All Forum Posts by: Sandy Uhlmann

Purchased a 2BR, 1 bath house in a blue collar neighborhood. Other similar houses in range of 70-90,000. House is just under 1000sqft. The seller had planned to flip it. He had gutted it to the studs, re-roofed it and stopped working on it because he was having a baby. Seller had also put in a sump pump and spent $$ on waterproofing the basement. Home has harwood floors which are in good condition and are currently covered with roofing paper to protect them. Seller did a poor job on the roofing-didn't quite complete the job. Needs the roof caps placed, soffets and gutters. House needs new window, new electrical, new plumbing, new HVAC including duct system-everything. It will essentially be a new house when completed. The previous owner remove the garage door and enclosed the garage planning for a master bedroom where the garage is. This area also could accomadate a master bathroom as well.

I paid 10,000 for the house. I figure the lot was worth that amount. My contractor estimated about $40,000 to fix it up which was why I purchased it. I just recieved a bid from another contractor in which the ROUGH estimate totalled $67,000. Here is the breakdown: Demo: 1800 (not sure what all this includes as aside from a toilet, it is an empty shell) Electrical 9.500, Hvac 10,000, Plumbing $8,500, Misc/carpentry-$1200, Drywall-$5000 Interior paint/plaster repair $1900, Insulation $4,500, Exterior doors/windows-$9,000,

Siding to repair damaged area only $1500 (this is a very small area). Finish roof correctly-$2000, Gutters-1500, soffet repair-$1000, Finish plumbing/fixtures-$4000, cabinets/countertops $3000, Flooring $3000.

Please advise me if all this seems reasonable or if I need to get additional bids from other contractors or subs. I plan to rent this property out so I don't need to make a profit from this but that amount is really pushing the envelope as far as the ARV is concerned.

If these estimates are correct, not sure if I could even wholesale the property even if I wanted to.

Any help you can give me is appreciated. Meanwhile, I am going to find my rehab book by J. Scott and look up some numbers myself.....

Also, Should I convert the garage back to a garage or make it into a 3 bedroom home with no garage?

A great deal has been said in other forum discussions about the pros and cons of allowing pets. I have newly renovated 1920's home that has freshly sealed hardwood floors. (no carpet at all) I had planned to NOT allow pets but after getting so many requests and applications from self proclaimed "responsible" pet owners with "well behaved" pets, I am wondering if I should reconsider. I have read that some owners believe that tenants with pets tend to stay longer and I am wondering if that is indeed the case? Is the less frequent turnover along with the additional amount charged for pets and the non-refundable pet "fee" worth allowing pets?

I know this won't be a popular idea for those who believe in buying American made, but China has some awesome products for rehabbers that could be obtained at a fraction of the costs that we pay here in the US (especially helpful with higher end products, slab granite, ect....) but they require volume purchases and logistics might be a nightmare. Does anyone have any insight into this?

With the number of member on Bigger Pockets growing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis, I was wondering if somehow we might be able to utilize this growth in members and translate it into buying power. Perhaps we might be able to get a discount at local or box stores that specialize in home improvements/building products. Perhaps we can also harness the power in numbers to get discounts for Bigger Pockets Members for the purchase of online items too such as appliances, cabinets, countertops, and even specialty items. It would be great to get bulk pricing and only purchase one or two items. A buyer's co-op would be awesome!

I love Jeremiah B's ideas!

@ Ellis San Jose:

I have been in two of his properties, (one is a SFH with an asking price of 16,000 before ANY negotiations) and have driven by at about 10 other properties of his that we couldn't go inside because they had renters and he didn't have a chance to give them notice that we were coming by. He has SFHs, MFHs and a commercial property. I do not have ANY under contract yet because I am not a wholesaler. As I said, I was interested in one of his properties for purchase as a fixer up and buy and hold but since he is motivated to sell off most of his portfolio, I thought this would be a great way to be introduced into wholesaling.

I don't have access to the MLS in order to get good comps, I don't have a buyer's list and I don't think I would be accurate at estimating the price of repairs so I don't think I want to tackle this on my own since there are so many properties involved.

As for your question as to the dollar amount, I don't know the exact dollar amount that he needs to purchase the commercial property he is interested in. (I will ask) The only thing I do know is that he wants to do it soon. He is a former Realtor and he said to me "I am motivated, and you know if a real estate investor says they are motivated, they are motivated"

He is in the process of providing me with an excel spreadsheet of all the property he wished to unload. In the meantime, I have the list of about 11 properties that we either drove by or went in.

In the process of looking for properties to rehab to buy and hold, I have come across a tired landlord that wants to unload most of his rental properties. (he probably has at least 20-30) He is MOTIVATED! (his own words) He wants cash to purchase a commercial property. Although I am very curious about wholesaling, up to now, buy and hold investing has been by plan, however, this seems like too good of opportunity to pass up. Is there anyone out there that would like to help me out with this? Perhaps we could make it a win-win-win situation. I am open to all kinds of possibilities.

I have been keeping an eye on a property that has been uninhabited for at least 5 years. It was completely gutted at t that time and since then no further work has been done on the property. Although the out of town owner hires someone to maintain gut the grass, the structure is becoming an eyesore as kids break windows, vines grow up the walls of the home, ext....The owner has hired a third party payment service to pay for the grass to be mowed, deal with the city code dept. ect...I have attempted to send letters to the owner via the third party payment company expressing my interest in purchasing the property and have spoke to the representative at the payment company who tells me that the owner does not want to call me at this time. I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would continue to pay for the upkeep of property that they haven't even done anything with for years.

My thoughts are that this owner is just too busy to mess with this house and doesn't even want to go through the hassle of trying to negotiate with me and sell it. I am wondering if I could just send him a contract, an offer and a check and see if by chance he takes it. (Jay DeCima does this frequently according to his books) My question is is this safe? Can someone just cash the check without signing the purchase contract at which point I would just be out all that cash? Please advise.

@Chris Piper : Chris, your contract seems to be extremely popular. Would it be too much to ask for you to put it in the "file" section? (under the resource tab) I would love to have a copy too!

Thanks for all the great advice. I really appreciate it:)