All Forum Posts by: Mary Shea

@Sam Shueh   He is asking us for our advise.  

@Ronald Troy Whidbee yes, but not more than 2 miles.  It is better to stay in the neighborhood, but increase your time frame.  Go broad on your sq ft.  If your home is 1200 sq ft, search for those from 1000-1400.  Same with Bed/bath.  Use 2-4 bedrooms, 1.5-2.5 bath.  These are just examples of course.  Use your criteria.  Hope this helps.

There are conventional 3% loans, but your mortgage broker will have their commissions taken back if you sell prior to 6 months.  Best bet is to just use hard money unless you can stay put for 6 months.

@Jay Hinrichs no, it is a 400K property...crazy huh?  I went with a different policy that only requires that I replace the deck within 30 days in order to keep the standard policy. $70 per month :)

@Ronald Troy Whidbee you should have tools in your MLS portal to do a CMA (we use Matrix). There is most likely a class you take that will teach you how to do it. The basics are: Run a search of Actives, Pending, Pending Inspection, Contingent & Sold homes with close to the same features as your subject property (sq ft, # of bed/bath, etc) and in the same area as your property. In my area, I start with .25 miles & status change within the last 30-60 days. You only need 4-6 properties to compare to yours. Our MLS has a tool we load the properties into, then it does the basic analysis. (Remember you are looking for remodeled homes.) I then fine tune it to come up with the current market value, which would be your ARV.

It will depend on the work you are doing on your flip & the length of time it will take to complete the work.  The cost is 3X your average homeowners policy.  I just got a quote for $280 per month during the remodeling phase vs $80 a month after completion.

Do a market analysis as if the home were remodeled. That would be the current ARV. They will have their own formula for calculating out repairs, but you should have an idea of your areas costs for basic items such as bathroom & kitchen remodels, flooring, roof, etc.

If you need gift funds to get started, get them into your account asap so they can season for 60-90 days.  Typically a lender will only ask for 2 m bank statements.

I went through Rockwell and really liked it a lot.  The final exams were timed, meaning you only had a certain amount of time from start to finish on the exams, but I do not recall having to take them by a specific date.  The course did expire at a certain point, but I believe it was 1 year.  In my opinion, the more time you can devote to it, thus getting through the material in a shorter amount of days, the better you will do.  I worked full-time so I had to repeat some sections before I could take the chapter exams so it was fresh in my brain.

@Isi Nau I 100% agree with you. Before I got my license I worked with an agent to find flips on the MLS. We wasted a ton of time looking at properties that had no investment potential, which lead me to get licensed. Just because a house is in disrepair does not mean it will be a good investment. On the other side of the coin, a house doesn't have to be in disrepair to make it a good investment. If you are working with an agent, work with one who also invests. The investors who work with me know I won't send them anything that doesn't pencil out, and that I know what I am talking about when we walk the property and do rough rehab calculations. I also share most of my sub contractors info with them as an added bonus so they can get them lined up quickly and maximize profits.

@Michael Smith Galvin Realty Law Group in Mountlake Terrace.  They are awesome!