All Forum Posts by: Mateusz Prawdzik

@Tom Depuma That is exactly what is going on in Jersey. I never worked a bit of construction in my life and I managed it. When you manage it yourself, in the beginning the guys will take advantage of you and tell you that the job is finished or done correct even though they know it's wrong because they know that you don't know that. So you learn the hard way by getting feedback from others and them letting you know that it is wrong. Or when one sub doesn't do a good job and then another sub comes and asks who did such a ****** job, and you say "that's a bad job?" because you didn't know a good job from bad job. 

But like with everything, first time you make LOTS AND LOTS of mistakes and then you learn from them. I did it and it worked for me, now no one takes advantage of me. I make sure that I negotiate all my prices, make sure the sub has quality work, and I make sure that they enjoy working for me because a happy worker is a better worker. Always talk, bring coffee, give extra if they do a good job. Just like connections in the investor side of the business, you have to have a good relationship with your subs because they are the ones that do the work for you. You want them to take the extra step for you when they are doing something.

But regardless, if you see yourself doing flips or not, managing your own jobs is the best way to succeed in this business until you get to such a large scale where it's not worth your time. But until that scale comes, you better learn the ins and outs of managing and construction if you want to go far. That is just my opinion though, it is what I am doing currently, until I get to a scale where I don't have to. 

@Trey Pryce When you become big enough one day you will. For now stick to locals and in the areas that you flip/wholesale/buy and hold. Just keep reaching out and eventually someone will meet with you, it's all about making a name for yourself first and being able to offer something to the other party, because it's not that people don't have time, it's more so that they don't want to waste their 1-2 hours if they will not benefit from it at all. As long as you bring something to the table, meetings will be booked for weeks. 

@Trey Pryce You can ask anyone on BP that lives around my area. I sit down with everyone and I tell them how it is. I want to meet everyone in my area that is interested in doing anything to do with REI so that way I can try to find a way we can work together because as you help others grow and spread good karma, you grow. But if we can't work together or I get the feeling/vibe that they will screw me at the end, I want to know that too. I want to make sure I look my competition in the eye and see who I am dealing with. That is a little harsh, but I sense right off the first meeting who I am going to do business with and who I am not. First impressions matter A LOT.

None the less, I still sit down with everyone. Got to Local NJ forum section in BP, GUARANTEED I am in almost every discussion. I make to spread my name out there so that people know who I am and I make sure to know everyone in my area so that way I know who is doing what at all times. Also, expanding your network is VERY important, because maybe you won't do business now but down the line, having someone's cellphone # will make a difference to you. 

This past week I've had 7 meetings with lenders/investors/wholesalers/newbies. I make sure to sit with everyone and tell them exactly how it is. Everyone is busy , yes for sure, but if you can't allocate 1 hour of your day to meet with someone, your lying. If the president of the US, can go away for a week to his golf course, and you can't schedule 1 hour, well then your lying to yourself.....

But keep reaching out, someone will meet with you. If I've lived in Florida, we would be best buddies. You can ask anyone in the NJ area, I know almost everyone in the area that invests or at least interacted at least once with them.

Connect with me if you have any questions at all. I will answer every and any question that you may have. 

@Tim Sterr Partnering with GC doesn't work, lots of people try to do to avoid the cost of paying for his "management fee." But this management fee ends up being less most of the time anyways than the equity he would take. If you feel his price is too high, just get a couple of estimates and go with someone else. Nothing personal because he is your friend, but this is business and everyone has to eat and make money. 

This is from experience, don't partner with GCs. This is just advice too, if you want to learn the hard way, do it. 

@Tom Depuma First thing is to find out what you want to do, wholesale? Flip? Buy and hold? Commercial? After you determine what you want to do, you have to establish where you want to do it. NYC is very tough right now because people are buying left and right and don't care what they pay; therefore, I would go to somewhere like NJ. NJ has it's hot markets where people pay crazy prices no matter what but it's slightly mellower than NYC. Next, you have to determine the town you want to go to. Study the town, where are the good and bad sections of the selected towns are and then look for deals. Next, you have to determine how you will be managing the project. Are you going to have a project manager( PM) or are you going to hire and manage all the subs like I do.  Once you find a deal, the best thing to do is to just put a bunch of offers in. Get use to getting declined because it will happen a lot. Let me know if you have any questions about the process when you find the deal. These are the basic steps to starting with a good sum of money like you have. Connect with me and ask any questions you like. Just 10 months ago I was in your position with way less money, and now I am working on flip #9. 

@Joshua Whipple Nice of you to finally take action. Action is very important in this industry, no matter where you buy, you want your first flip to be the one you screw up the most on because you want to learn from all those bad experiences. The more experienced you become and the more flips you, the less you want to screw up down the line so make all the mistakes you can now while you still can. There are couple of questions you have to know. Are you hiring a GC or doing the managing yourself? If you are doing the managing yourself, it would benefit you way more as you will learn the ins and outs of this business. If you are hiring a GC, just be careful as to who you go with and choose because there are lots of people that take advantage of newbies in the business. 

I can't help you much as far as the area goes because I am in the NJ area but if you have any questions about the rehab process or how what should be, please connect with me and ask away. I will try my best to guide you in the right direction. 

@Trey Pryce@Iqwe Haywood Nice of you to put yourself out there, learning from people that are in the business all the time is a good experience to have, but like Iqwe said, ACTION is important. Ambition is key, starting moving some pieces together and see how you can get started on your own. What are trying to start doing? Wholesaling? Flipping? Buy and Holds? If you have any questions at all, I am willing to answer any questions you have, just connect with me and ask away. You live in Florida so I can't do much for mentoring to help you in the day to day job sites but I can be of assistance to you by answering your questions and guiding you in the right direction.

@Joshua Howaniec@David Lecko Okay this what you do. I've bee doing D4D for a little bit now and I've ran into the same problem a bunch of times when I come home and look up the address on the tax record to see the person's name and where they live (if not in the same house.) If you are doing it alone, it is not easy because driving, writing, and looking is very difficult.. I can't say I haven't almost crashed couple of times hahaha. 

But if you can do it with a person in the car, one person drives and looks left the other person looks right and writes everything, that is the easiest way to do it. If that is not an option, when you get home, just look up the address that you wrote on google maps and see exactly where that house is located if you remember what it looks like. If the address still doesn't work then chances are it is in a different town that borders the one you were doing it in. Make sure to look up everything one by one and make a spreadsheet so you know exactly who you're sending what to..

@Donovon Rogers @Peter Mac I love the ambition, ACTION is key. I was 18 when i started about 10 months ago and now I am doing my 8th flip.  My birthday is coming up in a couple of months, turning 19, I have done more than most people at my age in 10months than most people did in years. That is because I believe in ACTION. I didn't read/listen to podcasts, I just jumped in feet first. I love the strive that you have, I had the same strive and set the same goals as you and I ended up in a better place because of it. It is hard to get lenders and investors to trust you and vouch for you when you have little to no money to invest, but all you need is that one investor to see that you are going somewhere and you will make it. I had that one guy when I first started, the only person that took the risk and vouched for me and I offer him a premium because I love the guy to death because of it. 

We are the same but different. We have the same big dreams  and goals, except I like to flip with the times of house prices going up because rentals right now aren't worth the time due to the diminishing cap rates. I will jump into the rental game at the next pull back which I feel coming up. If you are looking to get into flipping, I've done fair share in the past 10 months, and I've managed 6 of the 8 so I feel that I can give an opinion or two. I know I am not the most experienced but I am self-thought. No one helped me out with the managing, so I made mistakes that no one would make but I learned the hard way from them.

Let me know if you have any questions. Connect with me, and ask away. I'll answer anything you have to ask. I've done my fair share of wholesale deals too so don't hesitate to ask questions about that as well. 

@Jake Recz Never had a rental so i can't be of assistance but I mean what Wade is saying sounds about right. If he said that he doesn't mind the idea, then he shouldn't have a problem with it. And if Dec 1st comes and it was agreed that there would be no renewal and he's still there, just give him the boot and that's it be done with it, keep his deposit and find someone else.