All Forum Posts by: Simon Walker

Quote from @Brandon Croucier:

Quote from @Simon Walker:

Quote from @Brandon Croucier:

Opportunity cost is a serious expense, if they are moving slow, they are COSTING you more money than what a hard money lender might able to make you. In Real Estate, TIME IS MONEY.

Getting a rehab loan done quickly is worth paying an extra few points in order to be efficient as you will be able to expand your BRR business which would yield results greater than the increased cost of capital that hard money brings.

In order to escape a scarcity mindset you need to understand that money is in theory unlimited, they print it.

But can you print time? Nope. 

Time is your most scarce resource.

I absolutely agree with this. That’s why lending is my biggest concern. As a contractor I had to work for money, be at the mercy of the customer, jobs and timelines never seemed to go as planned, only to pay tax on the money I worked for. When I got my first loan for real estate I realized it would’ve taken me a full year to make this money before I could invest. In a way, I “bought” a whole years worth of time using OPM. I would have the determination and dedication to take on as many projects as possible if the funding was available. Once again, back to my scarcity mind set of there not being enough lenders out there willing to make deals, but that doesn’t seem to be the truth. 

I am happy to help, do you strictly do deals in PA?

As of right now I am just working locally. I tend to operate under conditions I’m familiar with, also taking calculated risks of what I don’t know yet. If that makes sense. I wouldn’t completely ignore the possibility of out of state operations, however I wouldn’t even know where to start. I haven’t completely dismissed the possibility I can get into some great markets out of state, it’s just the unknown is so great about it, I haven’t given it a ton of thought. 

Quote from @Mike Grudzien:

Here I go again...
Network locally with investors and syndicators.  Trust and reputation builds and deals just flow from that...

I have been working on that, I have a great relationship with a local bank that, believe it or not, funds my projects both purchase and rehab 100%. However, the average time to closing on these deals have been 2-3 months!!! Not good. 

Quote from @Brandon Croucier:

Opportunity cost is a serious expense, if they are moving slow, they are COSTING you more money than what a hard money lender might able to make you. In Real Estate, TIME IS MONEY.

Getting a rehab loan done quickly is worth paying an extra few points in order to be efficient as you will be able to expand your BRR business which would yield results greater than the increased cost of capital that hard money brings.

In order to escape a scarcity mindset you need to understand that money is in theory unlimited, they print it.

But can you print time? Nope. 

Time is your most scarce resource.

I absolutely agree with this. That’s why lending is my biggest concern. As a contractor I had to work for money, be at the mercy of the customer, jobs and timelines never seemed to go as planned, only to pay tax on the money I worked for. When I got my first loan for real estate I realized it would’ve taken me a full year to make this money before I could invest. In a way, I “bought” a whole years worth of time using OPM. I would have the determination and dedication to take on as many projects as possible if the funding was available. Once again, back to my scarcity mind set of there not being enough lenders out there willing to make deals, but that doesn’t seem to be the truth. 

Hi everyone! I joined bigger podcasts here a little bit ago, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm an 11 year contractor turned full time REI. Although I'm still learning a lot on this journey I'd like to contribute as much as I learn. Feel free to reach out with any questions about repairs, construction, mechanics, etc, as I am well versed in those fields. Looking forward to making lots of great connections with everyone.

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Quote from @Brenden Stadelman:

Quote from @Angela Harris:

Quote from @Brenden Stadelman:

@Ned Carey they don't feed you deals; they give you access to software that's like deal machine or prop stream. Still up to me to properly utilize it and get the deals contracted. When they demoed it for me it looked so easy to use and understand, the software was the main reason I decided to take the leap.

 Will Investor Edge allow us to see a Demo b4 paying the $4000 to get started

 They will, but the demo is basically a white labeled Prop stream. I would not recommend them as their points and interest rates are so high it is extremely hard to find a deal that will work with the 0% down. I work in wholesale in Indianapolis and still struggled to find deals that would even be close. I would highly recommend finding a lender that does 10% of purchase price down because it will ultimately be less expensive for you. I very much regret giving them a chance. It is not a scam, but you will have a very hard time finding a deal that is worth working with them, and frankly you are going to have to find someone that does not understand at all what their property is worth and get them to accept a super lowball offer to make it worth it. even then their points and fees will eat up so much that getting the 10% down loan will have a much much higher profit margin.

 Thanks for following up on this thread and sharing your actual experience. Sometimes you have to try something out for yourself because it's hard to sort through all the responses and know what is fact and what is opinion. As a lender myself, I was curious about their upfront fees. It's not unheard of, but I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do that given there are so many other options out there. I still have a hard time understanding how this business model works for them, but perhaps that upfront fee covers for lack of deal flow (?)  Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the follow up and I hope you've found a reliable lender you can work with. If not, I'd be happy to take a look at any future deals you're considering. 

No Problem! Glad to share my experience with them. To give a little more detail, I do believe all their cash flow is contingent on them getting you to pay upfront for their program, which I found to be inaccurate and unusable on anything other than a desk top, which I told them I do all my work on a cell phone (first red flag) that they didn’t tell me their property finder isn’t cell phone friendly. I also explained to them multiple times, I save money by being both the contractor and investor on my projects. So a project that would take someone 200k, I can do for 100k because I don’t have to pay for my labor. They didn’t explain to me upfront that they wouldn’t take that into consideration, that every deal had to be ran through, what they thought was a fair market repair cost. Which in a way, is fair, but I believe this is their loop hole to only fund the low hanging fruit deals, and stick people with a bill of 4-7k and a property search app that isn’t that good in the first place. 

anyway, I am always looking to connect, dining the next project, and get it funded! I’ll reach out to you. Thanks!

Hello everyone. Reaching out today to get some clarity. I am currently full time in real estate. I've been utilizing the BRRR method and have been successful thus far. I currently can't get over my scarcity mind set of there "not being enough money" out there to fund deals. I have a proven track record of being able to identify a property, make the appropriate repairs, and have an ARV that exceeds the cost of purchase and repair. I've currently used a local bank to fund my last three projects, but it can be a bit slow and we all know conventional lending has its drawbacks. However, they have been great and have funded every project I've brought to them. My end is goal within the next 3-4 years is have 25 doors in my portfolio.

What should my expectations be to achieve this? Any private lenders that are interested in working together to achieve this goal?

I almost got involved with investors edge… this is about as simple as I could put it. Before they fund you, they have to run the project you present to them with their own "fair market" repair costs. That leaves them with all the power to deny any loan you get, regardless of what it would cost you to repair it. Essentially what I found is you have to find projects with massive ARV for their system to work. Not saying it's a scam, but be careful. Follow these rules. Ask as many questions as possible, even if you think you're being annoying, don't leave any stone unturned. Never pay for a programs or mentorship on the first phone call/ first day. Always, sleep on it. Take notes, review, ask yourself. Were you making a calculated decision? Or were you just excited?

Last house I did all the work myself except for drywall and insulation. 1150 square feet, down to the studs, everything new except the roof and I spent $66,000. That’s without my labor, I finished in 8 month, so let’s say 40 hours, at my minimun I used to charge was $75 and hour. That would be $94,500 in labor. That’s western Pennsylvania. A lot of mechanical  trades are at a minimum $100 an hour around me for any company that’s actuay good at what they do. You can find cheaper options on some other stuff, but I hope this gives you some Insite as to what money can buy these days. 

Quote from @Andrew Syrios:

Could you "split the difference" so to speak and go back to work for yourself but limit the number of clients you take on so you only need to work 20 or so hours a week? I'm not sure if that would bring in enough money but it would certainly make things easier financially speaking while you built up your real estate portfolio. 

I wasn’t trying to be long winded, with too much detail, in my initial post but I actually did this method on a fix and flip. What I found was, yes it was nice have additional income, but each project seemed to always interfere. Even minimally. I got to the point where I hated switching back and forth. It took up a lot of logistical time too. And I was constantly more worried about my own project. I guess in hind sight it’s one Or the other. For example, on my own project. If I have the time after dinner to run to Lowe’s , and deliver material at 10pm, I didn’t have to ask if that’s ok. Little things like this shaved hours, Evan days, off a project. But maybe I was doing that wrong?

Quote from @Jaycee Greene:

I have a client in Kansas City, MO that had to make the EXACT same decision a couple of years ago. Are you OK if I send you a DM/Connection Request as a follow up to this?

Absolutely, thanks.