All Forum Posts by: Pat Lulewicz

Any RE Agent that has experience should be able to give you general info on both. Closing attorneys will be your best option for the latter since they are the ones who actually do it.

Hi Connor - I host Pints & Properties in Raleigh/Durham, NC once a month on the 3rd Thursday of the month. There's another one in Greensboro on the last Wednesday of the month. Wilmington has a few meet-ups regularly as well.

Youre right @Joe Grespin that its driven by hustle and local strategy; it all comes down to the "buy" these days because you aren't seeing crazy appreciation in the 2-3 months it takes to flip a property. Lipstick projects are rare because OO's will buy them out of a level of desperation. Foreclosures are a hot option and 2 of my clients have gone that route recently. Most successful flippers seem to be playing the volume game where they can get discounts scale or payroll a few contractors for the year.

On the demand side, because low- to mid-tier inventory is so common, buyers are much more picky and seeing many more closing credits for little things: insulation in attic/crawl space, poly piping, half-life HVAC...they can ask for anything because it has become tougher to sell a flipped house especially because of the connotation they have with "flips" being cheap and half-done.

$75k rehab in Kansas/Missouri is serious work. That's amazing and shows the true power or REI and patience in the game. Even 100% over 7 years is life-changing money, but 300%...well done to y'all.

Love to see this, especially reviving properties and communities. Perfect example of how RE is the get rich slow method, and not what everyone sells in their courses. Do you know what % of his total invested capital that $1.2M represented? Was it all of the capital he had "stuck" in the properties? 50%? 200%? I think that would also help show people the quantitative impact that patience can have.

Going off of @Chris Seveney point about marketing it, your FSBO won't hit the MLS. If a Realtor or their clients just have MLS searches set up, and aren't looking through Zillow regularly, then they'll miss/never see it. Just that could cost you 2%-2.5% that you'd pay a Realtor. Also if its that high demand, then find an agent that'll list it at a fixed cost + you pay them itemized expenses (photos, measurements, sign, etc). You'd do this anyway to put your home in the best possible position to sell (not using your iPhone for pics) so might as well add a small, incremental cost to get it on the MLS.

Final point - disclosures requirements of agents vs sellers are very different in NC. Though the general public may not have a stigma about FSBO, agents may because we see both sides (listing agent v seller agent) and the disclosure liability associated with them.

That's correct; the big national players are taking macro takes on NC, not micro market by market approach. You're in the same situation one of my clients was in. Glad you found an alternative option that works!

@Allison Park has it been a while since you bought it and originally got it insured? Insurance companies don't necessary re-evaluate the value of your home every year, they just re-evaluate risk. So if you got it insured at $300k when you bought it and now its worth $500k, there's a good chance you were simply underinsured. Insurance also does get more expensive when it becomes a rental because now there's another, potentially, family and pet that can damage or destroy a property and insurance carriers have to protect against that. $1,600 feels pretty far for the course for a Raleigh rental (depending on property value of course). A lot of my policies went up recently (as did those of the properties that I manage) and I'm switching my insurance to NC Farm Bureau - shoot me a message and I'd be happy to share my insurance agent's contact info. I'm saving $200-$300/yr/property on the same coverage or better.

Comps and floorplan/feasibility will tell you that. I'm finding that some separation between things like living room v kitchen is revived and not everyone wants ALL of the living spaces to be able to see each other. This depends on market, price point, buyer pref/demand.

On the appraisal process, it unfortunately will be a bit out of your control at this point how clean or neat the property is. We do professional photograph and 3D tours for our rental listings, so I will usually provide him those so he can see the pre-tenant condition. In the future, I would consider trying to get the appraisal done right before tenant moves in so the property is at its best. Beyond that, I generally put the max ARV comps and rental/DSCR will support so I can always scale it back if the financing needs it OR appraiser disagrees, but at least I have 1+ comps for the lender. It's also helpful to give him a budget breakdown of all of the work you did so they see your efforts since purchase price (especially if that's a low PP)