All Forum Posts by: Sean Cole

Interested in connecting with folks with experience in student housing development, especially in Ohio and Oxford/Miami University...  I've got a parcel of land and an option on the neighboring parcel that would allow ~100 beds based on getting rezoned to multifamily.  The head of Planning has indicated excitement about increasing density in this area and redeveloping these parcels specifically.

This is outside my normal scope, but seems to be a good project if the economics match what we think they are.  

1) What's a ballpark estimate of cost/sf to build student housing?  The units would likely be a mix of 2/1 and 4/2.  In unit w/d closets.  No amenities like swimming pool or clubhouse.

2) Are any banks lending on these projects when they're built as modular builds?  We're not talking about trailers, just factory built boxes that are craned in place on the job.  Seems like a great way to decrease construction time and ensure quality, but it doesn't matter if banks are afraid and won't lend.

3) What doesn't a new investor to this space know that can ruin him/her?

Are you looking for deals to wholesale or to keep as rentals/fix & flip?

Hey @Mohammad Sheatt, I believe Kassie works for one of the companies here in town you've recently bought from.  

We'd love to sell you another house too!  Let me know what you're looking for and we'll call as soon as we have one that matches.

@Steve Vaughan remember that banks and sellers aren't perfect when it comes to determining FMV. Even if you and I have the same opinion of ARV and repair costs, we'll likely wind up with different MAO because we'll have different ROI goals, different holding costs, etc. It's also possible that one of us thinks ARV is much higher than the other or that repairs are cheaper.

@Arin Whedbee unfortunately, a lot of wholesalers realize that they'll likely only deal with an individual seller on 1 transaction so they feel no need to treat them with respect.  Integrity is what you do when no one is looking - or when you don't think you'll get caught.

I don't begrudge any investor from maximizing their profit, whether you own the house for 1 hour and 10 years.  If you wouldn't want to be in court answering for your actions, you're probably doing it wrong.

Zillow's own CEO sold his house a couple of years ago for 40% less than the Zestimate at the time of sale:  http://www.inman.com/2016/05/18/zillow-ceo-spencer-rascoff-sold-home-for-much-less-than-zestimate/

@Jeff B. maybe contractor license laws are different in CA than OH, so please help me understand how a contractor doing a rehab budget has a license at risk?

 It takes much less time to do these things that you think.  We've invested money in our Salesforce build and have gotten the time to write and print an offer down to under 1 minute.  Building a rehab budget takes me as long as it takes to walk through a house and keeping track of negotiations with sellers is built in to my email and SF.

I've got well over 500 sides, and bought/sold nearly 100 houses last year so I'm pretty busy.  I don't let busy work keep me busy, though.  I've worked with too many new investors to agree that an investor-friendly agent doesn't need to know how to do rehab budgeting.  It's a far bigger time waste to go through a house that'll never be a deal because you can't look at the listing photos and get a ballpark idea of rehab budget so you can determine how close to list price is realistic.  Doing this, I'm able to keep track of 157 houses right now that we're targeting without having to go see 157 houses.

As an agent (and investor/wholesaler), I think "investor friendly" agent means an agent that can walk through a house and put together a realistic rehab budget, determine ARV accurately and knows how to negotiate with bank AMs to successfully close transactions.

Most investors seem to think that it means you'll do all of the above for less money than the bored housewife that just got her license and doesn't know anything.

@Jacob Murphy what's the efficiency on those?