anything with.  From there, you can attend a weekend workshop for a couple hundred dollars where they go over their fix and flip model. In the weekend workshop, you are given enough information to be dangerous with if you continue studying on your own.  We went home after each session and researched the topics they discussed (that's actually how we discovered biggerpockets).  We found enough information online that we felt we could take what they taught us and learn the rest on our own.  Ultimately though, we decided to join the Mastery Program.  We live in Southern California, so there is no "buy a 35K house" for us and learn by trial and error.  We felt that if we were to attempt a fix and flip and screw up badly, it would end up costing us way more than the mastery program fee.  We are not rich by any means, but we are not poor either, so even if we did nothing with the program, we knew the fee would not kill us in the long run.

At the end of the day, i would say it's up to the individual to examine their goals and take a realistic look at themselves.  I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people who join the program never do a single deal.  I blame these people for not doing their due diligence and understanding the effort it will take, especially if you are working a full time job and have no prior real estate experience.  There are people who complain that they maxed out their credit cards and refinanced their home and are not making any money.  Well i'm sorry, but I don't believe people should sign up for anything that they cannot afford.  Although my wife and I joined in April of 2014, I was sent out of town for work for 7 months shortly after that, so we really just start our marketing in May of this year.  We our currently towards the end of our first rehab (purchase price 500K with 80K rehab) and should end up doing pretty well with it.  Would we have been comfortable taking on this big of a project as our first one if we hadn't joined the program? Maybe yes, maybe no.  It is true that most, if not all, of the information we were taught can be found online. However, we have access to tools and a support system that I feel go beyond what you can learn online.  Is that worth however much the program costs now?  That is up to you to decide.

I don't recall them presenting anything that was bogus.  They said that you need to dedicate at least 15 hours a week to begin with if you want to get anywhere.  You can debate if this number is high or low, but it should at least warn people that this does take time and energy.  And before the present any case study, they lead off with a disclosure that the results and money earned are only of that property and results may vary and a profit is not guaranteed.  Since they are located in California, all of the prices and costs they were presenting were in line with what we see in my area.