All Forum Posts by: Hugh Ayles

@Kevin Wyn

The Big Live Event is worth attending if you are brand new to real estate investing.  My wife and I went to one in Austin in June.  She is a Realtor and I have a lot of construction experience.  My takeaway was learning some new lingo, ways to market, and ways to get funding. 

The second day unfortunately seemed to be about building excitement to join their Big Dog Program.  There were a lot of teasers offered on Saturday.  The goal was to get you excited to sign up for their program so you can learn more about investing.

You will be asked to sign up for their guru plan called Big Dogs.  We did not sign up for it.

I did meet a private lender at the event and they funded our first flip.  Make sure you network if you attend.

The safest thing is use a higher amount for unknowns such as interest and points.

Then if the actual quote is less than what you budgeted, you pocket some savings.

If you are new to this business, it is best to not start with aggressive outlooks on estimates, carrying costs, etc.  You might leave a little money on the table but you will be protecting your profits much more than averaging things or taking the lowest guesstimates.

Question about this based on some assumptions.

Assume the house appraises at $69,000.

Assume you take Jay up on his offer for buying it for $40,000.

With over 20% equity $19k difference between $69k and $50k), couldn't you get a loan for $50k, pocket $10k, and pay Jay back his $40k?

One thing not mentioned yet: U factor and solar heat gain coefficient.

Make sure you know what local code requires.  You don't want to install the wrong windows and then find out you have to replace them.

Regarding poor soil conditions, construction depends on what is done locally.  

In TX I have seen slabs poured on void forms.  I don;t know if this is done in residential but I have seen it a lot on commercial.  You still have piers but you are not over-excavating a bunch of material under the slab.  It is still conventionally reinforced versus post tensioning.

I am rehabbing a house from the 1930s.  We pulled a permit for the renovations (we are not adding size) and we were required by the city to provide CO2/smoke detectors that are interconnected.

@Corey Thompson

Did you have a contract with them?I know you said you did nto sign their contract, but do you have one you use?

If they start work without a contract, the proposal they sent you becomes the default contract.

You need to take pictures of the work they have done.  Then you need to keep receipts of the cost to complete their work.

The big issue is did they complete $10k of work?  Did you tell them specifically which shingles to buy?  If you did, the fact that they bought something else is their problem.

Now comes the hard part: you can take them to small claims court. You may not recover any costs from them.

I'm ready to dive in and according to some of you guys, "ready to fail fast." How else am I going to learn and grow.

"Ready to fail fast" is a dangerous outlook.  This is a business.  In business, planning to fail is planning to lose money.

I'm sure you are not planning to lose money, but even having the thought of ready to fail fast means you most likely will lose money.

So how do you get started?  You mentioned your girlfriend's brother flips houses.  Can you work for him for awhile?

No one has real time pricing.  Cost estimating software generally leaves costs up to the users.  They may have a canned list of cost codes.  Too many variables go into pricing to rely on canned prices.

I use Planswift for takeoffs.  When I bought it a couple of years ago, it was significantly less than On Screen.

My estimates are very repetitive so I did not invest in their estimating software.  You might check out that side of Planswift.

When I was working for a commercial GC, we did tons of conceptual estimates, often for free for marketing purposes.  With my current business I get calls from architects looking for budgets for my trade.  It is cheap marketing for me to provide budgets.

That being said, residential seems to be a different animal altogether.  I don;t think residential companies have the staff that commercial companies have so "marketing budgets" are not as easy for them to perform.  Nothing to do with capability, just time available in the day.

I am also a business owner.  I don't have experience with 100+ units, but I have some insight into business.

You mention "Taking my eye off of Trash Valet isn't an option".  Bringing in a 100 unit apartment complex is adding a whole business unit.  I heard a great adage about business.  If you don't know a portion of your business, hire an employee who does.

I assume you will have a manager running your multifamily so you can focus on your primary business?  You are looking at taking on a lot of risk.  You need to be prepared to manage that risk.

@Billy Runyan

Can you provide any more info?

Is this for true remediation or just for light duty type of removal?

I think in many jurisdictions a permit may be required to remediate mold.