All Forum Posts by: Hattie Dizmond

The first book on your list should be J Scott's The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs.  He has great tools that come along with it to help calculate the costs.  

With that said, understand you don't have to find the same kind of deal for buy & hold investing as you do with flipping.  What you're talking about is referred to here as house hacking.  (I've been throwing out lots of plugs for Brandon lately!)  Brandon Turner is the king of BP house hacking.  Read his blogs and back story for more information.  

In the meantime, you need to determine and then write down exactly what your criteria is for the minimum outcome you will accept.  For instance, are you looking for a duplex you can get at a price that would allow the rent on one side to cover the mortgage payment for the entire property?  Or, more realistically, are you looking for that rent to simply offset a portion of your "rent"?  Until you know the answer to those types of questions, you're not going to know what numbers you need to hit on your analysis. 

I really recommend Google Voice.  It's free, allows you to set up customizable messages, will forward calls directly to any number or multiple numbers you choose.  The benefit of that is that the calls forwarded to my cell come through with my business name as the caller ID, so I immediately know what the call is regarding.  Also, voice mails are transcribed and sent to me via both email & text.  And, I get a full log of all the activity.  I'm a fan.

A lot of people want to flip houses Brad.  Did you read the name of the category you just posted this in?  It's called "Success Stories".  Wanting to do it and being successful at it is quite different.

So...you want to flip houses?  What's your plan to get there?  Do you have a plan or were you just planning to show up and announce that you want to do it?  Just sayin'

How are you as a sales person?  Real Estate Agents are great salesmen, expert marketers and phenomenal networkers...at least the really successful ones. Could you net out the numbers you asked about?  Theoretically you can. You said you're in GA. It's a decent sized state. If you're in a decent sized market, it's conceivable you could hit your goals. 

I have a slightly different approach I'll suggest. Why not get your license, while you're still employeed? Having a license will give you MLS access, which will be beneficial as an investor. You can be an agent part time. I have friends that do it. Build your base and contacts that way. You can still wholesale properties, unless GA laws restrict it as an agent, but you have the safety net of your job.

Congratulations!!  You sold this one to an owner occupant. Selling to an investor should be a little different for you, unless you're going the double escrow route, which should get you out of dealing with the title companies. 

Good job! Now the one piece of advice I have for you...

There should be no one you know who doesn't know what you're doing in RE...at least that you are looking to buy houses. You never know where your next deal will come from. 

Read Brandon Turner's story about finding his first apt building just because he was sharing about his business at church. 

Hey Colby! A big, "Thank you for your service," from me as well. I love all the men and women in uniform joining the REI adventure.

I'm happy to do whatever I can to help you here in DFW. It's a tough market, but there are opportunities, and it sounds like you're flexible about going into C neighborhoods. Feel free to PM me, email or just give me a call. All of my contact information here is accurate. 

@Nicholas Smith

I've had this experience a couple of times with local agents.  However, most agents are extremely responsive, since their income depends on it.  When I have run into those who aren't, I've found a brief call to their broker generally produces incredible results, since brokers make their money from the sales of their agents.  It's a wonderful motivation!  ;-)

A couple of good answers, including making your lease term equate to what you need it to be.  I will say, being in Minnesota, you have a different reality in the winter.  Here in Dallas it doesn't really slow things down much, unless it's a family home, where people may not want to move, during the school year.

With all that said, there is a reason you have a vacancy factor included in the holding cost of your rental.  Hopefully, if you have high-quality units, you will have a tenant lined up to move in, as soon as the unit is available.  However, you'll still need 1 to 2 weeks to clean and make any necessary repairs, assuming you've been diligent about regularly inspecting the place, you will know if there is anything major.  At that point, tenant A moves out on the 30th, you have tenant B ready to move in on the 15th.  They are only paying prorated rent for the partial month, but their lease still starts that month.  Just let it run 12 months from the beginning of the month.

You aren't giving us 2 very important pieces of information...ARV & what your exit strategy is.

Without that information it's tough to give you an objective opinion on the deal.  However, I would note, you mention you feel this deal is more cost effective than buying a vacant lot and building.  However, have you considered a scrape-off and rebuild on this lot?

It's a big area, and there's significant players in the market.  So, you are definitely better off concentrating on a "farm" area.  But area...where...is only one part of the equation.  Equally important is WHO you are marketing to.  Your list within the area is your Rosetta Stone.

This is what I would do...find a reasonably sized area that represents the...

• median sales price for the Atlanta market
• median income level
• shows growth...people are moving in
• has good to great schools
• not a new development

After I've found my farm area, I'm going to market to the folks most likely to be in a position to sell below market...meaning they need to have at least 30% equity in the property to even have a hope of hitting the 70% rule on the exit.  Since I also have to account for rehab, I'm probably going to want at least 40%.  This isn't a sure thing, because people could have a reverse or a 2nd, or any number of liens, but I look for deeds that have a last transfer date more than 12-years ago.  That's my first cut...an equity list.

Afterward, you have so choices to make.  We've decided to not go heavy on the absentee owners, because they've been done to death and are probably receiving 10 letters per week.  There are other things you can filter on, like over 55, other exemptions, etc.  You can even combine lists and filter for equity properties with code violations.

Anyway...those are some ideas...hope it helps.