All Forum Posts by: Rich O'Neill

Hey @Jose Soto I went to Wells Fargo years ago and just applied for a personal line of credit and without a whole lot of effort they extended me $25k. I have a few accounts with them and had a W2 at the time so it made it a lot easier but it was simple to do. Rate is pretty high at 10% but its not credit card rates and its really liquid (I just transfer money to my checking acct). 

Be careful of anything not attached to a real bank. I have gone down that rabbit hole and some of the stuff you find there is bordering predatory lending. Definitely stick to the legit banks. 

@Dwayne Shropshire well said above. If possible, once you have done the prerequisites @Jonathan Greene mentioned, see if you can save a few months of rental reserves in case a deal comes up and you need to jump on it. That way you can cover your rent if you were able to move in say March 2022 vs waiting until May. 

Let me tell you a little secret: the construction industry doesn’t have to be a brutal industry. Not everyone operates with a “me first, screw you” attitude. You just have to be part of the right system.

We are hiring GREAT people to help us grow by offering top notch construction management services to our investor clients. Our business model is built on delivering such incredible value to our clients, that they never want to work with anyone else ever again! Not only will you help our clients create their version of financial freedom, but with a little courage, some guidance, and our help, you will help create your own!

Fleming Project Management’s purpose is to help investors BUILD financial freedom through the power of investing in real estate. We are a purpose and core values driven company with the goal of creating $50mm in Net Added Value for our clients by 2030. We call this our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). We are growing very rapidly and looking to expand into related services for our clients and geographic areas of service. We are based in the Greater Philadelphia area, and serve Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.

Our core values are:

• Passion for Possibilities- It is not “I can’t”, it’s “How can I?”
• Say it, mean it- No explanation necessary
• Own it- Everyone makes mistakes, our difference is that we own those mistakes, make corrections, and move forward.
• See inefficiency, be bothered, innovate- nobody has time for inefficiency, we innovate to win.

This job is a salary based, full time position with learning opportunities, investment opportunities, and career growth as the company expands. Compensation will vary based on experience and performance, but the target range is between $45,000 and $60,000 per year, with room for growth. Training will be included and necessary.

If you are interested in creating your own financial freedom through real estate, this is an excellent opportunity to be paid to learn the ins and outs of how to make it happen. The CEO is an experienced investor himself, and offers coaching for free as part of your job perks.

As a project manager, your role will be to complete renovation projects of single family and small multi family properties following our 3 project goals: On time, On budget, Good Quality Work (GQW). Part of the job will also include estimating the cost of the projects, which we will provide training on. Our ideal clients are individual investors actively purchasing residential properties in the Southeastern PA area (Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties) with the goal of flipping or renting the properties. This position requires proximity to our service area, and includes 2-3 work from home days per week. Access to the company office in Chadds Ford is available, but only required for regular meetings.

Some sample tasks associated with this role are:

• Estimating
• Contractor Recruiting
• Schedule building and maintenance
• Budget tracking and maintenance
• Detailed note taking
• Site visiting and reporting
• Material ordering
• Occasional material pickup

Job performance will be based on a Job Scorecard, a sample of which will be supplied during the interview. The 2 key metrics that measure success in this position are Days ahead/behind schedule, and $ over/under budget.

Some skills and traits we are looking for are:

• Computer Savvy
• Organized
• Project Management training (certification is a bonus)
• Thorough
• Communication skills
• Not required, but bonus points awarded if you have Real estate investing experience
  • Extra bonus points if you have flipping experience

How to apply:

Send an Email to [email protected], copy and paste our BHAG to the body of the email, and enter the subject line “Project Manager Application (your name here)”

Hey @Kevin Uzelac yes the majority of our work is in the city but we also work in the surrounding western counties- Chester, Delaware, Montgomery Counties

How many other contractors on here are paid members? Not many! That should show you how much they want your business...

Fleming Project Management started with only one customer in mind- real estate investors. The ABSOLUTE most important relationship to a value-add real estate investor is with their contractor. It is also the hardest to create. We set out to solve that issue.

We designed the business from the ground up to deliver the most value for our target client- residential real estate investors. Our business model actually DOESN’T work for retail clients! And we are happy about that! Several things make us different than the common contractor to make us the right choice for your investment:

Project Manager Vs. General Contractor:

Our role is to represent you on the project. We manage the relationships with the individual trades, create and push project schedules, create and execute scope of work, and keep you informed throughout the process. We align our goals with you instead of trying to eek out the most profit we can on a job.

The pricing model that works best for you:

Contractors generally charge in one of 3 ways: Quote, Time and Material, and Cost+. In a traditional Quote based pricing model, the GC would be trying to maximize the price they can charge you without you going to a competitor, and will almost certainly try to hit you with change orders as the job progresses. Their goal is to create ambiguity to allow room for this. Time and Material gets you closer to the actual “value” of the job, but does not incentivize the contractor to be efficient with either time or materials, and requires a lot of pushing from the owner to stay on schedule and on budget. The Cost+ model is the closest of the 3 to total goal alignment, but it still ties the fee directly to the cost of the job, which disincentivizes budget maintenance.

So we built the Fixed Time Pricing Model. With the FTPM, we will come up with a project schedule, and commit to that time frame. Our fee will be based on that proposed schedule, not the actual close date. What that does is incentivise us to get it done faster. This way, who wins when the job comes in ahead of schedule? EVERYONE! You get the property rented or sold faster, you pay less in interest (or earn a higher annualized ROI on Cash), and you free up your cash sooner to do more deals in a year. We generate a higher margin, free up our team to work on more projects (maybe another of yours…), and get our subcontractors more work, which ultimately means more money for them. We understand that when you make money, you have more capital to invest in another project, which you will inevitably rehire us for, and continue the virtuous cycle.

On top of all of that, our bench of contractors is giving us (and therefore you) their best prices in order to keep receiving work from us. We firmly believe that these savings should pay for our fee and then some vs. subcontracting the work on your own, and you get an experienced project manager dedicated to your project which saves you valuable time. Think- economies of scale through shared resources.

For investors, by investors:

We started in this business building our own portfolio of rentals and flips. As investors ourselves, we know what is important to you, and how to execute to create the most value for you. We have learned a lot along the way and can hopefully save you from some of those lessons we learned the hard way. One example is our “Bulletproof Rental” checklist. Over the years, we have come across some minor tweaks to traditional repairs to greatly reduce maintenance and turnover costs. One example is the trap configuration under sinks. Rather than using the compression fittings most contractors use, we plumb in solid schedule 40 PVC with a cleanout built in to eliminate broken traps, which leads to leaks, destroyed flooring and drywall damage.

At the end of the day, we are very different than your standard contractor, but that’s the point. We are here to create value for you to help you reach your version of financial independence, and achieve whatever your goals in life are.

We operate in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties. Some areas we have experience with include Lansdowne, Upper Darby, Springfield, Broomall, Collingdale, Ridley, Crum Lynn, Pottstown, Coatesville, Norristown, Royersford, Downingtown, Kennett Square, West Chester, Conshohocken, Glenolden, Drexel Hill, Clifton Heights, Newtown Square, Malvern, Avondale, Toughkenamon, and many more.

Thanks @Steve Babiak. Great way to frame that. 

Via Laulima is my go to. David is great. Here's their website: https://www.vialaulima.com/our...

Genuinely curious about this- at what point do we have to be careful about "redlining" when talking about this stuff? As long as we keep any of the protected classes out of the discussion, is it ok? Criminal activity is not a protected class and actual values and opinion of values and their trajectory is just data, right? I know we generally talk about redlining in terms of access to mortgages and other financial instruments, but doesn't NAR have some policies around it too and how real estate agents operate around the topic?

To be clear, I don't think this is redlining, but the flag always goes up in my head because I don't know enough about it. 

Thoughts?

@Paul S. you're spot on with the comment about inspectors disagreeing. We did a full cosmetic rehab on a property that we pulled permits for and the inspector called me and asked why we got permits. I had another inspector on a very similar scope fail us because the plumbing that wasn't part of our SOW "looked too new" and made us pull a plumbing permit. 

All luck of the draw unfortunately. 

@Aziz Mansaray, Like @Nathan M. hard to tell if the numbers make sense, but while the risks he lays out are definitely valid, I think they are unlikely to give you a problem. Check the fine print of your insurance and mortgage to get those out of the way. I doubt you will have an issue getting a rental license but it is definitely a risk. That would be the one that worries me the most. Generally those inspections are just looking for the presence of the required safety equipment and function of basic living necessities (stove, heat, etc). I highly doubt a rental inspector would be researching pulled permits compared to the current status. People do work without permits in the city all of the time and usually the biggest risk there is a stop work order, not an issue on the back end. 

Very important to understand those risks, but I think they are unlikely to give you issues at this point. 

Does the seller have contracts from the contractors that did the work? Could give you some peace of mind if you find out they are licensed and having the contract should allow you to transfer any warranties.