All Forum Posts by: Larry Smet

Hi @Suzanne P., good to hear from you!  I'll put you down as a "maybe" right now but if you find you can come please click the "Attend Event" button.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

Hope you had an awesome summer and a great Labour Day weekend.  Wanted to remind everyone of the upcoming meetup next Wednesday.  If you originally intended to come (clicked "Attend Event") but plans have changed please click "Stop Attending Event" so I have a better idea what to make the reservation for.  Please PM me to be put on the email reminder list.

See you then!

Also pinging some newcomers registered to attend or attended in the past:  @Richard Cheung, @Miko D., @Jesse Fragale, @Adam Reiterowski

First off @Ivy Pierce - congrats for taking action and asking questions!

I've completed about 10 flips in Chicago now and can tell you from first hand (south side) experience that you need local experience.  And when I say local - I mean really local (there's a huge difference between north and south side Chicago, for example).

It's just as @Mike B. says - on the south side you need to be conservative to account for extra costs and hold time than you expect.  Especially if you're using hard money.  It's very easy to pick the wrong block and suddenly the ARVs from a couple blocks away (or a year or two ago) are worth the price you paid to get them.  :)

This happened to me - all my flips up to this point in Orlando and north side Chicago have been successful (that is, made money) and a rental on the south side of Chicago with a partner is going well. However, I'm going to take a beating on the sale of my next flip which is on the south side. Even though it's my 10th flip, it's the first one I've done on the south side. A combination of taking WAY longer to sell (not as many qualified buyers), having AC unit stolen and windows broken and consequent costs and delays, the next door building being boarded up shortly after buying my building (a real turn off for prospective buyers), my real estate agent providing bad advice and literally disappearing and comps from when I bought being at least $25k more than what the market would bear when I listed my property (This on a $150k ARV property). I'm taking it philosophically - you can't win them all after all and it was a great learning experience... I just wish it didn't cost so much to learn the lesson.

My point of the above is to echo @Shawn C. - you may want to partner with an experienced flipper in the area that you're interested in to make sure you don't make any critical mistakes.  Losing money on your first flip, especially if you're using hard money could take you out of the game for a very long time.

PM me if you'd like to chat directly.

Good luck!

Usually the majority of people stay until about 9:00 @Miko D..  Looking forward to meeting you

Hi @James Stayton and @Edwine Alphonse

I host a meetup for US real estate investors living in the Toronto area (as @Eric Delcol mentioned above).  We're not running any through the summer due to vacation schedules, etc..  The next meetup is in September:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/461526-toronto-meetup-for-investors-in-us-real-estate-wed-sept-13

Let me know if you might be in town that day - it would be great if you could attend.

Regards,

Larry

Please click the "Attend Event" button above or PM me if you plan to attend! Address is in the box above.

Please note that there won't be a July or August Meetup due to everyone's vacation schedules.

This meetup is a networking event for anyone living in (or visiting!) Toronto who invests in real estate anywhere in the US. This is a regular event, usually on the second Wednesday of every month with it on Mondays every once in a while. No pitching or selling, just a venue to share experiences and resources for those of us actively investing in the US. Anyone interested in learning more about investing in US real estate is also welcome, of course.

I expect it will go from 6 until about 9. The location was chosen to be easily accessed from the subway (it's just a few minutes walk from Sheppard subway stop) and close proximity to the 401.

Thanks

Larry

PS - I'm pinging several people who've attended previously or expressed interest - please ping any others that you think may be interested:

@Glen Emery , @Robert Howell , @Hai Loc , @Jim Chuong , @Adam Tao , @Eric Delcol , @Suzanne P. , @Oren K. , @Mohamed Panju , @Bayard P. , @Philip Robbins , @Ming Lim , @Neil Da Silva , @Chad Urbshott , @Dmitry A. , @Daniel Massicotte , @Quang Nguyen , @Robert Sun, @Jesse Fragale, @Gurpy Ont

Hi @Dan Tutolo

I use Jing (if it's less than 5 minutes) or Camtasia.  There's probably other ones out there too.

Thanks

Hi @Jesse Fragale - I've added you to the list!  Thanks for reaching out. We had 8 people come out this week so it's a good size group for everyone to share and provide advice to each other.  I suspect it's going to get a lot larger in the fall.

Up to now the meetups have been as bit of a free-for-all - everyone just talks about what they're doing, asks questions, etc. but there wasn't an agenda. Starting in September we're going to have a loose agenda including having everyone talk about a deal they're working on, have done or would like to do so your offer would fit well with that.

I'll ping you in the meeting invite for September which I plan to put out shortly - with another reminder at the beginning of September of course!

Hey @Jesse Fragale - the meetup was last night actually.  Just missed it unfortunately.  Would you like to be on the invitation list for the next one?  I'm in California for a lot of the summer so I'm going to restart it in September.  Please PM for more details.