All Forum Posts by: Aaron Mikottis

I backed out of my first two contracts so I can assure you from personal experience that the fears that are haunting you are all just a normal part of the process. It's often hard to say what the optimal decision is regarding any particular deal - all you can do is make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time. Ultimately, it's important to keep in mind that giving up is the only true failure so even if a million and one things go wrong on your first deal, it truly won't wreck you. Keep a log of your anxieties and hiccups. By the time #2 rolls around, you will be able to take those learning experiences and prevent them from being a problem again.

As someone looking into my first flip, I really appreciate the detailed breakdown. Thanks for the sticky. I'll be coming back to this article for sure.

It sounds like the mileage that you get out of cash for keys is very location dependant. The area where I am investing is actually decent towards landlords, but if I was operating in the city of Chicago, forget about it. No amount of life lessons for a problem tenant would be worth 3+ months of agony. Great discussion guys, thanks for the feedback.

Shannon Sadik , interesting comment. You are the first person I have seen speak unfavorably about cash for keys. Willingly going through an eviction out of principle seems like an incredible amount of time, energy, and lost profit. You seem like the kind of landlord who would give an honest review of your previous tenants - can you explain why you feel like this is not enough? Are there any situations where you would do cash for keys?

I'll be there, except for real this time. Thanks for the invite!

Thanks for painting a realistic picture. What is incredible to me is that you still made money on the deal - congrats!

Great outline. I have many of those items clearly defined, but some are on paper, others are in my mind... A few on that list haven't been laid out yet.

Very helpful to see a list of the basics all in one place. Thanks for the link.

Talk to a CPA and an attorney, but I like @Casey Mericle's idea. While the idea of another $430k for developing the property yourself sounds tantalizing, it may be a bit much for an early venture. $1M is not pocket change and unless you have a strong background in development and you know the high end SFR market like the back of your hand, it sounds like a lot of risk.

If you take that $275k and leverage it into multiple properties, possibly saving some tax via a 1031 exchange, you spread out your risk while laying a foundation for long term wealth.

My $0.02.

Sorry I missed this one - looks like you guys went over some really good resources. I'm still plugging away - I'm about to launch my first direct mail campaign.

Hi everyone.

I do not own any property just yet - I've had two deals under contract that have fallen through. Via the process that I have experienced, I have learned a great deal and I have attempted to put it down on paper to help streamline the purchase of property. The idea is that I want to be able to march down the list for any given deal so that I don't need to second guess what the next step is.  Please let me know where my holes are and if there is anything that should be tweaked. Thanks!

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Edit  - formatting inline is being finicky with me, I have a word document on my google drive here.