All Forum Posts by: David Friedman

Hello BP!

I've started posting all of my previous flips, now that I feel like I've completed enough to actually have some good original content. I hope that by sharing we can all learn, network and discuss this interesting business!

Link to my previous posts: Flipping Homes- My Exciting Journey (Post 1 of ?)

Flipping Homes - My Exciting Journey (Post 2 of ?)

3rd Property: 930 Northpark Blvd, San Bernardino, CA

This was another pretty easy property to rehab. I actually don't have any before pictures because it was a flip house prior to us buying it at auction. Deals don't always go perfect though and this one had its challenge while in escrow with the buyer. Here are the details:

Purchase Price: $210,000

Received Commission: $0

Estimated Rehab: $15,000

Estimated Time Frame: 3 months

Sold Price: $260,000

Actual Costs: Approximately $11,260 with escrow fees, carrying costs and rehab. (There were no buyer's agent fees as we found the buyer).

Net Profit: $38,740 or 17.5%

Before Pictures: (None, Sorry). The house was almost ready to sell from the day we bought it due to it being flipped 3 years prior. We had to rehab some concrete, bathrooms, carpet and paint, but nothing complex.

What I Learned:

- It's best not to involve people you personally know as buyers of your investment property. If you have to make a business decision, such as canceling the deal, it makes it much much harder.

- Looking for properties that were previously flipped a couple of years ago can have profound savings when you rehab.

- Again, staging and great pictures will sell a home.

After Pictures:

Summary:

This was the first house that we bought at auction. We hadn't learned how the auction works yet, so we paid a well-known friend to buy us this first property. The friend has been doing this for over 20 years now. This was also the first time that we dealt with the owner still living in the house. We were cautious and consulted an eviction attorney in San Bernardino before proceeding.

We served the owner a 3 day notice and he called us immediately. We paid him $1500 cash for keys to move out in one month and everything went very smoothly. Since then, I have a different strategy for moving people out, but we can talk about that in later posts. We prefer anything else to eviction and only use eviction as a last resort. Obviously the previous tenant or home owner are in a fragile state and using force can actually cost you more money in the long run if they decided to damage the house.

Now, the story with the buyer. We helped a client to sell a two-story house in Fontana and she was looking for a one-story house in the North San Bernardino area. It just so happened that we were flipping this house at the same time and so we decided to sell it to her. She was approved for a loan of this size, but she didn't make us or the lender aware that she had some medical debt. We stuck through it and after 6 months we sold the property to her. It took way too long for this home to sell, but we saved money by not paying a buyer's agent. In the end, everyone was happy. It could have happened to any one of the buyers of our properties, but it just so happened to be one that we chose. I would not do it again. It is much harder to make business decisions when you know the person it affects.

Finally, the home appraised at $250,000 even though we had several offers at our asking price, not to mention the upgrades that were above and beyond the average home in the area. We fought the appraisal and won. We sent a letter to the appraisal company justifying the price and they adjusted the appraisal value to $260,000. Don't give up immediately. This job comes with many many obstacles. Although the rehab was easy, the deal itself was not.

I will try to post more previous flips as I have time. If you think I can improve on the formatting of the post or if you think I am leaving out crucial information, please let me know. I will try to answer every question.

Keywords: Inland Empire California Flipping Flip Cash Investor Rehab Investment Redlands Yucaipa San Bernardino Highland Ontario Colton Riverside Moreno Valley Beaumont Banning Palm Springs IE SoCal Southern California Rialto Fontana Corona

@David Jarvi I sent you a PM. Thank you.

Thank you @Linval T. That's my goal! I'm 22 and I'm doing it. I'm sure someone younger and smarter than me can do it even better!

@Account Closed when I did this flip, I did some of the work like painting, landscaping and cleaning. Now, my contractors do 100% of the work. We are getting to the point where my time is best spent acquiring new investors or new investment property. I plan to hire several people in the upcoming year to help analyze property, market for potential deals and someone to manage all ongoing projects.

Hello BP!

I've started posting all of my previous flips, now that I feel like I've completed enough to actually have some good original content. I hope that by sharing we can all learn, network and discuss this interesting business!

Link to my previous post: Flipping Homes- My Exciting Journey (Post 1 of ?)

This was my second flip and the best ROI we have earned to date. I just wish it was on a bigger house! We bought this property from an heir of the owner who had passed away recently. We were introduced to the heir from friends that knew we bought and fixed up homes. Networking has brought us some of our best deals. Here are the details:

Purchase Price: $105,000

Received Commission: $0

Estimated Rehab: $10,000

Estimated Time Frame: 3 months

Sold Price: $180,000

Actual Costs: Approximately $13,250 with escrow fees, agent fees, carrying costs and rehab

Net Profit: $61,150 or 51.4%

Before Pictures:

What I Learned:

- Networking can bring immense value.

- Be prepared to take advantage of an opportunity at a moments notice.

- Smaller homes sell quicker and usually have lower rehab costs.

- Don't undersell the property. Comps said that I could sell this house for $170,000. I started at $180,000 and received a full price offer in a matter of days. If you put high quality work and materials into your flips, ask for a higher price.

- Staging will help to sell a house. It shows a potential buyer ideas on what they can do with the space.

After Pictures:

Summary:

The heir who sold the home to us lived many hours away and was tired of taking care of all of the break-ins to the property. This was his motivation to sell. We paid cash and closed escrow in 15 days. This home did not have much work to do except some upgrading. It took approximately 2 weeks to rehab the entire home. We sold this home in 2 months. This was before the new FHA Flipping laws.

The stain on the wood flooring had taken a beating and it was less expensive to cover it with carpet. We put tile in all of the "wet" areas and prefer to lay it in a diamond shape. Same amount of work, but more buyers desire this look. We kept the same cabinets in the kitchen and used a staining trick that has saved us plenty of money up to this point. We had several offers in 2 DAYS!! Overall, this flip was not hard or challenging

I will try to post more previous flips as I have time. If you think I can improve on the formatting of the post or if you think I am leaving out crucial information, please let me know. I will try to answer every question.

Hello David! Welcome to BP! My name is David too!

Are we the same person? I also live and invest in the IE. I started investing two years ago, but I have been a real estate broker for 4 years. We do flips all day long. I would love to connect with you and partner on a flip or project some time. We currently have 6 flips in progress.

Yes, we were able to save $2 or $3,000 by doing some of the work ourself. We have a great team of contractors and can get most rehab done in 2 to 3 weeks. We worked pretty hard to find a good contractor, but the one we did find is extremely reliable and doesn't charge an arm and a leg.

First flip was all cash. Half from my father and I and half from another investor. Deals that I  never could have accessed on my own, I gained access through partners. We are very careful on who we partner with. 

I took off the popcorn ceilings, restained the door, all of the landscaping, the demo, painting. I've told myself that I would never take off the popcorn ceilings again, but I have a couple more times. Everything else I contracted out for.

Thank you for reading my post Alfredo and Kirk! I'm going to keep posting more of my completed flips, so I encourage you to watch out for my future blog posts.

Hello Jeff! How have the mountains been treating you? A good team is also a must. I also have backup subs for some of my construction needs.