J Scott's Book on Flipping-Buy THAT Before You Buy Any Guru "Program"

[Robert Taylor]

I bought the J Scott book on flipping houses several days ago and have been reading it whenever I can and I think its GREAT! Now, I've been investing in RE to some extent since 1999, when I bought my first duplex and started flipping houses part-time in 2004, flipped five of them between 2004 and 2007, took a break from it until 2012 when I thought the market was good again and have now been doing it full-time ever since. I've done flips in value from about $60k on the low end up to $750k on the high end, so I've had experience in nearly all levels of my local market. In my time flipping from 04 to 07, I had one that I lost money on, two that broke even and two that made some money. Since getting back into it, all of my projects have been profitable, several of them have been very profitable. So, I think I can say now that I honestly know a pretty good amount about flipping houses and am learning quite a bit about other methods of RE investing as well. Yet, I always believe that you can learn more about anything, which is why I bought J Scott's book and so far, I'm VERY impressed!

Here's the thing and the point I want to get across to anyone looking for a guru to get them the info or the "magic secret" to flipping or any other part of RE investing. THERE IS NO MAGIC SECRET! Its a business like any other and requires hard work, organization, follow through, etc etc. From what I can see, everything I think I would cover is in this book. I've already picked up several new ideas and things to learn myself and I've been doing this for years. I would HIGHLY recommend that before you spend $99 or $299 or whatever price whatever guru wants to take from you for his/her info, that you spend just $29 and buy this book instead. No, he's not promising any magic or overnight riches, but what would you rather get, some honest advice and education or have someone "blow smoke" up your you know what???

Several people that have been very successful in different types of businesses have all given me the same advice over the years, that if you have even an OK idea for a business, if you run your business well, run it efficiently and work hard at it, you're likely to succeed over the long run. Conversely, even if you have an incredibly great, awesome business idea and you run a sloppy business and you're inefficient, you're likely to fail. Flipping houses is no different and this book will show you how to do it the right way!

FULL DISCLOSURE-I'm NOT at all connected with BP, J Scott or anyone else connected with the book. I did exchange a few emails with J Scott about a year ago, just to discuss how much I liked his website and inquire about his plans to invest in my area-that's it!

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Stephen Underhill:

I was curious btw, I've done a few walkthroughs on properties and learn something each time, but what advice could you give to us rookies as to what to look for during that first walkthrough to identify some signs of more than cosmetic problems that will help us get a better idea of what will be needed. Like I said, I'm learning to look for more as I go and I know the more I do it the better I'll get, just want to accelerate that any way I can!

First, my biggest suggestion to new investors when it comes to inspections is to find a great home inspector and hire him to do an inspection on a typical house you would plan to rehab. It could be a house that you have under contract, but it doesn't have to be. It could just be a house that you or a friend live in that's similar to what you would ultimately end up rehabbing.

Then, spend a couple hundred dollars to hire the inspector to come out and do a full inspection. This will do three big things for you:

1. Teach you the methodology the inspector uses to walk through the house and evaluate each of the specific systems and areas. While much of what an inspector will look at will coincide with the "major components" I list in the estimating book, seeing exactly what he does and how he does it will give you more of a real life perspective on what you should be looking for while walking through a house.

2. Give you an opportunity to ask a LOT of questions from the inspector during each phase of the inspection. Ask him what he's looking at, what he's looking for, what things mean, etc. While you're paying him to do an inspection, you should consider it an opportunity to get an education as well.

3. Teach you to look for signs of the BIG problems, like foundation/structural concerns, major plumbing/electrical issues, etc. Most renovation items are relatively inexpensive, but there are some that are costly and if you learn how to look for these things, you can always bring in specific inspectors (structural, roofing, foundation, etc) to evaluate concerns you have without needing the general inspection.

I got inspections on my first 4 properties, and after that, it started to become obvious all the things the inspector was looking at/for and I soon realized that if I followed the same methodology and looked at all the systems the way he did, it was actually very easy to find any major issues. Sure, there were little things that I missed at first (code issues, mostly), but those are things you learn as you go along, and that don't generally cost a whole lot to fix even if you do miss them.

Even after 60+ rehabs, I still bring in structural engineers, foundation specialists, termite inspectors, mold guys, etc., when I spot signs of potentially large issues, but the other stuff I can evaluate myself because I do exactly what my inspector used to do during his inspections (at first, I actually used his inspection checklist to do my walk-throughs).

Over the next few months, I'm planning to get to work on some software ad videos on inspecting, evaluating, estimating, renovating, etc. Hopefully these will help decrease the learning curve required to come up to speed on these things, but these are things that will always take time and effort to master (and, if you're like me, you'll probably never master it).

My biggest piece of advice is still to just be very conservative -- assume there will be some little surprises along the way (even after many, many projects) and if you see any indication of major concerns, get them checked out sooner rather than later.