All Forum Posts by: James Vermillion

I would not focus on a website right away unless you have a good plan to use it. To make a good website you will probably spend some money, or at a minimum a lot of time. If you have a great idea for a website that will help your business then go for it, but if you just feel like you should have one, I would wait and focus on developing your business.

"You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance." – Lee Iacocca

"In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later." – Harold Geneen

"I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big." – Donald Trump

"Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work." – Robert Orben

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer." – Nolan Bushnell

The main reason was scope of work. We did not have enough work for me to hire a GC. Also, when we looking at the idea of a GC, we found that in general, we could spend less money and have more control over the rehab if we sub-contracted it out ourselves. If we were doing a more complex, more time consuming rehab, we would look more closely at a General Contractor. Finally, I think it is more difficult to find a great GC, where it is not so difficult to find specialists. Hopefully that answered your question better.

Sharad, as with so many questions I would say it depends. If you know a good GC and can verify their quality of work, reliability, and cost that would make it much easier for you, however, we found during our first flip that subbing the work out ourselves made more sense. Luckily for us we did not have to sub out a lot, as the primary contractor did the bulk of the work.

I would say it also depends on how much rehab there is on the property.

THUNDER!

Lets see if they can hold dirk under 40 tonight...that man is a machine!

Josh,

I would be interested if you are interested in the vantage point of someone who has not been in the business for very long and has another primary job. I just finished up and sold my first rehab, which was a huge success. I have just started renovation on #2 and have #3 under contract. My plan calls for me to flip 4 houses in 2011 and acquire 2 rental properties, although I am hoping to surpass my original goals.

Let me know if I bring anything to table with what you are trying to do.

James

Reading and studying is very important to becoming successful, but it is one of many steps you have to take to become successful. I have found out pretty quickly that in this business who you know and how you interact with people is very important. If I were you I would take the advise several others have given (and continue to read the forums and learn from others) while acting (attending real estate investment club/association meeting, driving neighborhoods, studying your market, marketing your business, etc).

The good thing is even if you raise rents to closer to market value they tenants may opt to stay once they realize it is unlikely that they will be able to find anything better for cheaper. The markets will be working in your favor on this one. Most people do not want to go through the hassle of moving unless they are getting a much better deal.

That is a good question and I think it would be impossible to do. With any group of people you are going to have people who choose to do things the wrong way. Luckily, BP does not have a lot of people like that, in fact it is impressive how few. I was just trying to help the people who post things like the examples I talked about and act surprised by the response. If only there was as way to pre-screen them!v

Anthony, I don't know if you do it on purpose or not, but it seems like every time you post, you create more questions. You should really think before you post, as you have very quickly lost any credibility you may have had.

Please give us some more information on how you plan to generate income with this property. What rehab do you intend to do? What will be the marketing strategy? How many rooms will you rent out? Who will manage the property? What will annual income and expenses be?

If you are truly considering using this property for income, you have already considered all of these things, so please share.