experienced bpers chime in please-growing your flipping business

[Derek Shipman]

good afternoon bpers-just wanted to get some advice from the experienced investors on here.let me give you my story

**2002 to 2004- (idiot phase)-as a newbie i use my perfect credit to buy 5 homes in dekalb county,ga at prices between 80 to 100 k and put them on section 8-still working a full time job

**2005 to 2007- i kind of start to acquire a lil knowledge in buying and rehabbing .i do most of the non skilled work (painting,sheetrock.landscaping etc and hire reasonable contractors for plumbing ,electrical etc. i easily replace my job income by simply selling 3 to 4 rehab homes(using hard money) per year- so i quit my job and am now a full time real estate investor

**2007 to 2008-credit is still great at first however as the deals start to dry up and section 8 tenants begin to move -i have to go in remodel the rentals i have for new tenants and instead of being worth the 80 to 90 k i still owe-the rentals are now worth 30 to 40 k.i carry the wieight for about a year until i exhaust all my savings-at a certain point i cant do this any more -let all credit go (houses,credit card,cars -all of it-so now credit is too

**2009 to 2010-i realize this market is actually to my benefit.i approach my main hard money guy and ask him to finance several of these low priced homes in 2 year cycles.the agreeement is i will buy 3 to 5 rentals at a time for 20 to 40 thousand dollars.during that 2 year cycle i would then go rent those houses at 850 to 900 per month-his payment would be 300 to 400.i would live off the difference.then i find other fixer uppers and do a great rehab then sale.all the profit would go to paying off the rentals.

**2010 to now (worked myself to death)-basically i have been paying off between 2 to 3 rentals each year-because all of the profits go to lender i have pretty much been working nonstop -but on the flipside now i own 11 houses outright.i owe the lender on 2 more rentals (about 70 k) and clear about 10 thousand a month

** now my question-if you were in my shoes -taking into account my credit situation -what would be your strategy to leverage your assets to pull yourself up from doing 6 to 10 deals a year to 12 to 20. i realize i will only get so far spending 80 percent of my time doing most of the work like i have been

[Rick Baggenstoss]

Sounds like two challenges. Scaling you and financing.

On #1 - Hire out the non-skilled work and focus on buying deals. A few more houses per year is probably worth more than a little additional sweat equity.

On #2 - That sounds more challenging, but something you can do.

You might also try a portfolio loan with a friendly, local bank. Flip some houses for income. Buy subject to houses so you have less capital requirements. Most attractive would be to find some private money.

On #3, not requested above, make sure you're protecting yourself as you climb the ladder again.

What have you tried?

Rick