All Forum Posts by: Suzanne P.

As part of our expansion into the US Midwest, my partner and I are looking for reliable and reputable professionals in Indianapolis and Cincinatti. These include:

- wholesalers & realtors who can find properties with good flip potential way below market value and who provide reliable investment project summaries with realistic rehab costs and realistic / conservative ARVs
- contractors with good prices who maintain reliable project timelines
- project managers / construction managers who can manage a flip remotely on our behalf
- exit realtors who can achieve the best possible final selling price after rehab
- lawyers, title companies, property managers (in case we have to hold on to one of the properties) and other professionals who will be helpful in establishing our real estate investing operations in these markets.

Thank you in advance for your responses.

After flipping several houses this year in my home territory of Ontario I am now starting to look south of the border for flip opportunities. A business partner and I are considering to invest in Indianapolis and are wondering if anyone can suggest good / reputable / reliable wholesalers, contractors, construction / project managers, exit realtors and other professionals in the area.

Any comments about the market in general would be greatly appreciated as well.

To get to know the area I will be making a research trip to Indy around the end of October, beginning of November. I am still working out my schedule but if anyone would like to link up please shoot me a private message and maybe I can work that into the schedule.

Looking forward to all your advice, suggestions and comments about Indianapolis. Thank you in advance!

Thank you all for your replies. We are interested in a number of Midwest markets and are looking for flips at lower price points that will provide a profit margin of about $30k and up. We are interested in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and any other cities in the Midwest that offer good potential for flips. I am just at the beginning of building a power team and interested in talking to wholesalers and project managers as well as investors who have been active in this region. Thank you @Ian Kurela, @Chuck Stagliano, @Amie Lieurance, and @Loretta Chang, for your comments and PMs. Any input is greatly appreciated.

As a Toronto-based investor who wants to make the leap into the US I just came across this post. I am interested in flipping opportunities in the Midwest and am looking for reputable wholesalers and construction managers so I can build a remote power team. Would love any feedback, suggestions or contacts. 

@Ritch Bonisa  

@Brett Snodgrass 

@Jennifer Roberts

Being based in Toronto, an investor colleague and I are looking to branch out into the US midwest with an initial focus on flipping and possible adding buy and holds later on. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for reputable wholesalers and project managers in places such as Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and others.

We are looking to finance the flips completely by ourselves (purchase, holding and reno costs) so we won't need any US hard money lenders as we have heard that it is very difficult for Canadian investors to get good financing for flips and buy and holds. As a result we are looking for markets that have a reasonably low cost of entry but a potential for decent margins on flips. 

Thank you in advance for any input or suggestions.

Hi Larry, great to see you are organizing another event. I would love to come but am not 100% sure yet if I can make it. Do you still want me to click on "Attend Event" or only confirm attencance once I am sure I can make it.

Looking forward to connecting soon...

Thank you for your input, Filipe, much appreciated. Your comments make a lot of sense...

Over the last couple of years I have graduated from passive mortgage investing / private lending to being a passive money partner in flips to now running my own active flips. My flips are generally 3 to 4 hours away from where I live since our local market is way too expensive and I have been using real estate agents to find me deals of the MLS.

Recently, I have found a contractor who offers reasonable prices for renovations, and in a conversation yesterday he indicated that he is aware of many local properties that are run down and uninhabited where I could track down the owners and offer to take the property off their hands. We are doing a project right now where he found out that a similar property as the one I am working on went for more than 50% less than what I paid for my project, in a better state of repair, through a private sale. So he seems pretty good at locating properties and digging up relevant information like previous sales and sale prices etc. From what it sounds like, he might be able to get me run-down properties at much better prices than what I can find on the MLS.

In doing so he would be my bird dog and also do some local inquiries about going selling prices and other relevant information. In your opinion, what options do I have for compensating this contractor? If I purchase the property, should I pay him about 2 to 3% of the purchase price (the going rate for local real estate agents), payable at the end of the flip? Or should I give him some sort of profit sharing?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Would love to make it, Larry, but won't be able to this time. I am looking forward to next time....

I have been involved in joint venture flips for about 1.5 years now, with me essentially being the money partner and my joint venture partners actively managing the construction-side of the project. Recently I have been working with one joint venture partner who I really like as he is very above-board and cost-conscious, coming up with creative solutions to save money and still achieve great final results.

We have already been talking about doing multiple flips together; we are currently working on one flip together and I have actively been looking for potential additional projects. As a result I currently have 2 properties under contract, deals that I would have to firm up within less than 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, my joint venture partner has been experiencing health issues recently, and although he will finish the project that we already started he will not be able to take on any new projects.

That puts me into a real conundrum as I don't have any active construction experience and these flips are about a 3 to 4 hour drive away from where I live. I am a full-time business owner who has been project managing in my existing business for 25+ years, so the notion of project management is comfortable to me, however, my lack of active construction  knowledge and my physical distance pose a significant concern.

My local real estate agent in that market has been very helpful and is willing to help me look for contractors and he might even be able to check up on any potential projects occasionally but he won't be doing active construction management.

Part of me says that I should face the challenge head on and try to locate, select and manage suitable contractors myself and learn along the way, also by reading other Bigger Pockets investor blogs and advice on how to manage contractors.

The other part of me is concerned that this might be over my league at this stage, considering that I only have about 7 to 10 days to firm up the deal on these 2 potential projects, which might not be enough to do proper due diligence on contractor selection. And after contractor selection comes the possibly dicey part of managing the contractor (who might want to try to take advantage of me due to my distance and lack of active construction experience).

One option would be to let these 2 properties go and focus on building the contractor infrastructure first. I am unable to assign the contracts since I did not put an assignment clause into the purchase offers. The other would be to try to make them work on short notice.

I would really appreciate any input and advice you can provide. Also, if you could point me towards some useful contractor agreements that would be really helpful. Thank you in advance for your comments.