REI Rookie From Dutchess County NY

[Stephen Talaber]

Good afternoon my name is Steve Talaber and I am brand new at this whole real estate thing.  I got into this by "accident". 

I have a background in construction both commercial and residential. Construction wasn't really making me happy so I decided to get my RE license. I became a part time real estate agent with practically no success. I became a little discouraged and focused back on construction.  I applied for a new job as a project manager. While at this interview I met the owner of the company I was interviewing at. We by chance got into a discussion about flipping houses when he saw I was licensed in real estate. We both had an interest in pursuing fix and flips. He encouraged me to write a business plan to flip and present it to him. 

4 months later here I am. Now I work full time researching properties to flip and to continue to develop the business model.  Its a decent situation I get an office, small salary and they have agreed to be my "investor". 

I spend most of my time searching through MLS sometimes I use hubzu.com and auction.com as well. I have probably looked at 30-40 potential properties and put offers in on 3 so far no luck though. I need to find a better way to bring in motivated sellers. This seems to be the biggest challenge to me is finding properties, especially with the margin of profit my investors look for.

I have learned a lot using this site the past few weeks. The flip analyze tool is helpful (the main reason why I joined) as well although sometimes the math comes out wrong. Anyone else encounter this issue?