All Forum Posts by: Jared Benson

I'd like to meet some BPers as well! Saturday mornings are almost always good for me. But i'm pretty flexible during the week as well.

You should be able to use the county appraisal website or the MLS if you have it. There may be a better way but I'm not sure. And no, 5 miles is WAY too far unless you are in the boonies. Don't jump over major streets or highways and you'll at least be on the right track. The closer your comps are to your "subject" property the more accurate they will be and the more confidence you investors will have. You COULD use one 5 miles away but any half decent investor will look at it and call BS.

In my market we're operating at 80%. So the 70% is great but when the market is hot you have to know what everyone else is doing. The formula stays the same but the numbers you use need to be adjusted depending on what is going on. You want to maximize profits but your deals need to be as good or better than the other wholesalers in your area.

Look at houses that have SOLD in the same neighborhood if possible. Try not to cross any major streets and definitely not highways. Look back 6 months for houses with a comparable room/bathroom/garage number and close to the same square footage +/- 10% is a good idea but not a solid rule.

Generally, people use CoC for single family units and cap rate for multi family buildings(5+ units). Obviously everyone is a little different and could choose to focus on different things. The reason for this is based on how a property is valued. SF units are valued at the market value which will essentially be the same for every house in that neighborhood that has the same specs. Multi family, or commercial, properties are valued based on their income. So if you increase income, you increase value...it doesn't matter if you raise rents on a SF unit, you can't make the house worth more. There are other things to consider in SF units(equity pay down, equity capture, appreciation, depreciation) but most people focus on cash flow relative to their cash out of pocket(CoC). It just makes the most sense. With the ability to greatly increase the value of a commercial property(sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars) cash flow is not the end all be all. Hope that helps!!

Marcus Johnson r, you would use the same formula because you have to have your end buyer in mind. But I would also venture a guess that the smaller the deal the smaller your fee will most likely be...but it also depends on the specific circumstances of the seller.

Were your engineers able to enter the property and take actual elevations? That's really the only way to actually know if there are issues...it's pretty uncommon to see major(scary looking) stuff and NOT have a problem. On the flip side, it is much more common to not see anything yet still have a costly problem. That's at least true for anyone in north/central texas.

I don't know of anyone in Bryan/college station. Sorry, olshan does good work but will be THE most expensive company you come across.

a hydrostatic pressure test to should reveal any leaks in your sewer lines. those generally cost around $200(in DFW at least). and you are correct, a normal water bill would indicate you don't have a fresh water leak...

I would call a plumbing company that specializes in slab leaks and have them perform the test. residential service companies will more than likely do it as well but their guy might not be very experienced and for this type of test it is very important that the actual plumber doing the test knows what he is doing...they are basically using a balloon and bicycle pump haha. So user error is a major problem when they don't do the test often.

I work for a foundation/plumbing repair company in the DFW area so feel free to ask any more questions you may have.

You should be able to go to those city's websites and they might have a whole page dedicated to legal/illegal signage. At least Arlington does...that's where I am. And it's illegal for the most part.