All Forum Posts by: Mary Shea

I've been able to close in 7 days using hard money.  A title search was performed, so that tax and utility proration and escrow docs were all that had to happen within that 7 day time frame.

@Jared Carpenter sorry, I have been traveling on business and haven't had a chance to check in.  I have been very happy with Redmond Funding.  I have only used them once, but will use them again in a heart beat.

I too have had great results with skim coating with drywall mud.  We used hot mud first, sanded and did a light topping coat, then finished with texture to match the other walls.  Cheap and easy with great results.  I will try to find a couple pictures of before and after.

Make your best offer and hope for the best.  My agent told me one house I had my eye on would go for well over asking, which prevented me from making an offer.  It sold for 5K over, which was actually under what I would have offered.  My loss.

Are you going to be living in the house?  203K has to be owner occupied.  As for Hard/Private money, it depends on how long you anticipate the flip to take.  6 months is my marker for determining which way to go.  The nice thing about hard money is in most cases, you don't have to have the 20% down + renovation funds.  They allow you to put down 20%, but then use that + some of their money for the repairs to get it market ready.  Just be very realistic about your time line.  Add 2 months to whatever time frame you have in mind, plus 20% over for your rehab costs.   With conventional loans, you have to come up with 20% down, plus your own rehab funds.  I have run into issues with getting a conventional loan on a bank owned property, making hard money my only choice.   Good luck with your first flip!

@Jay Hinrichs good point on commission to help with cash flow.  Not sure why I hadn't considered that.  

@Jay Hinrichs I am serious about this :).  It is more of a time thing.  I can keep my day job and flip, but keeping my day job, flipping and finding time to get my license is too much.  I have gone back and forth with holding off on buying the next one until I get my license, but decided to wait on the license until around the holidays when the market is slower.  Great time to sit inside and get through the license course.  Buying through an agent doesn't cost me anything, and she gives me a deal on listing since she is getting both ends of each property.  

She is a managing broker.  Learning so much through this post, but it is making me think harder about getting my license.  Very valuable information here.

@Account Closed I am working towards that, but at this point, I am not in the position to go in all cash.  Houses in Seattle are 500k+ and then I still need cash (or credit) to complete the reno.  I am not comfortable putting all my eggs in 1 basket, so I am using profits from each sale to get me closer.  So, until then, I use an agent or get my RE license myself.  Sales are public record anyway, so they can figure out our profit pretty easily.  

Update on this particular sale: Still negotiating, but we are within 5K so I hope to finalize it tomorrow. She stepped down as my listing agent because she knew I could handle the negotiations myself, and this allowed her to give up the listing side of the commission ($16,500), which is really what makes this deal possible. The buyer has great credit, and income, but has to go FHA because they don't have enough saved to go conventional. The listing commission will cover their closing costs. Still a weird situation that I am not entirely comfortable with, but I am anxious to sell so I can list my home and buy the next 2.

Thank you all for your helpful feedback.  

There was more to the story.  Negotiations underway.  I will post the results once we have a deal.  I appreciate everyones suggestions!