All Forum Posts by: Kuba F.

Hi Everyone,

My name is Kuba and I'm the founder of REIkit.com online house flipping and wholesaling software based in Los Angeles.

I wanted to let the BiggerPockets community know about two tools that I built out that are free for anyone to use: the ARV Calculator and Comps Adjustment tool, that could save you thousands on your next investment.

If you've ever found yourself in a situation where you were looking for comps as part of your After Repair Value calculations, but everything that was coming back was just not the same as your subject property, you need this tool.

More bedrooms? Less Bathrooms? Pool? No pool? This all matters.

On my very first flip I did not account for the fact that all the comps had a garage, and my property did not.

That was an expensive mistake that shaved $15,000 off the profitability of my flip.

If I had just taken a few extra minutes to adjust the comps, I could have avoided it entirely, instead of finding out months later when it was time to sell.

It's exactly why I built out the free ARV Calculator and Comps Adjustment tool, so that others could avoid the same scenario.

Wouldn't you like to know if you're going to lose money, before you make the deal?

Click this link to analyze your property with the tool instantly:

https://tools.reikit.com/comps

Feel free to reach out to me here in the comments or on the site chat if you have any questions or suggestions.

Cheers!

Kuba

PS: Curious about our company? Thousands of real estate investors have used our software to evaluate over 90,000 deals and counting!

Hey Everyone,

Kuba Fietkiewicz here, founder of REIkit.com house flipping and wholesaling software based in Los Angeles.

Today I wanted to talk about getting material and labor costs for your rehab estimates, even if you've never set foot in a hardware store or called around for construction bids.

If you're just starting out in the house flipping, wholesaling, or rental business, you may have found out how hard it is to estimate rehab construction costs. There are really only two options in solving that problem:

1. You can bring a general contractor with you to every property you think is a potential deal,

or

2. You can get hands-on experience in identifying what is wrong with a house and do your own estimates.

The first choice is going to become expensive, fast. Unless you are in a position where you can offer work to the GC on a property you acquire, you're not going to get anyone to work for you for free.

The second option is the way to go. Yes, it requires more time and effort, but the education you acquire and eventual savings will more than make up for that.

So, what's the best way to get this experience?

In my own fix and flips, I evaluate as many properties as I can find, and when I go to visit a potential flip, I take along my camera phone and film a walk through of each room and the exterior, carefully narrating what needs repairing.

Then comes the difficult part: identifying all the items involved with a repair, itemizing all of these costs into one tidy list, and calculating the final cost. For example, a window repair not only includes the cost of the actual window but also the labor that it costs to install it.

I created the Rehab Cost Estimate Tool to help take the unknown out of getting an accurate estimate.

The Rehab Costs Estimate tool has:

• Thousands of items to choose from
• Each item has a material cost and labor cost associated to it
• Nationwide -- all costs based on the property's zip code
• Easily create a PDF to share, email, or print

Try out the material and labor costs Rehab Costs Estimate tool on your next fix & flip, rental, or wholesale property today with a full-featured, risk-free trial:

https://www.reikit.com

Any questions or suggestions, I'd love to hear it, please comment below or chat at the site.

Cheers!

Kuba

P.S. - When you sign up for a free trial you get full access to ALL of the 7 tools in your REIkit.com dashboard, including lead capture Websites, Contacts CRM, Premium Data for Comps and ARV, Loan History Information, Deal Analysis, Deal Reports, and more!

All of these inspections will happen after you make your offer.

Your offer will be based on basic visual inspection after walking through the property (sometimes with a contractor if one is willing to do this with you), and making some assumptions based on clues that the property will tell you.  Your offer will be contingent based on satisfactory due diligence to verify that that you have built in enough budget to repair the property.

When I walk through a property I use this checklist to identify all the major scope items that I want to verify whether they need rehab: https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/kubaf/file/rehab-walkthrough-estimation-checklist

For remote walkthroughs I use a program called ecamm call recorder and I record a facetime conversation I have of the realtor walking through the property and narrating what they're seeing.  The recording helps me refer back to parts of the walkthrough while estimating the job.

Good luck!

Kuba

Hi Everyone,

Kuba Fietkiewicz here, founder of REIkit.com online house flipping and wholesaling software, based out of Los Angeles.

Real estate investors today know that finding deals is not as easy as it was just a few years ago.

Properties on the MLS are going for tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking.

This makes finding a deal on the MLS very difficult, although there are still deals to be had if you can find a property that is hugely undervalued.

The alternative to the MLS is to think outside of the box, and utilize every single method, strategy, and website that can possibly net a deal.

Such sources of deals can be as well-known as putting out 'We Buy Houses' signs on every street corner.

Not so obvious methods would be looking at property seized by the IRS or other government real property surplus sites.

That's just one example of how to find wholesale and off-market deals online.

I have compiled a list of 54 other methods, check it out at this link:

55 resources to find real estate deals online

Check out also the sister articles on the site:

27 ways to find real estate deals offline

and

35 ways to find deals by cultivating relationships

Let me know if I missed any techniques in the comments below...

Cheers!

Kuba

@Joseph Shaw

I'm a big believer in the DRY principle (don't repeat yourself), and so I use quickbooks and only quickbooks for all of my cost accounting and cost tracking and reporting. REI/kit does not integrate with quickbooks because currently it's primary use case is pre-purchase: to market to motivated sellers with investor websites, then to perform extensive due diligence on those deals ensuring that you don't get yourself into a bad situation, and then market those deals for funding or resale.

Post purchase, I would recommend you use Buildertrend to manage your project which does integrate with quickbooks and helps you maintain your costs across projects.  

But if you were on a budget then at a minimum just use quickbooks.  A great book to help you navigate how to set quickbooks up that is still relevant is "Contractor's Guide to Quickbooks 2015" Yes, 2015, but it's still quite good.  

If I'm not mistaken, if you buy @J Scott's book on estimating rehab costs I believe one of the free goodies is a chart of accounts that you can use to get started.  You'll have to check  with him.

Supply and demand goes up and down so a house that may have been priced right then may no longer priced right, now, and so timing is a pretty important component of your pricing.  If you can wait it out, demand typically does go back up in the fall, otherwise your pricing will have to match current demand.

Hi Everyone,

Kuba Fietkiewicz here, founder of REIkit.com online house flipping and wholesaling software system, based out of Los Angeles. Today I wanted to talk about our newest lead capture feature: Investor Websites.

When you choose to build an REIkit.com website, you don't JUST get a website. You get access to all of these incredible features that are completely integrated:

• Contacts CRM
• Premium Data for Comps and After Repair Value (ARV) calculations
• Loan History Information
• Rehab Estimation
• Deal Analysis
• Deal Presentations
• and more...

Here are the details on the Websites:

• Create a complete real estate investor website in just two button clicks

• Be Search Engine Optimized (SEO) from the start to get you ranking on Google, with search-optimized text that speaks to your distressed seller

• Use your own domain or our subdomain

• Build unlimited landing pages inside your website

• Responsive -- your website and lead forms adapt to different browsers, phone screen sizes, and desktop machines. Hugely important if you advertise on mostly mobile social networks like Facebook

• Seller lead capture form integrates with the Contacts CRM

• Wholesalers, advertise your Deal inventory right on your website

Check out what your Website can look like here:

https://www.reikit.co/

For more details on the Websites and all of the integrated tools, click on this link today:

https://www.reikit.com/real-estate-investor-websites

Any comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear them...

Cheers!
Kuba

PS: Curious about our company? Thousands of real estate investors have used our software to evaluate over 90,000 properties, improving the efficiency of their deal due diligence, for more investments, and more profit!

Hi BiggerPockets Community,

Kuba Fietkiewicz here, founder of online house flipping and wholesaling software REIkit.com. In my previous posts, I talk about my house flipping failures and how I overcame them. One way was, of course, by educating myself on what went wrong.

Once I identified how I lost tens of thousands of dollars on my first flip, I went on the hunt for software that filled the gaps.

Unfortunately, the only property analysis tool I could find was either a downloadable spreadsheet that required constant updates and re-saves, or online software that simply wasn’t powerful enough for the “cover all the bases” analysis that I was looking for, and that is required by pro investors.

That’s when I decided to create REIkit.com, addressing many of the limitations of the software that is available, and making sure the analysis tools are as thorough as possible.

Within the REIkit Due Diligence suite, you'll find:

Appraisal-Quality ARV: Search for comps and calculate a true After Repair Value (ARV) the way an appraiser would. This includes the ability to adjust your comps by assigning feature values.

Accurate Rehab Cost Estimates: Create itemized rehab cost estimates without needing a contractor, and know the real cost of your rehab before you make your offer.

Account for Holding Costs: The most comprehensive list of holding costs for you to itemize so that you can be sure that you account for every penny of the project.

Multiple Exit Strategy Analysis & Offer Price Guidance: Fool-proof guidance on what to pay for the property to make the most profit based on your investment criteria.

Plus, REIkit's polished full-color reports:

• Show off your flip project numbers to get hard money lenders on board
• Wholesalers get more contracts sold by sending these beautiful reports to their cash buyers

REIkit also highlights the data you need to make the best buying decisions possible:

Premium Data:

View over 50 data points* that give you the big picture, including Loan History and Estimated Owner Equity Amount.

REIkit is the real deal for professional deal analysis, and I take pride in continually improving and adding new features that my customers request.

Feedback is always appreciated, and the customer support is fantastic.

I invite you to an absolutely risk-free, full-featured trial of the software to discover all of the tools for your business today:

https://www.reikit.com

If you have any comments or questions about the software, drop a comment below or catch me on chat at the site.

To your success!

Kuba

P.S. - when you sign up for a free trial, you don't JUST get access to the full due diligence suite above. You also also get a two-click Website, Contacts CRM, and more in your REI/kit dashboard.

Hi BP Community,

Kuba Fietkiewicz here, founder of online house flipping and wholesaling software REIkit.com.

If you're a wholesaler, flipper, or buy and hold, you need to use every tactic and technique available to keep your deal pipeline flowing.

Finding distressed properties with motivated sellers takes perseverance, but you can cut down on the learning curve with this post.

I focus on 27 ways to find real estate deals that don't require the internet -- anyone can use these methods, and many are low-cost:

https://www.reikit.com/house-flipping-guide/27-ways-find-off-market-wholesale-real-estate-deals-offline

Also check out the sister articles on the site:

55 Ways to Find Incredible Deals Online

and

35 Ways to Find Properties by Creating Relationships

Let me know if I missed any in the comments below!

To your success!

Kuba

Hey Everyone,

Kuba Fietkiewicz here, founder of REIkit.com house flipping and wholesaling software based out of Los Angeles. Today I wanted to talk a little about how you can estimate your rehab costs without a General Contractor.

Fix and Flip:

If you're a property flipper, you may have already tried to find an investor-friendly GC that would walk through 30+ properties with you to price out repairs, but it's not likely that you'll find one that will work for free.

Wholesaling:

If you're a wholesaler who wants to give their cash buyers the best repair estimate possible without spending thousands in GC walkthrough costs...

You are left with few options, the best of which is learning how to price out your own repairs.

Yes, it requires more time and effort, but the education you acquire and eventual savings will more than make up for that. So, what's the best way to get this experience?

In my own fix and flips, I evaluate as many properties as I can find, and when I go to visit a potential flip, I take along my camera phone and film a walk through of each room and the exterior, carefully narrating what needs repairing.

Then comes the difficult part: identifying all the items involved with a repair, itemizing all of these costs into one tidy list, and calculating the final cost. For example, a window repair not only includes the cost of the actual window but also the labor that it costs to install it.

I created the Rehab Costs Estimation tool to help take the unknown out of getting an accurate estimate.

Not only does the tool have thousands of items to choose from, but each item has a material cost and labor cost associated to it, with all costs based on your zip code, so you get the most accurate estimate.

From there it creates an itemized list for you to compare contactor bids with. 

The Rehab Costs Estimate tool is as close as you'll get to accurate rehab costs, without a GC.

Click the link below to find out details or sign up for a risk-free, full-featured trial to try it out:

https://www.reikit.com

Any questions or suggestions, I'd love to hear it...comment below or chat at the site.

To your success!

Kuba

P.S. - when you sign up for a free trial, you'll also get full access to all of the other features in your REIkit.com software dashboard, including a fully-customizable Website, Contacts CRM, Premium Data for Comps and ARV, Loan History Information, Deal Analysis, Marketing, and more!