All Forum Posts by: Josh Bondesen

@Megan Phillips that’s very interesting.  Ours was a foreclosure and flip, so we had a very different experience. 

I’m not sure why. 

How long ago was that for you? Ours was 2017-2018 so very recent, maybe things have changed?

@Shane Brown yes local VT bank.  

For ours they did an appraisal for ARV based on our scope of work and budget. Then did final appraisal to verify once all work was completed.

We used Northfield Savings Bank for ours.  They financed 80% of both the property and rehab budget.  You could try them.  Typically local banks like that are more receptive to things like this.

Similar deal - partnered with my in-laws, we did most of the work and were not required to hire a GC.  We just had to submit receipts/invoices to get the rehab money from the bank.  (side note - we gained a ton of travel miles by putting it all on credit cards and then paying card off with bank reimbursement).  

thanks @Paul Haviland!  We expect to get a lot of hard-earned education from our first project! And it feels good to be taking action. My thought with it all: worst case if we fail, I'm looking at working for someone else until I'm 70 or dead - which is the current path I'm on anyway. 

Thanks @Blair Knowles!  While I am open to that idea, Autumn is not (at this time anyway 😀).

And we have a 3br 2.5 ba home in St Albans town that we love.  Our girls are young so for now it's enough bathrooms (5, 3, and 6mo old). In 8 years we'll see . . . Haha

Also we are thinking of starting with a flip for a few reasons: I want to do manual labor, we are fairly handy and think we can save some on the rehab by doing it ourselves, my in-laws want to partner on a flip (and have $$ to contribute) but not on rentals, my in-laws are also handy, and a few more reasons. But we are very open to any opinions and critiques of our plan from y'all here who know a lot more than we do! 😀

Thanks @Jasmine Wilborne! I look forward to seeing you successfully create your own future too! 

Thanks for the tip Daniel Hyman ! And thanks for the welcome Katherine Rossell ! We will try and post about our process as it goes along. Right now we are in process of getting a HELOC to get some more cash for a down payment and for the rehab. And of course searching for a property! 😀

Good luck Krystina! I'm definitely interesting in seeing how you do in VT. Says your a shop owner as well? Thanks Jacob. I think I will take it up on that 😬

Hi BiggerPockets!  

Josh and Autumn Bondesen here from Vermont.  We are working parents of 3 beautiful girls looking to get out of the 9-5 rat race (especially me -Josh).

Been interested in REI for years, ever since my landlord in college told me how I was paying her mortgage by renting out half her house, and how her other handful of rentals paid all her bills and allowed to do whatever she wanted - which was live half the year in France, and half in upstate NY.

Now we are finally getting serious.  Current plan is to flip a house or two with partners (in-laws) and use that cash to buy rentals to generate cash flow.  

We look forward to meeting y'all, and would love to hear from anyone in Vermont!