Any half-decent contractor isn't going to be willing to look at homes for free unless:
- You own the house (or at least have it under contract to buy); or
- You can prove to the contractor that you have a track record of actually buying the houses you're looking at.
Any contractor willing to look at a bunch of houses for free in the hopes you buy one is very desperate -- and any contractors who are desperate these days likely aren't very good.
Any half-decent contractor isn't going to be willing to look at homes for free unless:
- You own the house (or at least have it under contract to buy); or
- You can prove to the contractor that you have a track record of actually buying the houses you're looking at.
Any contractor willing to look at a bunch of houses for free in the hopes you buy one is very desperate -- and any contractors who are desperate these days likely aren't very good.
I recently had a contractor tell me that he stopped going to bid walks with local wholesalers because he was never awarded work. I think if you don't have a great relationships with a contractor who will price things for free be willing to offer them $30-50 for their hr of time especially if you know for sure you are "using them" to come up with an offer price. That will increase your credibility, reduce your guilt and most likely not break your bank.
Would a bank be willing to do open house or any kind of deal if the property is not on the market?
Not sure what you're asking? If it's a bank owned property, you generally have to wait for the bank to list the property as an REO. If it's a very small bank, they may negotiate privately if you have some connections to their REO department (and are prepared to pay cash).
Savvy King I will do free assessments for investors that I work with a lot. I would prefer that they at least have it under contract, but if not it's okay. I am always driving around toy jobsite, so spending 30 min looking at a house won't kill me. I give a rough ballpark verbally to see if that is something they are interested in. Then, once they have purchased the property I will do a full bid on paper.
I'm putting my foot in the door referring homes to buyers. I just started, so I want to make sure that there is opportuntiy in homes that find. If things turn out good I will continue this route.
Absolutely - First I did a small one to test my approach out / work out methods and made about 10k after Capital Gains, and we are in the last week of the second one which will bring 30 - 40k...
I'm chasing my first bird dog deal. Coming across vacant homes easily. Maybe at least 5-10 everytime I go out to search.
Finding vacant houses is easy -- there are millions of them. The hard parts are:
1. Finding the owners;
2. Negotiating a deal that makes money.
Focus on those two things -- that's where the money is.
As for contractors, if you're only going to be bird-dogging or wholesaling, you should expect to pay the contractors for their time, as they are very unlikely to get any work out from the effort (since you won't be buying anyway).
Yes. First off, you should identify houses you would actually be interested in purchasing. Then get very rough estimates from the contractor to see if it'll be profitable. You can usually get a rough number for a bathroom (say $5k) and use that time and again in your estimates. Once you have the house under contract, then bring in the contractor during your inspection period.
Me again from Belleville. I can only speak from my limited but productive experience, but I'm not sure why the need to look at a lot of houses and get a lot of contractor quotes, it makes me wonder what the goal is exactly, but I dont know the whole story and am not making a judgment in any way.
What I do know is this:
-- You can filter through many properties online, and look at a small number in order to find one that has, the key word, value (expected sale price - (purchase price + rehab costs)
-- -- Use Zillow, and use Auction.com. Set up alerts with zillow so you get emails which can then be notifications on your phone, for various filters such that if something new comes on the market, youll get buzzed right away.
-- -- Focus on a few zip codes. Use that in your zillow searches. If I watched all of Southern Illinois, I would know way less about a specific properties value against other properties in the area, and have to do way more research on each one - the rule there (for me) is that there are deals with value all over the place if you know how to look, at least in my region. You need to get a feel for what a property is worth based on a lot of data points you have absorbed, including crunching the numbers
How I look at / for a property:
1) Zillow alerts and daily Auction.com checks for three zip codes around me, sale price under 40,000
2) Check the 'Foreclosure Estimate', meaning 'sort of roughly ballpark what its worth' - is it a huge gap? Foreclosure sale, 25,000 asking, Foreclosure Estimate 105k, for me i would then look more closely
3) Check recently sold properties right on the same street (most valuable). Compare number of bedrooms, square footage, number of bathrooms, basement vs crawl space, garage, in that order. Can't find one next door? Zoom out. Try the next street, the neighborhood, anything you can find - the more data, the more accuracy, and the accuracy at best will be only "good".
4) Zillow Price / Tax history - when did it last sell? for how much? was it in the past two or three years, or 2005 when the sale price would be absolutely meaningless in the current market? Don't forget the "real estate crash".
5) Look very closely at the pictures, what do you see - water / mold? foundation? The pictures will tell a story of what else your not seeing. Look for bad, look for good.
6) Use Google Earth to see what it looks like outside / across the street / etc - sometimes very useful, sometimes not helpful
7) Go look at it on your own without a realtor from the outside
This is a just a quick list and is just my approach, back to work.
My one and only buyer as right now is looking for specific off market homes. Any outside of st. Louis for good deals. I referred him a small.number of homes. See if he is interested in them. Hopefully I will find more people to work with through meetings, social media, etc. I believe its all about networking.
Absolutely - First I did a small one to test my approach out / work out methods and made about 10k after Capital Gains, and we are in the last week of the second one which will bring 30 - 40k...
Perhaps a stickler for details but I think it is important to point out that your profits from a flip are NOT capital gains, it is ordinary income taxed accordingly. Capital gains tax is when your intent is to buy and hold.
Is it a waste of time to have a contractor look at multiple homes and not find a home worth investing in, if contractors make free bids.
Do you enjoy working for free? Would you go from house to house giving free bids to someone with no track record, no ownership of those homes, and little chance to get the job?bi sure wouldn't. As @J Scott pointed out, any worthwhile contractor would not do it.
That all said, the most important part of your question is this: why are you asking/looking for a contractor to provide your rehab estimate as a wholesaler or flipper? You should develop the knowledge to do that yourself if you expect to be a good business owner in this field.