Competing for rehabs

[Jose Garcia]

I have been consistently beaten on my bids by this local investor with deep pockets who is part of a real estate agency which I'm not going to name. In either case, I've gone to his homes and they do a terrible job at rehabbing them but there selling. One I visited today did not even have a hood over the stove just a big hole. I can see why he is willing to pay so much more for the properties. He is not doing much more than painting.
I don't want to veer off of the 70% rule especially since I'm fairly new to real estate investing.
Any advice

[Brian Burke]

@Glenn Espinosa, the short answer is no to all. While I have some of the things you mentioned, I've used an 80% multiplier (plus or minus depending on some other factors) for many years. It's worked in times of low volume and high volume, when I've had crews and when I haven't. Materials discounts don't count because the multiplier is computed on ARV and repair cost is subtracted after that.

The reason it works in CA is because the prices are higher, so a 10% profit in terms of dollars is a meaningful number. If you are under somewhere around $150K ARV, 80% doesn't work so well because the profit in terms of dollars is so small that there is little room for error. In lower price ranges you have to trend down toward 70%.