You've Decided to Become a RE Investor, Now What?

[JRD Mondial]

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to dive back into the RE game and proclaimed my determination to get my 1st deal done. I boldly set a target for a successful rehab and flip by 8/31/2015.

What did I do next? Well, thx for asking.

1. Web searched for and spoke with hardmoney lenders in my area. (a few I found right here on BP) I also started to put a list together of potential private lenders. This is how I plan to finance this deal.

2. I started scouring online resources for potential deals. 

I live in NYC and own a business in Westchester County. I know NYC and the surrounding suburbs tend to have higher price points than a lot of other places. But I don't care. I want to do a deal here. Even if it's the only one I ever do in life. I want to do ONE deal here!Why not the 1st one.

I searched for single family homes for under $300K. Initially found 20 properties I wanted to look at. I chose $300k as my benchmark because I know the type of property I'm looking for, in this area, under that mark, is going to be questionable and potentially distressed. 

3. I went to check out these properties and the areas they were in. In the midst of driving around from property to property, I came across a number of other potential deals. About 7 or so. Now mind you, there was no plan of action. It's not as if I was driving up and down every street purposely looking. I was just following gps directions to the next property on my list and would catch a boarded up window out the corner of my eye. I also had a good buddy with me and he spotted a few. We would jump out, go take down the address, write down agent information if there was any, and took pictures for review later. It's that easy ppl

4. Spoke with a couple of agents to discuss the outlook for my area. One was especially generous with his time and extremely knowledgeable. 

5. Found 4 potential contractors. 1 was at a Merchants Association mtg. I use to walk past the office of another. Now I had a reason to just walk in and talk to someone and did just that. 2 I just saw working on other projects and asked for the head honcho. 

6. I've taken part in a few networking events which proved to be fruitful. One in particular was a program centered around the issue of Gentrification. I went because I knew part of the discussion would have to be related to real estate. Sure enough one of the panelist was the head of a NYC area real estate group, The Council of Urban Real Estate or CURE. He invited me to mixer they were hosting where I met a bunch of Real Estate Professionals and Investors. It was amazing!

7. I analyzed potential deals using the BP calculator. Great tool. I have one suggestion for  @Joshua Dorkin, we should be able to factor in multiple lenders on a deal. Maybe that's there and I missed it. IDK.

8. I downloaded Jay Scott's books as a refresher. He includes some solid tools for use as well. Can't front, good stuff!

9. I challenged a friend & mentor to a flip competition. Now this guy is a seasoned investor, he has focused on buy & hold for most of his career. He decided to do a flip for the excitement of it. It would be his first. I told him I was gonna kick his ***. Lololol. So here we go. The loser has to buy the other a fancy dinner. 

Hey BP community, thx for being a forum for my ramblings.

J R