All Forum Posts by: Sean Walton

@Sean Webb If most houses selling in the area are on less land you may want to subdivide your land into smaller parcels assuming they can still have access to the street. You can maybe maintain the land for the house you want to keep as half the parcel but divide the other half into half or thirds.

You can also just sell off the parcels less reward and control since your mom will have to look at whatever they chose to build but less risk. 

If you have never done this before you may want to hire an architect who has done this before to help you navigate it and keep the contractor honest.

Also an architect wanting to get into development. First honing my craft at finding off market deals.

@Eric Teran Jonathan Segal gave a great talk at the AIA San Francisco a couple years ago. Inspired a bunch of my co-workers and I to buy the course. For $500 it isn't bad but I think it was heavy on inspiration and anecdotes but not very concrete, or step by step. I find BP much better for the concrete. i think Jonathan is teaching a masters program in Architect as Developer.

@Scott Choppin Love the thread! I want to get into doing this kind of development myself.

I think the big key is having the money or at least access to it (e.g. A HELOC) and figuring it into your cash flow calcs. If you know how old the roof and other big ticket items are you can calculate how long until they need to be replaced and set that money aside each month. The reason BP pushes capX savings is because too many people don't set it aside enough and expand too quickly, over leverage and have no reserves

I ordered my listsource list through yellowletters.com. They get a deal since they order so much. I've heard cycling between post cards and letters is good. Some people like coke some people like Pepsi. Yellow letters also has zip letters which I'm looking forward to trying

I bought a short sale with a conventional mortgage. But if there are 2 equal offers I'm sure cash would be chosen. If this is your home to live in you may want to try a HUD foreclosure resale often they give first choice to people who will live in it

I'm not licensed in Texas so consult with a local architect and attorney for all of the below. state and local law do not exempt you from federal law e.g. ADA. You can check out chapter 6 and 7 for an idea of what an ADA Accessible bathroom for a home looks like. Texas law may be more stringent. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/destech/fairhousing.html Usually single family homes and duplexes are exempt I'm not sure about triplexes My thought is maybe you add grab bars to the tub walls but don't change to a shower.

Hi Dan Clarkson welcome to BP. It depends what your goals are. In a competitive market an all cash offer will help you in getting offers accepted. I'm not sure it would help you much with a turnkey provider. Listen to the latest BP podcast on vetting turn key providers. If you were doing some kind of value add buying in cash and getting a loan once that was complete would help you avoid origination fees twice but interest rates are going up so you have to balance all that. If you have a lot of assets you should talk to someone about setting up an LLC but that may affect the kind of loan you can get.

@Chris Carbonell I concur with the above try and find off market deals to buy below market. Also fix it up or even try and add an inlaw unit on the property if allowed by the zoning code as a way to get more cash flow.

I have a possible motivated seller looking to relocate to Madison, WI , Dubuque, IA and areas in that general vicinity. I told her I would look for properties or trusted agents in the area.

Thanks,

Sean