All Forum Posts by: Jeff McCaskey

Welcome

Freedom

Read books, watch things via YouTube, go look at houses, learn about and pick your target area(s). Spend some time preparing yourself for this. If you like sports - teams practice practice practice, they practice more than they play by far. Same goes here. And that's how you get it done man!

I use Quickbooks

Investing is NEVER emotional, not even about money - or you will make mistakes or miss opportunity. It's cold hard facts and that's it. GO CELEBRATE EMOTIONS WHEN YOU SCORE THE BIG PROFIT AT THE END OF SALE OR REFI AT THE BAR etc etc lol.

The bank will go lower, they always will go lower.

Banks are down right retarded about money when it comes to an REO - they make bad choices financially from our perspective looking in, but that is what creates opportunity for people like us.

A good deal......... depends on the ARV and trends in that area (comps) I don't know any markets in Illinois but nationally in compact areas if you can still get it bought 25-30% below the comps then that seems to be good. ALL DEALS ARE INDIVIDUAL THOUGH.

They dropped the price 30k on the first reduction, they want to get rid of the property. they will go lower. If it were me, I would low ball at 45k or something like that and see what happens. If no response then rethink what you want to do. I bet they will end up selling for another 30K drop though. If I got nothing back I would wait a couple weeks checking it daily to track it. Wait for the next drop and offer a new or same offer. Stay on it.

REAL STORY - I made an offer on a house in my area a few years back. It was worth 125-140K and was listed for 125K, dropped rapidly to 90 something right, I offered 70K with no response. I waited but had moved on to other deals, I watched. Was soon dropped to 70 something and sold so I called the agent. It sold for 65K......... real world example.

Listen to these guys! Ditch the agent. Speculator is the right word. Common practice is to make money when you buy or you made a bad deal, so if he desn't know what money he is making from the start then he doesn't have a good plan and I certainly wouldn't follow it.

I know housing is tight in the Western US - WY, ID, MT, ND, SD, UT etc etc so housing will come at a premium of some sort (price or competition etc). I looked at buying in Douglas WY not far southeast of you, my dad was working there in oil and gas a few years back.

With the down turn in oil and gas prices and virtual dead stop by drilling and exp companies, there should be housing available across your area now and solidly the rest of the year of not longer - depends on the price of oil and drilling activity etc etc. You should be able to find deals without to much trouble. Go ask all the agents, ALL the agents who they sold to for oil field housing and if any of those buyers will be or are now sellers. They will likely be 1) motivated 2) actively on the market 3) happy to strike a deal to save their own credit and finances without foreclosure. THEY DON'T HAVE JOBS NOW RIGHT.......

There are properties and strategies you can use to obtain property in your area, within an hr radius of you, I almost did it during what would have been the bottom of the crash nationally but the peak of the boom locally - I just didn't end up entering the Douglas market. (I even had ghost adds running on Craigslist for the property I was looking at and had calls/emails about availability). Things are picking up in price nationally but now with an oil and gas "bust" they may be dipping or dropping in your area right now today in real time.

Brain storm and execute - if one path is a dead end, try another. DON'T QUIT!

I use earth tones on all my properties rentals and flips. Usually there are degrees of quality from one paint to another from the same brand such as Valspar. A cheaper house gets decent but less expensive paint, and much higher value property gets a higher grade of paint.

It was my research before getting started that picking 2-3 colors both interior and exterior will allow you to use left over paint on the next project as well as change it up from one unit to another.

I always do the same work with each application and use facebook etc etc to review a prospective tenant. I would say if you do all that and still have that wonder in your mind how it will work because you have a small gut feeling, decline the app and rent to someone else in line who you know is qualified without a doubt.

Hopefully you are using applications for people who are prospective tenants

Becky,

I have both types of investments. Currently working on the first flip. I wanted to start out flipping but it required cash I didn't have and I didn't have a track record to back me up while asking for money. So I bought rentals at first. A good thing too, as I learned a lot from all the projects I have had to complete on the rental side of things. That prepared me in the best way possible for getting myself into a flip. I created the cash I needed from equity in my rentals over a few year period. You mentioned number of units, that's great that you have managed to put a few rental units together!! Hopefully all cash flowing nicely.......

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking as far as getting into your first flip but hopefully you learned how to eval a property well while buying rental units. That should allow you to know with your own eyes what a "good" flip opportunity looks like when it presents its self. I would make sure you have the cash on hand you need to complete the flip - probably most important. You will want to make sure you have extra funds on hand past what your budget calls for because you will likely run into things you could not see before rehab starts, especially if the home is an early build (pre 1940's 50's).

Have the cash (with a budget and a plan) since you built your profit into the deal at purchase, stick to the plan/budget.

Have extra cash

Think ahead - your end point of listing the property with an agent, start to set all that up before you finish so you can put a sign in the yard the day you walk out for the last time plus gather other info - appraisal etc etc. You can probably get either int or ext pics taken with your agent and let them get the marketing ready and add the balance of pics later on the last day of work etc etc. (Holding costs make a difference)

Check with your city/county office - some have tax revite programs which could be an extra selling point.

Do things right and don't cut corners to save a buck.

Always look and ask for ways to save money with your contractors and lumberyards, you can often get a discount of some type just by asking for available options.

I'm sure I could think of some other things to add, hope this helps

Jeff

YOU MUST TAKE ACTION - ANY KIND OF ACTION, IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER WHICH KIND..........

Here is the key - nobody has all the answers and nobody can do it for you. You have to take action and do it for yourself, because no two paths are the same.

It's almost 2 am so I'm not going to write a book here, but.......

BEFORE I started, I had had an interest in real estate for a long long time and some family background (dad and grandpa were real estate agents). Over time my interest helped me gather tid bits of information I would use later.

WHEN I started it was October 2008 - the crash!!!!!

I just came back from grad school which didn't go well. Didn't have a job, was living at home and wasn't sure what to do. I spent a couple months out hunting and trying to figure things out. Real estate was as popular on cable news as ISIS is today, it was all negative news about real estate.

The Chinese have a saying "chaos brings opportunity" so if your'e new and life feels chaotic or tattered, look for the opportunity before you.

I did some work for a farmer close by, it was part time but hey, it was something. There weren't any jobs really. You can't really farm frozen soil so this guy bought and renovated a new rental house each winter, so I helped. Now I learned some new skills and made a wage. Maybe I was in the right place at the right time, or maybe I was looking for the opportunity in the chaos........

Spring came, weather warmed up enough to paint the outside of the house. I'm on a ladder and far from done with the exterior paint job. A lady shows up, goes inside, looks around and leaves. Later I asked the boss "how did it go", he says "we rented the house".......... But I'm not even done painting the house I thought to myself!! Hmmmmm...

Pieces were starting to come together for me, only because I was curious and observant. NOTE: So that is what a strong rental market looks like.

I spent 10 months on average of about 4 hours a day educating myself with everything I could get my hands on related to real estate, books, tv, news, online, driving around etc etc.

I made a decision - I was going to do this.......... PERIOD

So a bank statement came, it told me I had 36 cents in the account. That was it - no savings, no full time employment, living at home................

I started looking at houses with an agent in town. I had told him I was looking to buy rental property. I just said I had all of 36 cents so how was that going to work???? I didn't care, I had decided this was what I was going to do, so I would figure it out. After all, I had just spent hundreds of hours learning about "how" to get started with nothing. See, its not just a question that you can ask someone, "how to I get started"? There is a lot to know to get anything done. But nothing will ever get done if you never start. It's not get rich quick, it's not easy - or everyone would be doing it, it's hard, it's a commitment (to yourself and your future) and it can be plain hard and frustrating.

So what happened??? Well the agent knew someone moving out of state and they needed someone to manage their house way out in the country since they were going to rent it out. I called them up and we talked about it. I knew what I should charge because I just did all this research and knew what management companies charge to manage rentals. We made an agreement and now I was a property manager!!

Hey, it's a start right.

It was several months later (June 2011) before I ended up buying my first property using a lease option and borrowed money from a cousin. Needed $5,000 down. NONE of my own money, not a dime. I guess they call this no money down eh........... Now I have a tri-plex that makes $1,200/mo and a payment of $650 (notice a relationship, 50% rule). Why buy a tri-plex for my first deal???? Because, if one unit is empty I can still make the payment. I only had 36 cents not long ago remember......