All Forum Posts by: Jim Goebel

So some actual numbers here on my current project:

$1150 basically 'stolen' by the plumber with no follow up communication (he was the 50% culprit)

My framer and mason, got paid ahead $600 and then disappeared although I still feel fine about the value trade-off on that one.

I'd guess a total of about $2,000 to date in tools walking off the job-site.  Most recent was someone cut the large gauge wire coils draped in basement.  Luckily the completed rough electrical work, nothing else appeared touched.  This was a full house remodel, completely down to the studs.

Project budget going in was $52,000 - I'm on pace to be closer to $65,000 and that's with me doing a lot of the work.

Of that, it looks like close to $4,000-5,000 will be attributable to disreputable contractors.

Oddly enough many of these folks have the gall to reach out later and ask for more work.  (The framer and mason did)

@Giovanni Montesclaros

Well,

I'd caution you #1.  Had a friend that did this in Indianapolis, and he bit off WAY more than he could chew.

I remember seeing lots of houses in the 2-8k range in Detroit.  I'm not sure how those would pencil out.

The better place to start in my opinion is to get into something a little 'safer' and get the experience taking on a couple projects.

That said, I'm an engineer and more naturally risk averse than some.

There's not many markets where 10k will get you anything but a liability / house that needs to get pushed into a hole.

@Bo Goebel

We pronounce it GABLE, how about you?

One note that I can't remember if I mentioned before - we currently work with an agent that is NOT an investor, or at least assures us that he's not.  I guess we buy that he's not a competitor - that may be something to keep in mind however it doesn't sound like you're going to be out working as an agent beyond for your own purposes.

@Igor Messano

Thanks for the clarification and yes I forgot to mention the possibility of unsecured debt.  We haven't been down that road.

Just wondering ...

I had a recent bad experience with a plumber that somehow convinced me that the 50% upfront and 50% at end was on the up and up.

@Byron Bailey

Do you understand what debt and equity are?

I'd recommend you dig into that, by doing some basic youtubing and googling.  From your question I doubt that you understand that (no offense).

Basically, you need collatoral generally speaking to get a loan, even a HELOC. That's basically the leverage your lender would have (ie: they take the house, car, etc) if stuff 'hit the fan' and you didn't make payments.

So, do you currently own? If you do, do you have equity in what you own? If you answered yes, then you may be able to get a LOC.

Keep your contractor AND look for someone new.

Always do this because... it's good to have options in business.

@Mark Montagna, Jr.

What do you currently do Mark?

Hard to see how to get started without ANY capital.  In terms of partnering etc there's probably experience and capital that people can bring to the table.  I'm sure you have some experience, and perhaps with a plan you can come up with some capital?

There's plenty of people around that figured out a way to come up with 'creative financing' of sorts so it sounds like that may be what you'll have to figure out.

However, personally I like owning my own stuff.  I also like working with other people but I'm a control freak and like to have complete decision authority - so it'd be hard for me to get into a quasi partner kind of arrangement.

I guess it's kind of hard to comment if we don't have more info......  Can you take a crack at that?

@Mark Montagna, Jr.

What do you currently do Mark?

Hard to see how to get started without ANY capital.  In terms of partnering etc there's probably experience and capital that people can bring to the table.  I'm sure you have some experience, and perhaps with a plan you can come up with some capital?

There's plenty of people around that figured out a way to come up with 'creative financing' of sorts so it sounds like that may be what you'll have to figure out.

However, personally I like owning my own stuff.  I also like working with other people but I'm a control freak and like to have complete decision authority - so it'd be hard for me to get into a quasi partner kind of arrangement.

I guess it's kind of hard to comment if we don't have more info......  Can you take a crack at that?

@Bo Goebel

Hi Bo and welcome.  I mainly am responding because I thought it was cool we have the same last name.  Likely no relation but I do have some family members in the military.  One of them is Bob and for a split second I thought, maybe that's Bob and he forgot the 'B'.

I don't have a ton of value to offer on your question however we have investigated getting the real estate license as you are discussing because we are primarily investors.  Anyways, time constraints have gotten in the way but I did get the feedback that it's feasible and depending on the broker there shouldn't be an issue.  They still get a cut of the buyers' commission that you'd have to negotiate with the broker.

Other people will know this better than me, but on your #1 question my understanding is that becoming a broker is like a lot of licensed things - you have to put in the time and get another broker to sign off on your time.

#2 - I would because you can save a lot on commissions over the years depending on the volume you're going to do - and I'd assume that your networking opportunities would be different (not better necessarily) with going the broker route.  I'd recommend talking to more people to understand the advantages and disadvantages of that.  For me personally I find more intrinsic satisfaction (at least currently) as being more involved in the projects in engineering etc.  My assumption would be you'd be rubbing shoulders with more agents as a broker.