All Forum Posts by: Kyle B.

J Scott, thanks for the reponse. This is great info! The water seepage issue and foundation issue are actually two different homes - I must not have made that clear in my post. Nonethless, the info you gave will help me out.

Thanks again.

I have questions for two different homes I have seen and am hoping to get some advice from the BP community. I apologize for the long post in advance.

My first question is regarding water seepage in the basement of the first home. The home currently does not have gutters, so I was told installing these would more likely than not fix the problem, but worst case scenario is that I would have to install an interior drain tile which I was given a rough estimate of around $3-$5k. In a case like this, should my offer price simply incorporate this projected expense or is there a better way to determine whether or not a drain tile is necessary before making an offer? Up to this point, I'm getting my information from a plumber who verified no leaks in the current piping, and that adding gutters would probably fix things - but there was no way to know for sure until installing the gutters and seeing what happens after a heavy rain.

Second questions is regarding a foundation issue for a ranch style house. In the basement, the foundation has a crack along several of the walls, where it is bowed in slightly. For people who have dealt with this issue before, what were the costs associated with this fix? Obviously will depend on each situation, but just trying to get a ballpark figure.

Thanks!

Kyle

Anson Young, you're right, I think I jumped the gun with that comment. I just thought it was an interesting siutation for me given all the talk on BP about intense competition on MLS properties.

Going to continue searching throught MLS but also want to generate leads on my own - I think every rehabber would like to be in that situation.

Wanda Cardenas, if you are building a team around you for wholesaling, you need to think of the incentive for your team members. If you are just wholesaling, you have to ask yourself why a realtor would spend time looking up ARVs for you when they will not get the resale lisitng and also why a contractor would spend time bidding work for a property when you are not going to hire him in the end. Not saying it is impossible, but you just have to think from their perspective what they are getting out of it.

Best of luck!

Thought I would share an anecdote of a situation I just went through that coincides with everyone's sentiment that REO properties listed on the MLS are super competitive right now.

A home covered in mold was listed about a week ago. However, it was priced very realistically in a good area so I figured there would be a lot of investor interest. My realtor found out from the listing agent that prior to my bid, there had already been 14 others submitted. Knowing this, I ended up offering asking price as my numbers still worked at this price. So that offer was rejected, but the agent then mentioned that I was free to submit any higher offers. So I put in another bid about $2k over asking. The listing agent came back to me from this offer, saying that the bank is only considering the top three bids and my updated offer wasn't even "close to being in that neighborhood." Blunt way of putting things, but serves as a good example of how competitive the markets are.

Just listened to Danny Johnson's podcast yesterday, and that really reaffirmed for me the need to create my own marketing to get rid of all this competition. There are a few more MLS properties on my radar, so I might get lucky with one of them, but simply going off the MLS is not a sustainable business model. I need to get focused again on yellow letters and driving for dollars.

BPers, feel free to share other MLS stories like this - I'd be interested in hearing them!

Thanks to everyone for the responses. This is really good feedback.

Andy Mallos, thanks for the quick feedback. Very much appreciated.

I plan on consulting an expert for this question but also wanted to get opinions from BP members as well (who may be mold experts themselves). I saw a house that had significant mold damage on the main level caused by sitting water in the basement. I've estimated repairs that factor in the removal of the mold.

In situations like this, how can you tell that the drywall will be reusable once the mold is removed. I've talked it over with someone who has done mold remediation before, and he said that in most cases the dry wall is salvagable and would assume so in this instance as well, although he hasn't seen the home personally to confirm.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has been through this scenario before. Are there any signs to look for or do you just have rely on an experts opinion?

Kyle

Glad to see your excited to get started... interesting choice of metaphors for your forum title.

Mike Baker, welcome to the website. I'm also from Chicago and currently focusing on purchasing my first property to rehab in NW Indiana. Your profile says you have had a lot of success with direct mailings. I've used this method to, but have not had much luck finding good rehab properties from motivated sellers (I'm sending mailings to absentee owners with 40%+ equity) - so I've had to rely more so on MLS listings to this point. Most of the callbacks I get are from unmotivated landlords interested in hearing how much I'll offer for their property.

If you don't mind sharing, who are you targeting with your direct mailings and what area of Chicago are you investing?

Kyle