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Updated about 7 years ago,
Advice for newbie, flip won't profit
Hello BP members,
Here a newbie from WA that is in trouble. After studying for many months the possibility of buying a house through a foreclosure action I finally did it, and even though I knew about the risk and repeated my self to not make any of those mistakes, I made them. I'm looking here for a sincere and helpful advice.
On July of this year and with the help of a bidding company I bought my second flip. This company charged me 3% to represent me in the auction and gave me an overview of different foreclosed properties in the area. They present me this numbers for this house: ARV 460K, rehab cost 40k, decent condition house according to them in a B area, hot market, min bid 300k. This company presents this numbers to the investors one day before the auction, so with the pressure that I had to make a decision and since I have been trying to buy a property for many months without results I made my bid. Result, I got the property for 309k. I was excited since the numbers presented to me made sense, I was hoping to make a decent profit. Next, the day I went to see the house and it was basically a teardown! 7ft Blackberry bushes, leaking roof, carpet had feces on it, wood paneling that was covering a textured wall positive for asbestos, and many many other things that made this house a *hole. Oh, I forgot to mention I got a hard money loan at 12%, 5 months, 2 points with 10% downpayment.
Fast forward to today, new roof, updated electrical system, blackberries are gone with a nice grassy backyard, new furnace, new plumbing, and other things that just keep adding up totaling almost 33k. On the administrative side: payments to the hard money lender, water lien that didn't appear on records for 3.5k. Administrative matters were also on my way; city permits that take 8 weeks to be approved (I haven't even got the building permit yet, and it's already 8 weeks ), labor here in WA is expensive and contractors are busy. Anyways, to make it short, I don't think I will be able to finish in those 5 months and according to my calculations to get this house in a decent condition I will need to spend another 35k ( cabinets, floors, appliances, doors, trims, light fixtures, driveway, siding, drywall, granite countertop) even after that and after seeing how the market is behaving I think I could sell this house for 420000 max, not the 460k I was told. Also, the less I spend the less I will be able to sell it for.
So at this point, I'm wondering what to do. Should I continue and pay 1 point more to the lender to extend the payment period to finish this property, sell it for 420k breaking even if lucky? Should I try to sell now, but who would like a house like this or maybe cashout refinance after done and rent it out for a while ( rent in this area for this type of property is from 1900 to 2k a month) leaving some money on it? I would really appreciate your output/advice/ creative solution. Thanks