All Forum Posts by: Julia Rockwell

Thank you! I'd love to flip but I know better than to take that on as my first property from what I've read because I cannot commit that amount of time. My aim is to house hack/be a landlord/rent a room on AirBnB to eliminate/lower my current rent of $1300 and also have long term appreciation. Ideally I'd like a multifamily property/SFH with an in law suite. My thought process was because it is very difficult to find a multifamily in the area I want to live in (since I would have to use a FHA loan), if I could catch a home before it's finished perhaps a flipper could finish it in a way that flows well for having roommates. Most of the SFHs are also not close enough to downtown for me to reliably consistently get roommates and there are a lot of new apartment complexes being built so I have studio apartments to compete with. 3 bathrooms are also very rare, so if I was able to find something before it was finished and I had the option to allocate funds towards a 3rd bathroom as opposed to a deck or something, that would be ideal. Recent flips in rougher areas actively being gentrified are going for 300s-400s. Typically this wouldn't make sense and I;d be better off investing in a different city but since I need to live in the area for at least 5 years I wanted to buy.

Is there any way to convince a flipper that I won’t be a pain in the *** and he should pre-sale a property to me? 

Well this just happened, I drove to a home listed at 229k and the next day it was under contract. The realtor who was there when I was poking around said a flipper bought it and I gave her my contact information and asked to be the first person they called. She mentioned he might be able to work with me, all i was planning on doing was converting the basement into an additional bedroom to rent it out. Thank you all for your help, I think I handled this properly. Also, I don’t think I would be picky since I don’t have the  time to be, but maybe all buyers say that haha

Thank you for the feedback! I like the suggestion of being the first buyer to call, I’ll probably start saying that if I happen to see something close to being finished. 

Yes, buying at list price is what I'd be aiming to do. At this point I'm a little frustrated at how quickly things are moving and since I'm planning on house hacking/going for appreciation, I want it to be a neighborhood I'd enjoy living in and a home that looks nice. Driving around, if I see a location of interest I was going to call the investor to see what they we're planning on listing it at. I don't want to bother anyone though and I'm not sure of the etiquette but since there are so many flips around here I figured maybe they would know Of other homes that haven't hit the market yet. My aim is to reduce competition and have a better understand of what is coming to the market. Also, why would a flipper have a for sale sign in front of a home if it isn't for sale? I called 2 different numbers and both weren't to third party people that seemed unaware there was a sign in front of the property and couldn't find it on MLS

Hi! I have been driving around and noting a lot of FISBOs and new construction. I've called a few of the unlisted new construction I've seen and spoken with one company that flips homes. I'm not a flipper but I would appreciate their perspective. Would it be of interest to you to flip a home with someone who has already agreed to purchase it at a set price? Would you be willing to work with someone who purchases a pre-sale and explain to them how you're flipping it and how the process works?

I think for my first purchase, renovating something and doing a BRRRR is maybe more than I am willing to take on, especially since I have spent most of my time researching being a landlord and not construction. I'm behind the ball since I wanted to purchase a home by now to rent the rooms out.

Are there risks to purchasing a pre-sale from a flipper? Should I go off of local reputation? I'm a little nervous of getting a new flip not on MLS since maybe there's things they could be hiding and it's like putting lipstick on a pig, but at the same time I have seen some remodels that are stunning and it's clear there is an emphasis on craftsmanship.

Please advise on shopping for an off-market uncompleted flip. Thank you :)

Hi! I'm in Durham and looking to get into my first investment property. I've been watching the market for a while now and have attended some of the town hall meetings about upcoming zoning changes. I really wanted multi family, but that probably won't happen, so I'm looking into SFH as well. Do you have any experience with flipping SFH into duplexes? Perhaps @Timothy McKinney would be able to shed some light on this? I’m on the East side now and if I can find a multi family plan on living in one of the units and then managing the property myself. The city council is quite liberal and I love the idea of modular multi families on  vacant lots, not all lots are cost prohibitive. I can potentially invest depending on the deal, or be a buyer as well.

Follow up, in case anyone in the future reads this, I was actually able to hear from Kristen Dirksen (awesome YouTuber/blogger) who directly answered some of my more in depth questions not posted here. To paraphrase, she essentially said:

“To answer your question (and it's a good one), I think prefab is still more complicated for one-off building than most people realize. From the people I've spoken with, it can make sense if you are putting in 100 units (like in the Palm Springs trailer park), but when it's just one build, it often doesn't make economic sense. Though there are those who choose prefab for aesthetics and ease (such as the Sonoma weeHouse videos who stated they didn't have to "babysit" the build)....

So, my follow up question to anyone that happens to see this is, does anyone have experience with pocket communities/micro hotels/tiny home land shares?

I went Tuesday so if you have any questions feel free to ask, although the Durham City Council has always responded to me within a day.

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone has any experience/opinions on pre-assembled homes? They fall under quite a few different names, whether it's modular, prefabricated, prebuilt, factory built etc but from my understanding they are all relatively synonyms for one another (I could be mistaken). I've been interested in them for a while but never thought they were all that feasible until there were proposed changes to my local ordinances that seem favorable. 

Many of these companies are out on the West Coast (I'm in Durham, NC) so the shipping costs to get them to the east coast eat into what little profit margins there are. There's of course hidden fees like upgrades, price of the foundation, land, zoning challenges, connecting to sewer etc but I'm curious as to someone's actual numbers on their experience with one of these (modern or traditional). 

So many companies are out there (Honomobo, KitHaus, Kasita, ilo etc to name a few) and the modern designs are so beautiful. The resale value seems not so different from a stick built home, are these really more cost prohibitive than they initially seem?

I've read books on this, but there's little transparency on the cost of land, cost of labor etc. Would anyone be open to sharing an overview of their numbers?

If you had land, would you plop one of these down? Why or why not?

Am I wrong in thinking the price of land is the main obstacle to overcome?