Houston Newbie in need of advice

[Joshua Olmeda]

Hello BP! Fist I want to say thank you for everything everyone is doing on this sight. It is an inspiration to me and to all newbies.

Well for starters let me tell you what I want. Right now I hope to make the money back that I put in. One of the fastest way I have find out to do that is flipping houses. The reason being is I have saved up and gotten a totals of 25k (from privet lenders ex. family) I would like to pay them back as soon as possible maybe in the next month or so. My family dose not approve of me doing this so I will never hear the end of it if i just wast their money and of course  I do not want to do that. I guess my question is: is 25k enough to flip a house and to make a profit?

I know it depends heavily on where the property is located at also how much work needs to be put into it. I plan to do most if not all the rehab myself. Coming from a construction job and background I have some connections to help me with that if need be.

My mother has agreed to cover the closing cost so these are my thought on it. Please feel free to give me advice. All criticism is greatly appreciated.

Look for something in the 75k to 80k range to put down 20%

My mother covers the closing cost (she wants to get into real estate also and has been the only one to really support me from my family)

Hope I can rehab it with 8k

Is 8k to small? I know I wont be able to do anything major, but i was hoping to fix the kitchen and or restroom. maybe re paint the house and some rooms. Am I living a dream, or can something like that be done? Thank you for taking the time to help little ol me out

Josh

[Andrew Johnson]

Joshua Olmeda I'll be the old grizzled guy who shouts at the youngsters saying "YOU NEED RESERVES!" If there are surprises what is your plan? Open a credit card and start using that for financing? Not that I'm saying that's a "bad" plan but an HVAC system that ends up needing to be replaced (that you didn't budget for) eats up 38% of your rehab budget. The one salient advantage that you have that you're a contractor. You can put in sweat equity. Maybe you can get raw materials with a contractor discount. There are reasons why you could make it work. That said, I'd look for a deal that would look promising if you had to pay "full price" to a GC to do the work. Then you're really capturing the sweat-equity value. If you take a deal that ONLY pencils out because you're a contractor, I'd stay away. I'm guessing that might be tough as when you walk a property you'll probably see a lot of "easy fixes". Anyway, food for thought.