Fix and Flip Northern NJ

[Richard Jr Caicedo]

Looking to finally commence my real estate investing journey and was looking at doing a fix and flip around northern NJ. Can anyone provide some tips/advice anything would be useful, thanks in advance!

[Whitney Hill]

These are some of my favorite tools for northern NJ as you are researching properties...
Tax record lookup: http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/prc6.cgi?&ms...
Quick way to see flood zone status + whether owner has multiple properties: http://njparcels.com/property/
Pics for sold listings (when doing comps): Movoto seems to almost always have the listing photos up, even when Zillow/Realtor.com doesn't

Other NJ-specific advice.... there is something called "admin" MLS access that realtors can grant to an assistant (no licensing requirement, just training on the NJMLS system). If you have any realtor friends, find out if they may be willing to add you (it is a single form they fill out, cost to you is like $80/yr). The real gold on the MLS (vs Redfin or Zillow) is way better access to historic data - great for getting your ARVs, but also great for making mailing lists. Not sure what you are thinking on how to source leads? The MLS add-on tool Realist allows you to highlight all the properties that meet a certain criteria and immediately download their mailing info. You can also run stats on how much inventory is out there by city and price point etc

Best general advice... nothing new here, but what I've found to be most true:

1) get extremely comfortable with working deal numbers so you can confidently take action when right one comes up. And figure out what criteria matter most to you (I have two: net deal profit at least 10% of ARV; annualized cash on cash return of my invested capital >40%... shorter timelines help!).
2) make yourself take some sort of action so you will run across people who will become your future partners. You will also help fill in gaps in your understanding way faster than reading about it - e.g. you'll be forced to find financing and insurance for a vacant property and suddenly you'll know 3X more than you would have by reading about it (also read about it, but it's easier to read once you have the frame of reference)
3) pick your deal source (wholesalers, direct mail, web leads via Fbook/google ads, auctions, MLS older listings of ppl who are getting desperate as we head into fall) and get really good at working that one flow. Once that one is nailed down, add another. But pick one to start or you won't get good enough to see results