Analyzing properties - NOTHING looks good.

[Kristi Wolfe]

I'm a newbie. I'm obsessed with learning about RE investing (for all of 3 weeks or so now), and have gotten my husband and brother involved. We're all very excited about moving forward (giving ourselves 1 year to learn/save/strategize/niche down before pulling the trigger). That said, I've been analyzing deals daily to help determine if we want to Buy/Rehab/Hold or use the BRRR strategy. According to my calculations, NONE of the 20 or so properties (SF and Multifamily) I've analyzed makes sense. I've found properties to analyze on wholesaler websites, foreclosure websites, Zillow and Realtor.com, I've looked in my area (NW Chicago suburbs), Chicago proper, Milwaukee, Beloit WI, SF and multi-family, etc...so I wonder if the "good" deals have already been picked over by the veteran investors before I'm even able to see them, or if my numbers are too conservative because I'm afraid over underestimating costs and overestimating cash flow/profit. Is this typical? Does it just take kissing a lot of frogs to find a prince? How do the veterans come up with ballpark numbers to determine if they want to go see a property in person? I can look a photos to see that the kitchen cabinets need to be replaced, or the floor needs to be refinished, or I need to purchase a refrigerator, but trying to figure out if there's a pipe leaking inside a wall or the furnace is 40 years old or the beams are sagging in the basement is something you need to see in person, so how do you not waste your time when you're at the point where you're ready to buy seeing countless properties that need more work than it makes sense to do from a numbers standpoint? Or do you just need to spend a lot of time to find a winner?

[Joe Villeneuve]

Let me see if I can address all that you've asked here one by one:

1 - 20 properties?  That's all?

2 - Good deals come and go all the time.  Don't be impatient.  All that will do is lead to accepting a bad deal...just to get one.

3 - There's no such thing as estimating too conservative because you shouldn't be estimating...you should be using actual numbers.  There are no "ballpark numbers" for rehab.  Costs are what they are.

4 - The "waste of time" you want to avoid is looking at properties before you make an offer.  Establish what rehab you will be doing, know what those costs will be, apply them to a property, make your offer accordingly, and when you get your offer accepted...inspect the property to see if the property will actually "play nice" as far as the actual rehab needed will be.  If it doesn't, then withdraw your offer.