Musician/Teacher/Investor in Boulder/Denver, CO

[Dave Laub]

Hey BP!

I've poked around on this site a few times over the last few years and finally signed up. I'm a part-time professional musician, part-time school band director, part-time private lesson teacher, part-time stay at home dad, and part-time real estate investor. Variety is the spice of life, right?

I jumped into RE investing three years ago after leaving a full time teaching position in the mountains. I wholesaled a couple of deals to get started and have concentrated on fix and flipping ever since. I have two rentals- one in Loveland and one in Vail (where I lived for 12 years). I concentrate on buying properties in NW Denver suburbs (Arvada, Westminster, Thornton, Northglenn, and Broomfield), but occasionally find houses in Boulder County/Longmont areas.

Most of my deals over the last three years were REOs, but those recently dropped of the face of the earth (or at least in Denver). The last offer I made had 90 other offers to compete with. Yeah, seriously... that's not a typo. I don't think it's worth my time to pursue those right now.

I'm currently working on my own marketing, focusing on a newly built lead generation website. So now I'm working on SEO for that site and considering outsourcing that. Any recommendations?

I bought my last two deals from wholesalers, which is fine with me... but I'd rather make a little more $$$ and find the deals myself.

I have experience with creative financing, too. I have purchased with cash partners, as well as using hard money. I purchased one rental property subject to the existing mortgage. I've used a self-directed IRA to invest with. I attempted to sell one house on a lease-option, but two tenant/buyers defaulted back-to-back, so it's time to put it on the market (it's worth much more now, anyway!).

I learned the ropes of investing through a very well known local investor (not sure if I'm allowed to mention the name on this thread, though) and built a good team out of that experience to keep at it on my own.

Like most everyone else out there, I'm looking for deals! I move quickly and can usually close in less than a week. I have no problem leaving money on the table for anyone involved in a deal. I really like working with partners... I find it holds me to a higher standard than when working on my own. Not that I slack when I'm on my own... but I just tend to step it up a notch when I'm working with someone else's money on the line.

On another note, I have a good friend in Cleveland, OH who is an experienced property manager. He also has construction experience and is currently an architect. We're considering getting a rental business going out there, but haven't even begun our research yet. All we know is that houses are a lot cheaper there than they are here, and the peaks and valleys of home values seem to be overall a little steadier. If anyone has any input on that, I'd love to hear from you.

My goals are to increase my deal pipeline so I can wholesale in addition to fix and flip. Then buy some more rentals. Then get into multi-family. Keep on flippin'...

Thanks for reading- I look forward to getting involved in the BP community!
Dave