All Forum Posts by: Mateusz Prawdzik

What are the numbers looking like? I don't do much business in Newark, but if numbers are good, there is always a first for everything.

@Rachel Luoto This is a great idea but it doesn't do a SINGLE thing for you, so in turn it's not that good of idea. Your head is in the right place for sure, but think of it this way, you are doing everything the more experienced investor is saying to do, which causes you not to think for yourself and learn the hard way. You're giving up your whole 50% so you're doing 6 months of work and make nothing... no offense but if you don't trust yourself to do a project, I wouldn't take other people's money to do a project. If you're lender is willing to take the risk of financing it, I think you should take the risk and build up the courage to do it yourself. 

Also what Chris said does make sense, if you are going to give up everything and not make a dime you might as well make something and just have the experienced flipper do the work for you and take some equity and managing fee. 

But honestly, the best way to learn is to do it yourself and screw up  so you have mistakes that you can learn from. I've done it and I am in a great position compared to everyone that did what you are planning to do.

If you think that you're analyzing something wrong, then post the numbers and the other members will tell you what they come up with as far as numbers go and you compare to yours. It's always good to get multiple views on one deals. The best thing to do is to just start. The more time you spend strategizing the less time you spend doing. 

Getting started is the hardest thing to do, and if you spend all the time STRATEGIZING and not DOING then you'll never start. So my advice is to just DO and start NOW. Being 19, I went to school for a semester until I learned that school is a waste of money and time and that my time is worth 10 times more than it being spent in school, I don't want people to take the risk I did because not many people know how to handle it. But what I tell most people is to do what they feel is right, and to just get started. If you think the numbers make sense you have some money to back it and you can get a hard money loan on it and then refi out later on, I would do it by all means. 

But no one in the world (including Biggerpockets) can tell you if you should get started, that should be solely your decision. There is also plenty of help here on bigger pockets, so information is out there on how to do stuff, all you have to do is APPLY it. 

Before you start anything of your own, first question you ask yourself is... "Why?" Also how many deals have you successfully closed under this company and how many leads have you gotten. Also, being young doesn't make a difference, if you have the drive and ambition, people don't care, they just want to make money and get good deals.

@Simon  I must say, it sounds like the CA market is tough, being from Northern Jersey, I have to sometimes drive 2 hours to find a deal but they are out there. It also seems like there are tons of people looking to help each other, which is awesome. I am very young and still have so much to learn and so much to experience in the business but all I can say being that I never read anything about real estate and never really listened to many people's advice, is to JUST DO. I started in November of last year and I am working on my 9th flip already, at 19 years old. Like @David Faulkner said, you have to surround yourself with the right energy and the people that give more than they take because in this business there are SOO MANY people that do the opposite and then karma comes around and bites them in the ***. 

I always had a different approach and it was a more "do it yourself because no one wants to teach you" approach. But there are plenty of people that will help you. Now with that being said, mentors aren't going to spend time on someone for free, (not the ones I know at least), I know plenty of people now that when I first started they looked the other way because I didn't have any experience and now they want to work with me. The best thing to do is to find someone that has ambition and little bit of experience and try to make it work.

The Best thing to do though, is to do yourself, make a bunch of mistakes and learn from them because if you just listen to what a "mentor" has to say and do it his way, you'll fail quicker than you started. Instead of looking for a mentor, just find someone that is genuine and as you screw up ask them what they did when they were in your position because everyone was where you are now. 

And the last thing, NEVER GIVE UP.

That's just my 2 cents. 

Conventional - No

Hard money - yes (as long as it fits the 65% LTV)

Private - Yes depending on the private lender.

The best way to get financing for a flip is to either use a private lender or hard money. Usually, hard and private money has a maturity of 1 year. Now to expand on this, if you are looking to fix it and hold it later on, you will probably want to take a hard money loan, and then refinance later on with a conventional mortgage that has a maturity of up to 30 years. If you are refinancing, usually a bank will give you up to 80% of the appraised value of the home. But this is  a totally a different thing. 

If you are looking to just flip, you will need private/hard money and about 20% of the total loan amount to bring to the table. If you're buying a house for 50k and rehab is 50k, you will only be able to get a loan for 80k as a beginner and then have to come up with 20k in cash to bring to the table. (your own skin in the game). That's like the VERY VERY brief overview on how it works.

Personally, I like cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling because I hate seeing the gap between the cabinet and the ceiling. I personally put tall cabinets everywhere, no matter what. I does run a little bit more money but at the end of the day it's worth because it makes the kitchen look so much better. Also, having two tone cabinets is also really popular now. Have a dark base and a white/light color top, with a matching granite counter top, is apparently what people look for now.  I am no professional designer but that's what I think looks good in a kitchen. OPEN SPACE is also really hip now, people love to see the open space with the living room, kitchen, dining room as one big room.

@Domenic Bussanich Hey, I am not a wholesaler but I am also from Bergen County. Connect with me and send me a message with your number and where you want to buy exactly and what you're looking (criteria-wise). I know A LOT of wholesalers in the area and I will be willing to throw whatever I don't want. Additionally, if you ever want to JV, let me know, I will also be willing to JV, if you have the money to provide and are willing to do some project managing for me. Welcome to the community and I hope out network will prosper.

Matt