All Forum Posts by: James Robert

I have a contractor whom I met from a friend of a friend. He is a jack of all trades. This is the second house flip I hired him for. First one went about 30-45 days over what was expected. He is a one man show so I get it however he keeps picking up other jobs during my flips. I am torn on how to handle this, he is priced so well. He is only charging me 17k in labor for a whole house rehab. Not including bathrooms updates though. I pay my bathroom guy separate for those. Do I be firm and say look man I don't appreciate you picking up other jobs while I have holding costs on this or do I say no problem. The jobs he takes on for side gigs are like 2-3 day jobs but they take away from my flips. 

 If I bought a flip in st pete I would have to pay more tax this year to qualify for a conventional loan, or I buy something with 10-20% down on dcsr and just live in it and fix it up. Most lenders don't see my flips as income even though I have flipped 5 homes in 3 years. They only see my realtor income as income and thats my side hustle basically.. 

 Hey! Ill send you a message 

It depends what your personal income is.. Is your job paying good? Does it offer retirement? would leveraging and owning a ton of rentals stress you out? I wouldn't even spend the whole 600k on Real estate. I would be temped to angel invest in some start ups and maybe spend 200k on 2 high end short term rentals that also break even if you had to 12 month lease them. 

If it were me, im selling and accepting my loss and taking away knowledge of what not to buy. Condos. 

 Yes renting is probably the play for me. 6 months to a year. I already had my dad co sign on my primary in Cincinnati which I want to keep so i don't want to do that again. Dcsr loan could be a good play, that 20% down is a major kicker though

 I know about the bank statement loans and DCSR all that they require that 20% down and have the higher rate as you stated. I am a big believer of leveraging the 5% down strategy and moving into the property for 1-2 years. I would be less out of pocket eating my tax bill without write offs and getting into something with 5% down

I am a house flipper. Was a Realtor then switched to primarily house flipping because I am better at it and pays more for me personally. 26 year old (almost 27) single guy. I own a house in Hyde park Cincinnati which is prime area 3 bed 2 bath that I live in with my roommate. I want to move to St pete florida.. as the years go by I want to do this before I get too comfortable to move. I would be renting out my primary either LTR, MTR or STR. Don't know yet. I would be continuing to buy flips in Cincinnati and manage them remotely the eventually dabble in the florida market once I have been there a bit and know whats what.

With these house flips I take a lot of write offs so my income on paper is not enough to buy a house in St pete. After my current flip sells In around end of feb, mid march should have around 125k liquid cash after that sale. Should I just rent for a year (or 6 months) in St pete and see what areas I like and see how I like it in general or eat my tax bill for 2023, be able to show more income and try to buy something in st pete? Problem with this is I probably could not buy downtown where I want to live and meet new people. It would have to be not so close to downtown. 

Thanks!

 I ended up finding a flip deal yesterday and getting it under contract with hard money. The goal is to flip like 6 houses a year and keep one

 Its in Hyde Park right by the square on Linwood. You think it would do better than LTR? its a 3 bed 2 bath.