All Forum Posts by: Philip Williams

here's a couple pics hoping can get a few replies from the local rockford Illinois people maybe we can network!

So when I initially planned on flipping 5 or so houses this year I had this crazy notion that it would be semi reasonable....1 every two months or so. Instead I ended up buying 1 from a charity and 2 at a foreclosure auction on wednesay! So we officially have 3 flips we will be starting in march and one that should be finished in a couple weeks. Perhaps I should have shot for 10 instead of 5! To think last year we only did a single flip. Oh boy well a few lessons we learned from our second flip.

1. Time is money, even though you might make a great profit with a gut rehab they tend to take a lot longer.

2. Foreclosure auctions are amazing! Often a really good realtor will be able to get you into them before the auction don't be afraid to ask.

3. Properties at the foreclosure auction tend to be in better shape than some of these houses that have been sitting for years vacant. 

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask as I will try and help out as much as I can. The cities we have bought flips in this year are woodstock, joliet, marengo and rockford. 

Numbers on our second flip were 40k purchase price 90k rehab and 175k sale price

I'm amazed you actually found one with honestly stated expenses! Although to be fair the expenses are technically correct if they never do any maintenance. The worst I found was 10% of gross was the stated expenses, I'm sure you can guess how over prices that building was. Just for fun I ran my normal numbers and expenses were close to 48%

I only own one unit in an HOA and I will never be buying another lol. The HOA fee started at 150 a month it has almost doubled to 290 a month. They have fined me for my tenant violating various rules, she ended up having to work a double shift so she left her garbage can out to late. She didn't have her Christmas lights in her private entrance picked up fast enough. Her screen was torn it was actually another unit but they are just basically picking on her because they don't want renters in the community. It borders on harassment and is such a nightmare I offered to buy another house for her to move to because she is as close to a perfect tenant as you can find. She politely declined since she is moving out of the area after her kids graduate. I will 100 percent be selling as soon as she leaves. Oh and appreciation has been 0% for 7 years in my opinion because of the HOA. Everything else in the entire town has appreciated except for that small community of about 40 townhouses sigh......

Hi I think some people are presenting a rosier picture than is typically the case. Banks hate investors without W-2 income! I always thought the deals came first but even commercial bankers want to see a global debt before proceeding any further. Do you perhaps have a partner on the deal who can bring some W-2 income to the table? I have found this to be immensely helpful. I spend time finding the deals and when it comes to the financing I have a solid partner the bank considers having a "real job"

The biggest problem we had with our smaller 2-4 units was a mix of the things you mentioned. It however could all be boiled down to one thing, improper property management! Yes we had tenants who didn't get along, tenants who always seemed to have some excuse why there rent was late. When we hired property management who had systems in place mysteriously all those problems disappeared lol. It was the turning point in our investing career, we were free to go find deals negotiate do high dollar tasks. Instead of listening to the same tenant try and explain to me how her grandmother had died and she needed to help pay for the funeral for the third time in a two year lease.......

Hi is this still available?

Hi is this still available?

Hi and welcome to bigger pockets! I think we need a little more information to answer this question but i'll try and dive into it a little. I did a quick search of your town to see what quads were for sale and there isn't much on the market for sale. In my market and a lot of others at this point it is much cheaper to buy and existing structure than to build from scratch. If the reason you are trying to build is you have a competitive advantage such as your in construction and could save on costs it could make sense. Other wise I would be very hesitant to jump into a new build without a specific reason. It is much simpler and safer for most new investors to buy an existing property get a great home inspector a lawyer to check your paperwork and get into a new build once you have a team put together!

It is worth about 170,000 and define good lenders lol! I have several existing long term bank relationships and none of them are willing to help at all. The reasons I keep hearing are we don't have a program for that, or we don't give loans on houses that are for sale etc. These are all lenders we have multiple business accounts with and give lots of business. Which is why I was considering the hard money route.  I know I will end up paying more for the loan but perhaps I will be able to not work as hard getting it.