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Updated almost 9 years ago, 03/14/2016
New member from Whatcom County, Washington.
Hey everyone, my husband and I run our General Contracting business in and around Bellingham Washington. I'm now holding down the fort with our newest addition who is only 4 months old but had been working along side my guy for 2 summers up until I was 5 months pregnant.
We started our business in the fall of 2012 as more of ahandyman business but soon found that with all the larger repairs he was getting into that switching to a General contractor would be ideal, especially with the hopes of building new homes in the future.
My husband grew up working along side his dad who was also in construction starting from an early age. His dad was a GC for 30 years after working as a Journeyman in the San Diego area in his younger years.
Not long after we married 9 years ago, my husband joined the carpenters union as a Journeyman and worked in heavy industrial construction on very big projects for about 6 years. His experience in construction as a whole covers pretty much all bases.
He currently finds himself working on fixing major rot issues in our area due to other GC's not following the correct building protocols to prevent water damage (and apparently home inspectors are taking money and not catching a damn thing).
He's worked on many seemingly high end homes that were built by hacks and the home owners have suffered huge losses in the process. I've seen with my own eyes a 7 year old home (estimated value around 700k) with a structural beam that was so rotten it would crumble like dirt in some places.
In light of this, he is tired of fixing other's horribly made homes and wants to offer our area quality homes that will not be rotten 10 years down the road. And currently we are renting and want to build our own home because all the houses around here have so many issues it's not even funny!
I'd like to add that while every year we double our gross, our net doesn't keep up (part of that is because we choose to pay our employees a good wage! No regrets there, though!) . We're having a hard time securing a loan to begin building our first home. Which is why we're here! To learn! Eventually we'd like to not only be building new homes but also diversify in real estate as a whole. Excited to have found this website!
Hi Samantha Johnson ,
Welcome to BP.... Check out the podcasts and Brandon Turner does a webinar every week that's always a great learning experience.
You may want to set up some keyword alerts for your area and your investing interests.
Also connect with Patrick Britton , He holds a local meetup up by you and he is also very helpful.
Best Regards
Kevin
Hey Samantha!
We're new to REI and in Whatcom County too, maybe we can talk and exchange ideas sometime! :)
hi Samantha! and thanks @Kevin C. for the shout out :)
I have a few people who would love to connect with you guys. I'd also like to invite you to a local networking group: http://www.meetup.com/Bellingham-Real-Estate-Inves...
welcome to the site!
Good morning and welcome to the community @Samantha Johnson and @Kalina Veto.
Samantha, it sounds like you already have a solid path laid out for you and are looking to get started as a developer and have a good idea of what issues you need help with right off the bat. Are there any details of why you haven't been able to secure a loan that you would be able to share for the community to take a crack at? Also, do you focus exclusively on Whatcom or are you up and down the Puget Sound region? Would you do projects say...in Tacoma? Everett? Have you explored offering your services to Canadian investors looking to make purchases in Washington?
@Samantha Johnson - Welcome to BP Samantha! There is definitely a lot of excellent tips on putting together a one page business plan, understanding the five "C"s of lending, and how to establish rapport and a long term relationship with a portfolio lender.
Never hesitate to ask questions, and if you ever need a real estate agent (JBLM based) who is an investor and understands the REI mindset, please give me a call!
Thanks everyone! I hope I'm tagging everyone correctly.. Getting familiar with this forum platform.
@kevin Carbon Will do!
@kalina veto I'm open to that!
@Patrick Britton That'd be great.
@Alex Chin The issue is we don't have much of anything saved up, our debt is a little on the high side, and we don't have anything for a down payment (running this business isn't cheap) . My husband has some excellent ideas for the area as far as what types of homes we want to offer, and a realtor we know agrees the homes would sell like hot cakes. We just need to get the first one going! The equity from the first one would be more than enough to get a second home going and from there we'd be set. We'll be looking into getting a hard money loan this week.
And no, as of right now we're just sticking to Whatcom County. That doesn't mean it won't change in the future, though. And also have not considered Canadian investors - we aren't looking into doing land developments but building one nice home at a time on the right lot.
Thanks @kerrysmith We've been pouring over the articles and forums here! And thanks! May need to make a call sometime :) .
Hi Samantha! Welcome to BP. Please let me know if I can ever be of assistance. You are in an investor friendly market - so lucky! Please let me know if I can ever be of assistance!
Thanks @Kim Martin!!
Welcome Samantha. I also encourage you to look at the local REAPS network for connecting with others investors. It's the Real Estate Assoication of Puget Sound and there are meetings up and down the I-5 corridor and one of those is in Bellingham. Here is the website http://www.reapsweb.com/
@Samantha Johnson - quick tip about tagging another poster: type out "@John" and then wait a second. If they are a contact of yours, or are participating in the thread, BP will automatically give you an option to select and tag them.
If you are willing to build your business a little more slowly, you might want to consider giving an investor a cut of the profits in exchange for funding the build. Have you put together a presentation package to try getting a construction loan from a bank? I would suggest a few pages detailing construction costs, and then statements from at least 3 real estate agents projecting the market and sell point for homes of the type you are looking to build. Pictures would be great to throw in there if you can, and then when you wrap up the presentation, just hand it to the loan agent and have them seriously consider the proposition.
Cheers and good luck!
@Samantha Johnson as a former loan officer, I can tell you there are a number of useful down payment assistance programs out there. Most realtors are only familiar with a few, like USDA or FHA, but rest assured that those are just the beginning. i'd check with a few loan officers from different places such as Fairway Mortgage (Marie or Mike), Umpqua (Amy Baker), Caliber Home Loans (Dustin Brumley), Columbia Bank (Kim Grayson) to start.
Thanks Mary, Alex and Patrick (nothing pops up for tagging options when I attempt to using the @ symbol and all - weird!)
I'm going to go over these suggestions with my husband.
We met with a loan officer yesterday and didn't really get anywhere. She suggested buying and building equity over 5-10 years hah.. She is under the impression we are "just getting started". The problem with both of us looking young for our age ;).
@Samantha Johnson to do the "tagging" type the "@" symbol and the "?" dont hit space after that. just type "@?" and then you can choose the person.
That loan officer sounds like a newbie who's looking for an easy commission. Working with investors can be harder, and a lot of loan officers are just downright lazy. those I mentioned will treat you well. And i guarantee you will get preferential treatment if they know i referred you :)