All Forum Posts by: Marc Freislinger

I love the desert!

I bought my first duplex at 18 or 19, without ever having met the owner. In fact, I very rarely meet the seller on any deal. I know it will vary depending on how you find properties, but I think most business these days is transacted via email and phone calls. 

I've continued to look young as the years passed, but besides the constant comments about it, it doesn't seem to hurt anything. Be confident in yourself, and be knowledgeable about what you're doing, and people will respond positively. 

This blows my mind. People pay this? When I worked apartments we paid $.25 per sf of painted space. I currently pay less than $1/sf of the home floor space. That includes caulk and prep, and painting all ceilings, doors, and trim. I have to buy materials, but it still generally works out to less than $1.50 per sf of the floor. 

Those bids do sound very high. I have found contractors have huge ranges, with painting having some of the largest spreads I've seen. 

My advice is pretty basic, but get more bids!

Those sites price estimates are not accurate, but any sold data that they collect should be. While working with an agent will obviously get you the best and most current information, I understand that most people will want to do some due diligence on their own before sending an agent every single property they come across to comp.

It is possible to do your own comps on zillow or trulia by looking at the actual sold data if you're careful to make sure you're comparing apples to apples. Sometimes those sites throw a rather wide net.

> How do you mitigate the conflict of interest between being an Investor AND a Broker?

Disclosure and agency. You have to disclose that you are an agent. You can then explain the different types of agency. You inform them, and have them sign an agency agreement, stating the type of relationship you have. Either you're representing them as an agent (and therefore are going to sell their home at the best price possible), or you're not representing them and will be negotiating terms for yourself. 

> On one hand you try and sell at market value, the other you're trying to buy from said person below market value. Where is the moral line?

The moral line is really up to you to decide. The legal line is whether or not a court will decide you were taking advantage of your knowledge and skills to defraud another. 

> What disclosure laws are there?

As far as I know, every state has laws requiring that you identify yourself as an agent in your mailings. Most probably also have the same requirements regarding displaying broker info, HUD, and Equal Opportunity issues.

> Do you ever run into an issue when doing your marketing mailers where the recipient thinks you want to list their house even though you clearly state you don't? If you're contacted as a Broker from your mailers, do you have certain obligations?

Yes, actually most of the people I talk to from mailers have thought I was trying to list their homes, even when there was no agency information on the mailer. "Are you an agent?" tends to be one of the first questions I get in almost every call. Your obligations are to disclose that you're an agent and then to discuss agency properly. Depending on how safe you want to play it, you may also want to advise them, in writing, to seek their own agent or counsel. 

Not sure there's enough information here to tell.

The cap seems okay, but not great. How's the area? Will it appreciate? How about tenants? Is it an area that will demand quality, long term, tenants? Or will you be evicting people every month?

Home inspectors can be very helpful for flippers for these reasons and more. They will probably catch things you didn't. Some of those items might be major and require re-negotiation (which you now how evidence to support). If they aren't major, you at least know what will need to be fixed before your end buyer does their inspection.

If you're using the same inspector more than once, they'll likely discount their rate. They are used to working with a buyer once. My inspector is great, and can often do half a dozen inspections for me a month. You can also lower your rate by limiting the scope of the inspection. For a retail buyer, they're looking at EVERYTHING. It can take hours. If you know that you're planning on replacing certain things, you can tell them to skip those items and make their life easier. 

Is that real brick or fake? Looks like fake brick, given that it is on the cabinets as well. Is it a supporting wall? What's on the other side of the wall in that corner?

I've been part of some pretty large flip projects. Several with remodel costs in the 6 figures. We've taken homes pretty much down to a wall or two and rebuilt them with an extra 1000sf. The single most expensive item, though, would be having a pool installed. They run between 20-25k. We have also done a set of 5 large (25-30ft) trees that had to be craned into place over the million dollar home we were working on. It's been a while, so I'm not completely sure, but the total on that came between 11k and 14k.

Pool:

Trees: