All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Petrillo

Thanks Joe, best of luck with the project!

@Alon Helman, so you learned how to analyze a potentially crappy deal and listen to your gut and walk away with your wallet intact--that is priceless education and now you are much better positioned for analyzing the next one. Anyone can analyze an obvious home run, the tricky thing is distinguishing which ones you will regret and when not to jump in (which is really hard, at times my husband has had to talk me out of a property I wanted that I realized in retrospect could have gone badly!). Well done and best of luck with the next one.

Don't remove it, just paint over it.

KDP Septic based in Phillipsburg is excellent, they put in a complicated 50K system for us in East Amwell Township in the dead of winter this year (high water table on property so needed pump up leech field system, ground was frozen, they have all the heavy equipment needed for something like this). Kevin and Dave are personable, detail oriented and got the job done to everyone's satisfaction. Highly recommended. (908)213-1570. They do property development also so they are used to working with investors/developers.

I wouldn't buy west of the RR tracks in those towns.

Buy distressed for better profit margins. Our flips make 40-80K but more importantly ROIs 50-100%. We flip 3/2 SFRs with ARVs in high 200s/low 300s.

Yes, what I your exit strategy? Do you plan to resell it and is the lender aware of this? Usually cannot get traditional mortgages on properties you plan to hold less than two years. There may even be penalties for early exit. Speak with an actual mortgage broker, not just one lender, discuss your plan with them and they can shop around for the best loan for you. Or consider a HML if this will be a quick fix and flip. More expensive money but less paperwork than a trad mortgage. Where is your rehab budget coming from? Is this money you have saved up? You have holding period of 3 mos in your report but it typically takes 60 days to close on a house. Your holding period should be length of rehab time (the shortest we have done is 9 weeks), length of time on market (what is the average time on market in that neighborhood?) plus the two months to close after it goes under contract, so say 2 mo rehab, one month to show and get under contract, 60 days until closing, that is 5 months right there, assuming the rehab goes quickly and smoothly and the house goes under contract in a month. Getting stuck paying monthly loan payments while waiting for a house to sell is scary as hell. Do you have enough in reserves for this? Also, guess I'm not familiar with CA, but it blows my mind that people buy 1000sf 2/1s for half a million dollars!

Don't listen to realtors, most of them know nothing about rehabbing houses, flipping, investing, etc. They are salespeople. See the property with the GC who is going to be doing the work for you and an inspector (might be the best $400 you spend). Get a detailed scope of work drawn up by the GC, get your prices set before you buy this property. Things will go wrong, there will be cost overruns (how will you cover those?), and don't ever believe the realtor telling you it will sell for more than the comps. Not saying don't do it, just get a better handle on the numbers or you'll get into trouble.

We converted a house in Hampton NJ (Hunterdon County) from an electric heat pump to natural gas. Call the local gas company that services that area, they will tell you if the house falls in their service area or not. The gas company pays for the cost of running the natural gas line from the street to your home, the meter is attached to the house by them as well. You will pay for the furnace (I think ours cost 3 or 4K) and running the line from where the gas enters the house to the furnace. We used the existing ducts of course, just really swapped out the electric heat pump for the natural gas furnace. If you are getting rid of an oil tank, your local oil company can advise you. This is a permitted job and requires the oil to be removed from the tank, the tank to be cut in half and a state inspector to come out and see it and put a sticker on it before it can be hauled away.

Link for good starter pro forma for your project:

https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/729/sample-development-budget-and-operating-pro-forma-for-a-commercial-and/or-mixeduse-nsp-property/

Check out HCareers or Hospitality Online, more specialty than Indeed.

I am working on the same thing right now, but much smaller, a 26 room motel in upstate NY, vacant and distressed. There are many hotel mgmt. companies that will do everything from feasibility studies to on site management. Search 'hotel mgmt. companies.' Some are niche/luxury, some are for large flagged facilities. A quick search reveals The Valencia Group, VistaHost, Pillar and Dalwadi in the Houston area (those are just the top four that popped up).

I have most of my financing from a local bank but am looking for JV partners if you know anyone who might be interested.