All Forum Posts by: Karen Margrave

Quote from @Daniel Robbins:

I have a 1920s boarding house I currently rent as a single family.

It has seven bedrooms each has its own private bath then a common kitchen laundry.

Has anyone experienced the pros and cons of renting these by the bedroom.

I want to try it but hear of all the stories of strangers not getting along. If it works I have three pieces of dirt that I would like to build three more buildings on.

Depending on where it is and the demand, you might want to go after seniors. Quite often they have limited budgets, or no reason to pay for an entire house, etc. so would be happy to have a shared housing situation. Co housing is getting to be more popular. Another niche would be students if you're close to colleges or universities. There's also transitional living homes, for those in recovery.  

Definitely talk to a real estate attorney about a contract that would allow you to evict people without it affecting anyone else. 

Quote from @Anna Stairs:

Quote from @Karen Margrave:

Quote from @Anna Stairs:

Help! Gone way over the budget of my first flip and still not finished! Mostly due to inexperience, purchasing a 100 year old house that probably should have just been torn down, crooked contractors and theft of deposits. The investment already far outweighs what the house is worth, probably over $100,000, and there is still at least another $60,000 to finish everything, plus paying realtors and capitol gains tax. Spent the last year of my life working 10-12 hour days trying to do most the work myself. I won't get that back. I still have so much to do, kitchen countertops, island countertop, bathroom vanity countertops, all the trim work, hardwood floor in the family room, a raised deck in back, windows to be restored, cleaned and painted, a new front door, repairs and painting the front porch, steps and columns. Just so much more to do, and not only no profit, but a huge loss. 

What can I do to get out of this nightmare? Sell it as is? Sell FSBO? How do I find another investor that may be crazy enough to take it over? Should I finish it just enough to make it more sellable and keep working on it even though I'm in the red now by $100,000?

When you're in a hole, stop digging. I have zero experience on a house that old, and would never attempt to do one, because there's always things that you don't see until you start digging in. Windows should have been one of the first things done. Forget putting in hardwood floors, unless you mean refinishing them. Post some pics if you can to allow people to see the condition of the house, and other remodelers may be able to give you more detailed insight. 

Many areas have grants available to help with energy efficiency for windows, insulation, upgrading heating and air conditioning units, you might check on that. $1000 a window? You have to be able to get cheaper windows. How many bids did you get? 

If everything were done, what would the value of the house be? Please post pics. 

Unfortunately we have to deal with getting approval for ANYTHING we do to the house including windows. That usually takes a few months for them to get back to us, usually to deny the proposals. They will not allow new energy efficient windows to be installed unless they are exact wood replicas of the old windows. So cheaper windows are not an option. I contacted many window companies that would not touch that or deal with a historical society. I found two others that specialize in restoration of historical windows and they came back with $1,000 each. So now we are just trying to get them functional, to open in case a fire, most have been painted shut with 100 years of paint. clean them up and paint them. We are repairing and replacing all the storm windows so at least it wont be drafty and keep the heat and A/C in. So we have moved forward with everything except replacing windows.
If everything were done, and it sold last summer, it probably would have sold for $600,000. Which is what we have into it, no profit. Now I'm thinking it may sell for $500,000 if we are very very lucky. Less if we don't build the deck on back.

Sounds like an expensive lesson to learn.  It's so ridiculous when they put such stringent requirements on historical buildings. Rather than saving them, they give builders every reason to flee. 

Quote from @Anna Stairs:

Help! Gone way over the budget of my first flip and still not finished! Mostly due to inexperience, purchasing a 100 year old house that probably should have just been torn down, crooked contractors and theft of deposits. The investment already far outweighs what the house is worth, probably over $100,000, and there is still at least another $60,000 to finish everything, plus paying realtors and capitol gains tax. Spent the last year of my life working 10-12 hour days trying to do most the work myself. I won't get that back. I still have so much to do, kitchen countertops, island countertop, bathroom vanity countertops, all the trim work, hardwood floor in the family room, a raised deck in back, windows to be restored, cleaned and painted, a new front door, repairs and painting the front porch, steps and columns. Just so much more to do, and not only no profit, but a huge loss. 

What can I do to get out of this nightmare? Sell it as is? Sell FSBO? How do I find another investor that may be crazy enough to take it over? Should I finish it just enough to make it more sellable and keep working on it even though I'm in the red now by $100,000?

When you're in a hole, stop digging. I have zero experience on a house that old, and would never attempt to do one, because there's always things that you don't see until you start digging in. Windows should have been one of the first things done. Forget putting in hardwood floors, unless you mean refinishing them. Post some pics if you can to allow people to see the condition of the house, and other remodelers may be able to give you more detailed insight. 

Many areas have grants available to help with energy efficiency for windows, insulation, upgrading heating and air conditioning units, you might check on that. $1000 a window? You have to be able to get cheaper windows. How many bids did you get? 

If everything were done, what would the value of the house be? Please post pics. 

When we were building spec new construction in southern CA I had a lot of people wanting to pay us to mentor them. We wouldn't. Running a business and building is a full time job. Having time to train someone at the same time would have been too much of a distraction. I was always happy to give detailed information to help people move ahead, etc. Rather than looking for a mentor that charges you, maybe try to find a job working for someone in the business, a developer, contractor, realtor, etc. Take classes in business law, finance, learn to analyze deals, etc. Search for meetups in your area and go to them.  Get to KNOW your market so that when you find a deal, you'll recognize it. 

Quote from @Mike Williams:

Hello everyone.  
My son is 24 years old and has over a million dollars. (He earned this $ as an underground rapper and still earns about $40k a month)

I’d like to help him invest that money in real estate but I have no idea where to start.  

If you were 24 and had this kind of money, what would you do?

Thanks!

How exciting that your son is that successful doing something he loves! You must be so proud.  Real Estate is a great investment. Southern CA has some incredible markets. When the market crashed in 2008, we were in Redding, CA. My husband, adult kids and their families all decided to move to southern California, knowing it would be the first to rebound. All of us were in construction and real estate.  Once there, and not knowing anything about the area, I started searching online, and came across BP. I immediately was hooked and started consistently answering posts, etc, and soon was asked to moderate. 

Though there weren't really many other investors at the time on BP doing spec new construction, I saw a need for a meetup and started one in Lake Forest. I also got BP to add the forums for New Construction so that people could post photos of projects in progress, and I knew STR were going to be hot, so got that going too.  

We decided that being in a new market, though it was the most expensive, the coastal areas had the greatest potential for appreciation, high demand for rentals, etc. We ended up building in San Clemente, and Capo Beach. You can see our projects by going to my other website, 1stamericanconstruction   

The point is, whatever market, or niche you decide to invest in, do your homework, and mitigate as much risk as possible. Check licenses, etc. Good luck. 

First off I'd suggest not putting how much money he has on a public forum, as it can be a magnet for unscrupulous people. Anyone can track down a person with the tiniest bit of information. The advice given above is good, with the caveat of checking the references of any financial advisors, CPAs, etc. If you would like the post removed, or me to edit out the dollar amount, message me.  

You will want to find out what the regulations are for the state and for the area you live in. It also depends on the type of service you are offering. In CA there are transitional living homes for sober living. Some offer long term room rentals, others are short term. Then there are those that are associated with a type of program, licensed by the state, and require different levels of service for the clients, such as counseling, requiring they attend 12 step programs, parenting classes, etc. 

It depends on where you are, and what labor market is. I'd suggest calling someone that does drywall and see if they can give you a bid. If they're swamped, see if they can give you a ballpark figure off plans.  If it's for new construction, send the plans. If it's for a remodel, do a diagram of the room, with dimensions, height of ceiling, etc. and you should be able to get a pretty good idea. Some photos too. 

In southern CA sometimes subs could be in another town an hour away, so to save time I had my website, with a tab with info on the project (for buyers) and a tab for subcontractors, and I uploaded our building plans for them to access and give me bids. Worked great! 

@Account Closed Thank you for your detailed answer. Though I didn't have all the information, I was afraid that the process was as you described. I don't want to pay for lists that I have to weed through to find the few people that might be qualified buyers. On some of the lead generation platforms they ask if potential buyer has been pre qualified with a lender, and if not, they are assigned a lender as well as an agent. With real estate investors, many use private or hard money, so it's a little different process, but they still would know if they have financing lined up. I don't mind paying for high quality leads that have a good chance of conversion. Also with investors, there should be a qualifier as to the type of property they're looking for on the questionnaire. In my area everyone wants a multi family, and we just don't have any available for sale, so those leads would be a waste. 

Quote from @Caleb Brown:

Quote from @Karen Margrave:

@Brian Blosser @Caleb Brown @Corby Goade @Austin Johnson @Zander Kempf @Janel Kolbo @Benjamin Mavity @Manny Vasquez @Robert Finn

Overall are you satisfied with the quality of the leads on Featured Agent, in comparison to others? Is any prequalification of buyers done? 

My issue that I have is that I've been a moderator and member since 2009. I have posted thousands of posts, offering free, detailed advice for members on all things real estate development, construction and real estate. I did this to help others and as a side benefit grow my network and become the go to person for BP members in my area as a Realtor and General Contractor. I've started Meetups in Orange County, CA and in Bend, OR.  In other words, I've added value to the BP brand over the years. However; now whenever I do a post and put in "if you have any questions" or "if you need more information, I'm happy to help" my posts are taken down, and I'm asked to buy Featured Agent, depriving posters of helpful, expert advice. 

So my biggest question is, what value do the paid leads actually have over posting in the forums and consistently giving advice?  Over the years I have done deals with BP members that have joint ventured, funded deals, and purchased homes through me. However; since the Featured Agent push, there's now someone else in my area that's a paid featured agent, so apparently participating in the forums and answering questions will no longer be of value in picking up BP clients, they'll go to the Featured Agent that's only relationship with BP is paying his bill for leads. 

 I do both. I actively post on the forums and find clients through that. I also get leads through the paid part. Currently it has slowed down a little so I get 20-30 leads per month. You have to be careful about what you post, I haven't gotten my posts taken down in a few years(when I was a rookie). Maybe being a featured agent is a part but I'd say keep posting helping people and don't do self promos. 

I'm a moderator on BP, and have been for many years. I'm one of the people that take down, remove, or edit posts. It's pretty subjective, based on the moderator. Some are more rigid than others. Personally if there's a post that has a line in it that may be a promo, I will edit out that one line, leave the post and let the poster know I did that, so that the information given is still up.  Back to the Featured Agent info. 

My question was to try to get some feedback from members, on the paid Featured Agent ads. I've paid for leads before. I know that some of the providers do pre qualifications so the leads are hot leads, and others have simple forms that request a name, phone, and email and you have to weed through them. Where on the scale does BP fall?