Flipping Houses in Pittsburgh, PA

[Frank Granata]

I work in the mortgage business and I've seen what it takes to get a mortgage done. I want to learn how much work goes into flipping a house. From finding the deal, building a budget, securing the financing (if it's not a conventional loan), to working with the sellers, agents, and contractors. 

[Moises R Cosme]

1. Finding takes 5 to 8 hours per week; we work through a daily search checklist. We look at foreclosure auction sites, MLS, online auction sites and we have a couple of brokers that we work with.

1a. We look at 15 - 20 houses for every property one that we buy, that takes another 5 to 8 hours per week. 

2. Building a budget: Roof, electrical, exterior siding/paint, gutters, plumbing, heat, flooring, kitchen, bathroom, paint. Assign an approximate cost to these items. Make sure your CLTV is 75% or less based on your projected ARV; hard money lenders use this guideline & we do as well, because it creates a margin of safety.

3. I can connect you with my guy that does financing if you are interested.  Message me & I will get you his details.  The company he finances through simplifies a lot of the process because they have forms that walk you through the entire process.

4. Working with Sellers:  what kind of Sellers are you going after?  Depending on the type of Seller that you are targeting what we do changes.  In general, if you are going directly to the Seller you will need to be patient and empathetic.

5. Agents:  most Agents are not great, they are not diligent and move slowly unless they know they are getting paid quickly.  Look on Zillow.com & try to find Agents that work with distressed real estate, these are the assets you are going after anyway.  These Agents are used to working with investors as well.  Call as many as possible & you will start figuring out which Agents you really want to work with.

6. Contractors:  Interview 3 for each job.  Take the first 7 to 10 after you close to get contractors in, get quotes & get a good hold as to the scale of the job.  Do not rush into the renovation, by taking the first week or week and half to really stress test your assumptions it will give you the opportunity to make changes to your plan without costly consequences.  

Take the first 3 to 5 days to lock down your numbers, get the contractors in the property to get solid numbers. Do not rush this step, you are better off taking a week or two to get through this preparation stage than rushing it. By taking time to really lock down numbers you will give yourself maximum opportunity to make adjustments to your original plan. What you see on flip TV shows are an excellent example, often times you see those guys discovering plumbing or electrical issues that forces them to increase their renovation budget mid way through the project. If you discover these issues early, instead of increasing your budget you can simply adjust your renovation by scaling it down. In the end you may decide to increase your budget, but making sure you take your time once you have the property will save you a lot of time and a lot of money in the long run.



Take the first 3 to 5 days to lock down your numbers, get the contractors in the property to get solid numbers. Do not rush this step, you are better off taking a week or two to get through this preparation stage than rushing it. By taking time to really lock down numbers you will give yourself maximum opportunity to make adjustments to your original plan. What you see on flip TV shows are an excellent example, often times you see those guys discovering plumbing or electrical issues that forces them to increase their renovation budget mid way through the project. If you discover these issues early, instead of increasing your budget you can simply adjust your renovation by scaling it down. In the end you may decide to increase your budget, but making sure you take your time once you have the property will save you a lot of time and a lot of money in the long run.