All Forum Posts by: Walt Payne

@Precious Thompson I think that depends on what you know, and what your plans are. I based my plan on having rehab experience myself, and a partner with the same. So we are doing fix and hold, along with fix and flip. If you plan on doing anything involving rehabs, or estimating repairs, then doing some work for a rehabber might be good. What is your plan and what do you know?What skills do you have to offer?

I would agree with @Bill Gulley with a few additional comments.

In a competitive market two factors will make that strategy unworkable. You may need to move fast. Waiting for another day to bring in that contractor may cost you a lot of deals in a competitive market. And thinking that there are no problems because you were too inexperienced to see them could make it a big loser. The safe way around that, making the deal contingent to inspection will also lose a lot of deals in a competitive market. We do our own estimates on first look, and put in an offer with no contingencies if we are interested. That will beat out a higher offer with contingencies a lot of times.

I submitted 2 offers yesterday.

One was a REO that was vandalized after the price was set. The listing agent put pics showing the damage, so at that price they had no showings and no offers. Listing agent was thrilled to get an offer. If we get it, it is only 5 yrs. old and we bid it at 60% ARV minus repair of $24K.

The second is a 2\2 less than a block from a hospital, in a nice neighborhood where similar rents run $750. I offered $25k and it has about $10k of repairs needed. No offers since early January. ARV is around $80k but hard to pin down because there are too many REOs in the area right now. But since we will hold it for a few years it doesn't effect us, and even with the REOs I could get $50k when done. Not great, but not my primary exit strategy.

How serious are you about the property? Taking a GC with you to every potential property will annoy them and waste their time. Offer to pay them as a consultant to go through with you. Go early, and make your own list, then go through with them and see what you missed.

Another possible answer is to find a contractor to partner with, or an experienced rehabber. In spite of how the shows make it look, rehabbing properties is hard to learn if you have no experience in construction. And a risky place for a newbie to start.

@Abel Vazquez my opinion of you really isn't important here ... But your ever changing story says you aren't very good at lying. And though that is a criticism, it also speaks to the probability that lying is not a habit with you or you would be better at it. Start over, do it right from now on and establish a positive rep.

Other than being a bit unclear about how far the lie progressed, there's not a lot of difference in the two stories. In one version you lied, and got caught, in the other you lied and want suggestions about how to take advantage and follow through with the lie. Either way, you lied. If you plan on getting anywhere in business you need to understand that integrity and reputation are essential elements of successs. don't lie, cheat, steal, or mislead others. If you don't believe in karma in your personal life, believe it exists in business.

A small thing I learned doing rehabs. Don't use the typical flat wall paint. Two or three showings and suddenly your nice newly painted walls look like crap. Use a low lustre paint.

Yesterday I lost out on a REO where my offer was about half of the winning offer. When I looked at my numbers I saw that they would have paid more than ARV. So I looked at the deal a few different ways to see if they might be planning a different strategy where that made sense. But nothing I looked at made sense. So I researched comps again. And there it was, the flaw in their numbers. Two houses that skewed the appraisal horribly high, if you didn't know that they are accross neighborhood boundaries.

This is yet another example of why it is critical to know your market, or to team up with someone who does.

I heard my offer on the REO was less than half of the high offer. That offer would have been above ARV and it needed major rehab. Some fool I guess

I just made an offer I think I can be proud of, though it will likely be rejected. I got an email about a REO that I put an offer on last week, saying they had multiple offers and that I need to submit my highest and best offer. I checked my numbers and replied that I already had submitted my highest and best. I resisted the temptation to try to make a deal out of something that just might not be there. In a way that's not much of an offer, and in a way it is a real winner