Investment dollars to grow

[Andrew Orr]

Hi there,

My name is Andrew and I am 48 and live in St. Petersburg, FL.  I had an early retirement and have been watching some money I have sit there for many years. Doing nothing. 

I have about $120,000 that I am looking to use for fix-n-flip investing in pursuit of a higher IRR. It would be great to grow this to over seven figures before I turn 65 in about 17 years. I view this as being a conservative goal. Five million would be even better!

I grew up in construction. My dad built hotels, actually some all over the world for Holiday Inns. He later became his own GC and built hotels for people for the rest of his career.  I would spend summers working at job sites so the construction aspect is not foreign to me.

I am also a trained CFP, certified financial planner, so the numbers aspect is not confusing.

I suppose the main challenge I have is actually buying a house. My realtor has submitted bid after bid. Houses are selling the moment they hit the market. Most others resort to highest and best price auctions.  I understand that I must be competitive but I am not going to price myself into a loss.  I suspect a lot of these buyers that intend to fix and flip will lose money on a lot of these homes because their mistakes get amplified by their already low price. 

I guess the second thing I need help with is finding houses outside of the MLS universe. What are some successful ways people are using to get houses before they hit the MLS.

So, it's been fun.

Andrew