All Forum Posts by: Francis Rusnak

Everyone talks like fix n flipping is dangerous and you could lose your *** doing it.

Say I buy 70% below market value - repair costs. Ok, I screwed up and was 10% off on my ARV, another 10% off on my repair budget, and my holding cost doubled because I was slower than I thought I'd be. Even if all of that happens I'm borderline breaking even.

My question is, assuming you have a little bit of margin in your purchase price, how bad can it get? Sure, it would suck to hold onto a project for 8 months and not make anything, but when I hear 'risky' and 'dangerous' I think having your money chopped in half.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you have done a decent amount of due diligence and have enough reserves in the bank, then you're rarely going to be negative on flips and if so, nothing significant. 

A fair deal in a situation like this may be for the mentor to teach the new person about the industry/wholesaling and in return the mentee would give the vet the first option on their first few deals; probably enough to where the mentor thought they were valuable enough to take a few. 

How much commission the mentee got on those first few deals would depend on how much value, if any, they brought to the mentor during the time they showed them the ropes. 

I am in the middle of a JV currently as a new investor and am getting 50/50 for bringing financing to the table.

What would bring your value add as well as the fresh talents?

what are going rates PMs charge in that area? 

how hot is this market now for multi family? Can you find B-grade neighborhoods around here or just low C and D?

Looking at towns like Crown point, Hobart, Merrillville, lake station, portage, Griffith, highland and Hammond. 

My partner and I are interested in this area and would love to meet up with anyone who we could work with. I'll be in Chicago the next two days (Jan 9-10). 

Wondering how MLS works in Chicago area. Does it cover just chicago and suburbs, how far out does it go?

Can you work with a real estate agent licensed in Illinois to access properties in Northwest Indiana? 

Thoughts on using instruments like LegalZoom.com or LawDepot.com for these? 

I'm guessing Legal Zoom would be fine because you get phone consultations with actual lawyers before prepping your documents. Not sure about Law Depot; it's only $7.99 a month so I'm almost scared off because it's so cheap; but I went through a few sample documents and they seem to be state-specific. 

I have very conservative numbers, but I am also working with C-class neighborhoods and multi-unit properties. I generally use 10% across the board on each of Maintenance, CapX, Vacancy and Prop Management (5% for Maintenance if the property is newer). 

Then, I will do 2% across the board for Expense Increase, Income Increase and Property Value Increase. 

Would love to know what others use and for what type of neighborhoods. 

Look up your property on rent o meter or zilpy and see if it is listed there. Those would probably be the main two spots a prospective renter would check.

... so, would you like to share your trade secrets on getting higher than projected value : )

It's all individually dependent if these paid seminars are for you or not. What is the best way that you lean? 

Are you someone who can lock yourself in a room and consume copious amounts of knowledge from books? Do you soak up everything you watch on YouTube or listen on a podcast? Some people prefer classroom-style courses where they lock in and visually are presented with information person-to-person. 

I try to do all. And this weekend I'm paying ~150 for a three-day seminar. I'm sure I can learn all of the same information from books/podcasts, but any way I can drill all of this information in my head in a diversified way, I figure it has a better chance of sticking.