All Forum Posts by: Michael Kazee

Hello All,

My name is Michael Kazee, I am a licensed real estate and mortgage broker, investor in Michigan.

I have been re-habbing properties for a few years and am looking to ramp up from about 8 properties a year to more like 2-4 properties a month. I have 4 employees that work for me re-habbing and can easily up that as needed. I have been going through hard money lenders and such for a while but the limits that they are imposing and the slowness of the process on a whole is making it where I am spending more time dealing with the hard money lender than I am finding properties and end buyers. Which is making it near impossible to grow as now is the time in which many great deals are available in the market.

In almost all cases I have been able to sell the property or refinance the hard money loans in less than 6 months, and have only had a couple that went to 9 months, and none past that. I generaly sell the properties by listing them through the company I own but if they don't sell within a few months I generally will do a lease option and refinance it to a conventional loan and then make the leasee's work with me in fixing what ever they need to get fixed to be able to buy the properties.

I am not looking for a better interest rate than regular hard money or less up front points or anything, I understand investors are looking for a return. I am looking for a lender that can work with me and my company to be able to capitalize on buying properties fast with an average loan at 60-70k with a arv ltv of 60-70%, with a term of no longer than 9-12 months. Send me an email or pm and lets get things going. :D

Sincerely,

Michael Kazee

In my market in Mid-Michigan the actual number of sales are up about 10% from last year at this same time but the average sales price is down about 10%, mainly stemming from a large number of the sales being from reo properties. selling way below the market average. And I cannot say that I have helped things I have bought 8 reos this year myself. :roll: But I am still fixing them up and selling them the thing is I am planning a hold time of 8-12 months when I purchase these and just factor it into the initial purchase price.

I have 4 guys that work for me full time and do most of my repetitive tasks such as but not limited to: painting, cabinets, roofing, siding, yard work, windows, tile, carpet, light fixtures, and light plumbing. I sub contract out the more serious plumbing and electrical. For me I found that it is easier this way because we constantly have projects waiting to get started I try to plan that no more than 2 weeks before the next project is started usually less than 1 week but you know how things go.

With a general contractor the will bid the job do the job as they are working on other projects as well and then when things they quoted you are done thats it, it doesn't matter that the doors need trimmed because the carpet and pad are too thick, that the outlets need to be changed because now they look bad on a freshly painted wall, if it wasn't in the original qoute it is extra and they may not be able to get back to it for 2-6 weeks as they are already scheduled for their next job. That is why I decided to hire my own crew I just say to get it done the way you would want to see it when you would be moving in. Also once a week they take half a day and go around to the properties and hit the lawns, or driveways for snow in the winter and such. GC's in my opinion are a waste of time and money, I use subs when I need to for more "important issues" and my crew for tidious items.

Hey all I am a rehabber and I am constatly looking at houses and in my area most are 50-140 years old. There are many times things like new roofs, windows, flooring, cabinets, drywall and things like that I don't mind tackling. I am looking at a house and the floors are all wavey and I am thinking I will need to rip it all up and possibly redo joists and sub-flooring. Can anyone tell me like on a scale of 1 to 10 how much headache this would be with paint being a 1 and 10 being raising a house digging a foundation and pouring a bsement and resetting the house.

Also if people have ideas of things they would suggest that other rehabber avoid please throw it in this discussion as well.

I will start it off for that. I suggest that if you are rehabbing an older home with plaster walls stay away from them if there were extensive wall paper covering unless you are ready to rip the plaster down and do drywall or you can rip the paper down and texture because I have found that back in the day most people did not use sizing and the paper destroys the finish and skim coating is mucho dinero.

I agree with Scott. Since you are planning on selling at some point in the near future it would be in your best interest to replace the roof, as cost effectively as possible. Yes it might be nice to say you have a 50 year roof but most people only stay in the house 5-7 years anyways. I doubt you will get your extra money out and that is what you should be looking at.

Just my .02

203k I do not believe will work for an investment property, there are hard money lenders that will go off the after repair value and will allow you to do the work and pay you, their interest rates are higher and up front fees will be higher as well. There are conventional lenders that have rehab loans as well they will generally require that you put some of the money down on the property usually about 15% of the initial purchase price but rates will be better and you will have to use a liscened contractor.

If you have other questions please send me a pm I will try to help you if I can.

Hey!

Where are you looking to invest? I am a mortgage / real estate broker in Michigan, and can assist you with the financing pretty much nationwide and if you are looking for properties in Michigan I can help with that as well. Send me a pm or shoot me an email with some of your ideas I would be happy to see if I can help.

Sincerely,

Mike Kazee

Hey Mark I sent you a pm if you would like some help finding and financing properties in your area give me a call or shoot me an email!

Good luck with your endeavors!

Mike

Minna is right you need to consider the rents, but also always remember set a price that will meet all your needs, and do not go past it just because the seller thinks its worth more or is not motivated enough, there will be plenty of other deals that will meet your needs, especially in todays market! DO NOT let emotion drag you into a deal you will regret it, I guarntee that.

I look at maybe 15-20 properties a week and write offers on 2 or 3 and I only get about 10% of the properties I write offers on, and I am fine with that, the houses I get I know are true deals not based on a gut feeling but true data. I fix and flip but a real estate investor needs to be savy even if you are just going to rent them out.

I don't know about buying high end, like John said the holding time and costs will kill ya!

As far as offing prices I determine what the ARV is (or should I say the appraiser does) minus purchase price, minus 6-8 motnhs hold time costs, minus repair costs, minus intial closing costs, minus selling closing costs, minus how much money I want to make from the property and then offer like 85% of that as they will normally counter it and never ever go above that number on any circumstance. Once you let emotion take control of your offers you are sunk. This is a business for the brain not the heart. Gut feelings are fine but go with the facts everytime.

FYI most of my offers I find are at maybe 50% of what the bank is asking for the property but sometimes they will be pretty close in their initial asking price those are the properties that go the fastest.