All Forum Posts by: Jason Fraser

One of my goals this year is to do my first rehab. I want to be prepared ahead of time with some of my planning (i.e. establishing relationship with contractors and realtors etc).

Are far as the financial aspects of doing a rehab what line items should i account for ahead of time as well how much of a reserve should i have in place before doing a rehab.

Thanks in advance.

And yes i do plan to buy and read the J. Scott rehab book.

keep in mind the 2% rule doesn't work in every market. If it did in Utah, I'm guessing it's a really rural part of the state or the rare exception in Salt Lake County.

thanks everyone for your advice and for responding to my post.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to determine if an area is a good rental neighborhood?

The questions comes from a house I recently looked at. Great condition, nice inside, recently remodeled kitchen. Neighborhood is great as well. It's a FSBO.

The thing I'm looking at is other homes to determine rent rates as well as competition.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Here's a few ideas that may help you get on the way to wholesaling

Keep in mind, there is a cost to do wholesaling, mostly marketing cost. The good news is there is multiple ways to market at variable costs.

Networking (technically free) but you want to have business cards to hand out (vista print 250 for $10 plus shipping).

Is there a local REIA that is accessible by bus? If so, attend! Identify who buys what and where and at how much. Build relationships. If there isn't a REIA meeting that is accessible by bus, is there a family member, friend, co worker who would be willing to give you a ride to a meeting once a month (maybe they may learn something as well). Or you can barter, if you take me to the real estate meeting once a month, I'll baby sit your child for 2 hours for free once a month...whatever is applicable.

Once you have found who the key buyers are and have built the relationship ar , why not offer to bird dog first and build up the reserves you need to get your wholesaling off the ground. Plus if your bringing leads that turn into deals for an experienced investor who you have a relationship with, they can mentor you along the way. They're making money and you're getting an education that will help you make money.

If transportation is an issue, if you have a phone with unlimited minutes, you can always call for rents and for sale by owner ads on Craigslist, other online classifieds, local newspaper, penny saver etc. You just call and see if they are interested in selling. If they say yes, gather the key information and pass the info to the investor you have a relationship with. If they close the deal, you get a bird dog fee (usually $500). Do this 4 -5 times and you have $2000 - $2500 and more education to market and start putting deals under contract for bigger profits.

Hope this helps.

PS I purposely said "investor who you have a relationship with" several times on purpose. If ism going to pass over a lead to someone else, I at least want to make sure its to someone who i trust will keep their word and pay me a fee when they get paid from the deal.

a few good resources

1. Your local REIA. Who better to get information than the people who actual invest in your market.

2. A realtor

3. State and Local economic development websites. Great source of information on things like population growth, in coming employers, how certain industries are doing.

4. I also like looking at trulia's heat maps. It's a great visual resource for things such area sales popularity, median sales and more.

Doug thanks for the suggestion. It's greatly appreciated.

does anyone have any recommendations for books on master lease options?

Thanks

here is a BP blog post on why one investor prefers SFRs over multi family that was recently published.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/03/30/why-i-invest-in-single-family-over-multifamily/

Here is one on pros vs cons of SFRs

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/10/21/pros-cons-single-family-rental-properties/

Here is one on multi family vs SFRs

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/07/03/multiplexes-vs-single-family/

thanks everyone for the feedback.

@Ty Burns I'm looking at a duplex for buy and hold.