All Forum Posts by: Gorden Lopes

@Charles Hirst

Welcome to BP! I am a OOS investor with few cash flowing properties in huntsville! I really love Huntsville as a market and being local will definitely be of great advantage! The huntsville/madison REIA is really very active and you can start by attending those!

BP has been a complete game changer for newbies like us. I have learned a ton by just reading the blog posts and podcasts! 

@Lan Nguyen

I managed it OOS. Asking my contractor to take pictures and videos. I had to follow up few times before I got the pictures; it is just that contractors are not used to working with remote investors! :)

@Sherry Pruitt

Congrats on getting started on your real estate journey! You will get more hits if you can provide some more details like

1. Small (2-4) or Commercial?

2. How are you planning to finance it? Usually, sellers and brokers will prefer all-cash.

All the best!

@Chris Marte

After deciding on the market, I just went on to Huntsville forum and read through all the posts and got tons of info on the zip codes, PM companies, and other investors. Messaged them and then had a call with some. Got referrals on realtor and just started the ball rolling.

@Lan Nguyen

All the best!! Feel free to message me if you need it to be vetted.

@Andrey Keller

Yes, @Jason Grey! A complete rockstar! Totally owe him for getting me this one!

@Fletcher Hardy

It has been a long journey. I guess you just have to give time to build relationships and trusts. I think initially its hard to give value to others but you just have to think of ways you can give value to other folks and thats how I tried networking! 

How did I find huntsville Al? 

Couple of years back, I had short listed Birmingham, Huntsville and Indianapolis based on talking to few turnkey providers. And as @Brandon Turner recommended that you talk about real eastate investing goals with your friends, I kept talking about how I am looking for a investment property and one of my friends cousin brother lived in Huntsville! I spoke to him and he spoke highly of the city! And thats how I ended up deciding on Huntsville! 

BiggerPockets is amazin, I have just tried to do things that has been recommended in BP podcasts and it has created wonders!

@Bastian Kneuse

The floor of the house looked in ok shape and there were some spots that the contractor told that he can clean it up. But when the rehab was done, I still saw the spots. The contractor mentioned that he tried but could not remove it. I had to then ask him to replace the floors and that added to the delay as well. In retrospect, I should have estimated for flooring as well.

The other basic but important thing is to always take quotes from multiple contractors just to make sure you are not being taken for a ride. I am still learning rule of thumb for calculating rehab cost and having multiple quotes helps. 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Huntsville.

Purchase price: $83,300
Cash invested: $17,000

This was my first BRRR and I used all the strategies that BP has suggested.Started up by opening a HELOC on my primary to have 100K of cash at hand. Got this 4Bed/2bath off market property through one of my realtor. The seller got this through probate and wanted to sell this quickly. Mostly bathroom upgrades, floor, kitchen upgraded and upgrading electrical panel. Estimated ARV at around 140K. Started the offer at 75K all cash. Went back and forth for sometime and closed at 83,300.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Off market property with cosmetic rehab and great location.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Got this deal through one of my realtor and it had a estimated rehab of 17k and I wanted to keep my out of pocket cash within the 1% rule. The house would be rented for 1100 so had to keep my total out of pocket to 110K.
I kept 10K as buffer, so wanted to keep everything within 100K; so started with 75K and

How did you finance this deal?

Did a all cash offer. I used cash from my HELOC account that I opened on my primary residence.

How did you add value to the deal?

By upgrading the bathrooms and kitchen.

What was the outcome?

My contractor rehabbed the property for 17k.Went to the local lender for cash out refinance and it got appraised for 145K! Woo hoo! Got it rented in couple of months for 1100 per month. Took most of my cash out.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Rehab time went a little longer. I thought the rehab will be done within a month but it took close to 2.5 months.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

@Jason Grey, you are a rockstar!

Cannot thank him enough for getting me this deal!

@Andrew Smith

I have been personally investing in Huntsville Al with good success! Got a quad under contract will share the numbers soon on my profile!

Huntsville has some good things going on!