All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

Did you see this house in person? If so, good job. If not, go back to square one.

Since you have experience, you are likely falling into the trap of overthinking based on your lack of confidence with the financial projection part of the deal, but it's not as important as your knowledge.

You need to know the true value of the target, the potential ARV, and you already know the rehab costs. There isn't much more to it than that. Holding costs matter, process matters, but the asset and what you can get it for is what makes you money in the end, especially since you should know the reno costs.

You don't buy single-family houses with math, that's for commercial properties and large-scale. When rates are high like this, the math doesn't math. You have to know the local area and market and understand the renovation and expectations of your end buyer and whether you can meet them.

You find someone like the person you want to shadow by going to real estate investor meetups for 3-6 months and building relationships. How many investor friends do you have in your life? You want several before you start on your first fix-and-flip.

Why do you think this is a good tactic, especially if you are new?

Foreclosure auctions, true ones, are all cash, no access (sight unseen other than photos), and still possible to get liens that were not disclosed.

Some of the auction sites like Hubzu and Xome have ghost bidders that push the prices up and relist over and over until they beat the price they want.

Whatever you are thinking, you are too green to think this way. How many real estate investors meetups have you been to in your life and how many real estate investor friends do you have? If zero or very few, do those things for a year before trying to make a quick purchase that you aren't ready for.

When you are able to lock up your first deal as a wholesaler, you have no track record or history of trust to sell so it's pretty hard to find buyers with no buyer list. Did you plan on wholesaling or are you wanting to wholesale because a deal fell in your lap? The best thing to do to get your feet wet is to connect with some local wholesalers and home buyers in the area and have a "reputable" one help you close your first deal and share the spread.

It's a nice thought, but thinking about flipping or building new in markets you have no connection to when rates are so high is likely to be fool's gold. How many homes have you renovated or built? If none, going into a market that you don't live in because the metrics look good on a Top 10 list isn't the best plan.

Find some local real estate investor meetups and go to those for six months without missing and make some connections and you might find out you can do more locally than you expected, before going out-of-state and hoping those relationships are valid.

First photo should have been straight on, not from the side since the driveway is so wet and it's hard to tell if it rained or if that is runoff from the house.

Virtual staging is the worst and should never be used. Most buyers don't notice that it's virtual (even when the next photo is with it blank) and then their first thought when they arrive is disappointment.

The walls in the dining area are a mess. There are nail holes everywhere. Should have patched.

Having a random shelf on a wall in a room with nothing else in it looks ridiculous.

Photo from the living room to the stairs is completely blurry and there is a ton of marks on the walls again.

Stairs need a handrail prior to closing.

Floors in the main living room are super dirty and this is where the virtual staging hurts because that pic looks good and in person it will not look good. Same with the bedroom pic.

In general though, the angles of the photos are good and professional. I just would not have used virtual staging as you are selling to an investor first and then a homeowner who thinks they can do a rehab second and the virtual looks too good, making the in-person viewing look like way too much work for a buyer.

It's illegal to show the buyer's agent commission anywhere on a public site. It's likely that you saw it in the listing description, which is a violation by the agent and something that should have been caught by the AI on Redfin.

It sounds like a win, but only from what you said. Have you done renovations before? Buying a property next door to yours is always a win if the numbers work, especially with that extra lot. You save on travel time, ease of access, etc.

1. Get your finances set. Know how much cash you have on-hand and how much you want to spend. Get pre-approved for a mortgage so you know what you can spend and what you want to spend, and boil that down to a monthly payment versus expected rent. It's hard to cash flow in a lot of markets so new investors often get duped.

2. Go to as many real estate investing meetups in your area as possible and ask good questions about other people's businesses doing what you want to do.

3. Listen to podcasts and read books, but pair that with the above networking to really take off.

4. Figure out your why. Why do you want to invest in single-family rental units? Cash flow, long-term appreciation, generational wealth for kids, diversification, etc.

Is there are real estate investing club at App State? If not, start one. Have you checked for REI meetups in your area that you can attend? If you show up at those for six months, your mentor will appear. You sound like you have the right attitude and are focused, especially with your sports/teamwork background, so you will be able to find people, but you want to nurture relationships first to make sure they are who you think they are.