All Forum Posts by: J Scott

I've never heard of a bank that will negotiate directly on a property once that property has been turned over to a listing agent. So, unless you have an "in" with an asset manager, I'm guessing you won't have much luck negotiating outside of working with the listing agent.

As for financing, I'm not sure I understand the question. You don't need to finance with the same bank you're buying the property from, if that's what you're asking. The financing and the purchase are completely separate; one has nothing to do with the other.

Originally posted by Tay Gainey:

Are there any clubs in GA.?

Check out: http://www.gareia.org

Hassan,

I'm doing about a flip a month in the Atlanta area (Cobb County)...if you want a couple lender suggestions (banks that make rehab loans, not private money), just shoot me a PM...

Originally posted by Kyle Richter:

Is there any great advantage to opening a LLC vs. Sole Prop. other than protection form pesonal loses?

An LLC can be taxed as any type of entity you want, whereas a sole prop can only be taxed one way. This allows greater flexibility from a tax strategy perspective if you have the LLC in place for your business.

Andrew,

I'm in Cobb County...would be happy to chat about RE anytime...

J Scott

Originally posted by Jon Holdman:

Assuming a four way comission split, with a net of 1.5% to each person...

Just for reference (my wife is an agent for the purpose of handling our real estate investments), the typical agent will keep between 2.0% and 2.9% of their 3% commission, even after paying their broker.

Most major brokerages take 30% or less of the commission, and some take much less (my wife's brokerage, which has several thousand agents, only gets $40 per transaction).

Of course, there are desk fees, MLS fees, NAR fees, etc, but they can be pretty minimal as well if you're generating lots of transactions.

So, if you shop around, you can keep a good bit our your commission...

Originally posted by Colin Ralls:

Most if not all the REO contracts I've seen disallow assigning the contract to another person.

You can still do a double or simultaneous closing...your buyer buys from you at the same time (or at least same day) that you buy from the seller. Depending on how you do it, you may need to come to the table with the purchase money or you may be able to use the end-buyer's money for the purchase.

General rule of thumb I use on replumbing an entire house -- for a 1500 sq ft single family home with 10-12 fixtures (sinks, tubs, toilets, taps, dishwasher, etc), you can probably get it done for about $3500-4500 if you shop around.

It may be a little more or less, depending on location, contractor, accessibility of pipes, material used, etc. But that's a reasonable ballpark to assume for a typical single family using CPVC as a replacement.

I'll generally just have the utilities turned on in my name for the inspections, and then turned back off after the inspection (unless I'm going to close quickly, in which case I'll just leave them on). While doing this may piss off some listing agents/banks (sometimes they'll charge ridiculous fees to do it for you), I've yet to have a serious issue doing this.

Keep in mind that if you live in a cold climate, you might not want to turn on the water in the winter. Dewinterizing the house can cause problems -- especially if you don't go through with the purchase.

But, with electricity and gas, just turn them on in your name, and be prepared to apologize if the bank/agent makes an issue of it.

I have my full business plan on my blog if you're interested in seeing it and getting some ideas...in general, here are the things that you'll want to ensure that you include in your business plan:

- Overview of your business. Where will you operate, who will you be working with, will it be part-time or full-time, etc.
- Your business/investment strategy (will you focus on flipping, renting, wholesaling, bird-dogging, etc). Go into as much detail as possible.
- Property Criteria. How will you know if a property is one that you would/should buy? What are your criteria? This should include location, type, financial returns, etc.
- Financing. Where will you get money? Do your cash flow projections work the way they should? Will your plan work given your cash flow projections?
- Your team. Who will you surround yourself with to be successful? Do you have a lawyer, CPA, agent, lender, etc?

Depending on what you plan to do with your BP, you should focus on certain aspects more than others.

For example, if you'll use it to try to get money, focus on the business strategy and financing/cash-flow sections.

If it's your personal plan, focus on your property criteria (so that when you start looking, you have a very good blueprint for what to buy and what not to buy).