All Forum Posts by: Brandon Stevens

We use Jason as well on a number of our properties. They have been excellent to date. 

Welcome to BP. There is a few of us Lexington folk on here, its a competitive market, especially right now. GL happy to offer any advice we can. 

Id recommend you tell people what your looking to do/looking for and the locals will be better able to answer your questions.

 I personally like mean Jay better :)

Doesnt sound terrible if you think your buying right and will have some nice equity in the home the day you close or with minimal repairs thereafter. Obviously the single family will be more apt to appreciate over time vs. the strictly cash flow properties in mke. Just a matter of what you are looking for. 

Not having established credit is one thing, bad credit is another, the good thing is both can be fixed. That number is an important figure in our line of work especially starting out so take it as seriously as you do anything else. I lived off PBJ and cereal for a good while starting out :) You are starting early thats also a big plus for you, not that you can't start later in life, but if you start building a portfolio now, house hacking now, your going to be in a fantastic position sooner than you think. I bought my first flip when I was 21 and used the profits from it (25k off a little house off clays mill) to buy my first 2 rentals. I was able to leave the 9-5 and live off my rentals 12 years later. Had the market not fell out in Lexington when I was new and not smart enough to know that was when I was supposed to be buying, it would have been sooner :)  

Nonetheless its worked out pretty well, Your likely going to need a co-signer on any deal you do it sounds like at this point. I'd talk to family first, explain what you want to do, then if you think they are on board, find a deal bring it to them show them the numbers, show them how its a safe investment and offer them a ridiculous amount of the profit on the first one. Would it be nice to keep it all yourself? Sure but remember its just your first one and your paying for the education and the "prove it factor" with your family member so next time they'll be happy to co-sign or invest. 

As for credit, one of the best/fastest thing I tell people they can do is to be added as an authorized user on a family members card (only if they always pay their bill of course, and if they have a good size credit limit on that card) What this does is immediately raise your debt to available credit margin which will raise your score. Tell them you don't physically want a card, don't want the number, and thus you would never be able to used it, you just want to be added on the account to help your credit numbers. If not apply for some low limit cards and pay off down to 3% every month. 

I know Jim well, you'll need a little more experience before he'll work with you or have a partner with experience but there are plenty of local banks that will give you a shot if the numbers work. I wouldnt worry too much about how risky it is,  from a deal standpoint, your realtor should understand what your lookin for and whoever your lender is will likely underwrite the deal. Then if your family member can write a scope and an estimate. Between all of you....and J Scotts book...and the BP community....Go for it, its the only way to really learn....pick a price point your comfortable with and  have a backup plan for the property. I never thought of it as risky :)

GL. Like @Jim Wilcox said Lexington is a tough market. Its small enough and there are plenty of educated investors all looking for deal. I believe we own a rental or a flip in progress in every neighborhood in the city which you would be looking and I bet I get no less than 10-15 direct mail flyers a week. I cant say that ive seen an abundance of bandit signs lately so maybe the city is cracking down on them.  My personal opinion is that the city is probably not quite big enough to be a full time wholesaler, could you get a dew deals a year? Maybe, but youd probably bw better off having your realtor find you a flip to do yourself. Jmo

GL Tyler, try not to be discouraged by some posters. It sounds like you did everything you could to vet the property from out of state. Maybe it works out maybe it doesnt, if nothing else Im sure youll learn a lot from the experience. Just getting going is more than most.

We've been buying and flipping in Milwaukee over the past 2 years. I live about 8 hours away and spent a couple weeks a month up there over the last year or so putting a team together. Im happy to answer any questions I can from other out of state investors interested in this area.