All Forum Posts by: Wesley Davis

@Spencer Cornelia  yeah they will.  Bigger companies aren't always better.  There's a lot of national home builders who are TERRIBLE.  People use them though because they have an awesome sales staff and marketing techniques.  Yes, i'm sure that companies that are listed on those sites will do the work.  The thing I have noticed in my own dealings with flippers, is that flippers usually want GCs to sign a contract saying they will finish in a certain amount of time, and the flippers have their own terms with paying the GCs.  A good GC will not continue working with you if you do this because there's so much work out there right now that they can get a job that will pay just as much as your job without the hassle/stress of extra contracts.  The investor side of me gets why you want the extra contracts, the GC side of me hates them lol.  A good GC knows that you wanted it done yesterday (everyone a GC works for wanted it done yesterday).   

I'd also like to add, that the sooner the GC finishes, the ROI on their time and money is much higher. A 50,000.00 job finished in 2 months vs a 50,000.00 job finished in 3 months, the 2 month job made the GC a lot more money.

+1 to what @Ben Sears said.  I'll add to that: when you find one, look up their license number.  After that (if the license number cleared) check local membership clubs.  So where I live we have the AHBA (Asheville home builders association), green built alliance and a few others.  If they are members of similar clubs in your area, the likely hood of you being ripped off is slim. 

The bigger the company the more you'll pay.  Bigger companies have more overhead to cover.  That being said, with bigger companies you're projects should get done faster.

@Diane Tycangco If you tell a builder that you don't own the property, most, if not all, of the good GCs won't even see you.  They aren't doing that to be disrespectful or anything.  Good GCs do not have a lot of time.  So when someone asks them for a quote, when the person asking does not own the property, it's considered a huge waste of time for a GC.  I spent so much time giving investors and non property owners quotes that I now charge $100.00 for a quote if you don't own the property (investor or not, and I still think that is cheap).  It just tells me that you're serious about buying it and not wasting my time.  Keep in mind, quotes can take anywhere from 3-8 hours of work and time (or longer) depending on how detailed the quote needs to be.   If someone is just wanting me to stop by and give them a rough idea (a dollar amount off of the top of my head) I will usually just do a hand shake and call it good, unless the person abuses it and never gives me work.  GCs do a lot of work behind the scenes that customers do not see.  

If you would like some help, send me some pictures.  I can at least help you with an idea of what will need to be done.  I'm in North Carolina so the pricing of things will be way different.     

Yeah, hire on GC and let him do it.  It will save you a lot of time and head aches.  Believe it or not, you'll end up spending the same amount even if you didn't hire the GC

Local banks will work with you more than the large national banks

Welcome Malcolm!  I don't know your current situation, but have you looked into house hacking? 

I don't think anyone actually knows how or when it will happen.  Everyone knows it will, just when will it crash.  The question I have is how bad will it dip.  I personally don't think it will dip like it did in 2008-2009, at least I hope not.  There's different forces at work right now.  Back then lenders would give loans out based on 2 weeks pay.  They don't do that now.  They are a lot more conservative.  The high prices of housing/houses though I think will play a roll with it.  

The contractor probably knows better than the wholesaler.  Labor is expensive.  The houses that I've looked at from wholesalers usually have an inflated price.  They rarely get the rehab numbers right and in my experience the rehab numbers are almost always double.  A contractor coming in to finish an already half way done rehab that was done by someone else also adds to the price because he has no idea what he will run into since he wasn't there from the start.  So if he's good, he will add a little to cover himself when something random comes up

@Meg K. that's really cheap for that much work