Flip #1 set the bar pretty high at 30K profit!

[Steve Gregory]

I found the house on my local court records website, it was in probate and after further research I cold called the 72 year old brother in Texas. I asked him if he wanted to sell and he said that one other person had contacted him and was also interested in the SFR full brick, 3/2/2, 1872 sq ft.

I looked at the house for the first time just before Thanksgiving of 2014. Thanks to BP, I used the 70% rule to figure out my max allowable offer price and came up with an offer of 40K (yes... I did feel embarrased at my offer). He countered at 50K and I came back with 48K and I would pay seller's closing costs...... He agreed and I felt good about coming up in price after discussing it with a guy who I had met at my local REI meeting.

The engineers report called for 11 piers to be done and I got a price from a company for $650 a pier which I forwarded  to the seller and was able to get him to come down to 44K on the purchase price. I then got a price of $450 a pier from another company and ended up using them after closing. 

I did a full rehab on the house including the following:

• new kitchen cabinets and granite counters with tile backsplash
• tile floor in kitchen and laundry
• new appliances (no frig)
• new vanities in baths, tile floors, bathtub
• new garage doors with openers
• laminate wood floor in open living/family/dining area
• new carpet in hall and 3 bdrms
• all new heat/air registers and return air grills
• all new outlets and switches
• replaced windows (vynil)
• removed all holly bushes at front and had a dead tree removed from backyard
• interior paint 
• replaced water heater
• repaired vynil siding and gutters as needed
• power washed exterior
• wood shutters on front windows
• new front door and storm door

I closed on the purchase of the house in Jan 15' and am scheduled to close on the sale side on July 10th.

I am a remodeling contractor by trade and had every intention of doing my best to be "hands off" on the rehab, but it didn't work out that way. I put in 6 weeks of labor and the rest of the work was done by my employees and sub-contractors.

I held the property for way too long as I was tied up on a very demanding full house rehab for a client for about 5 months.

I put up a FSBO sign in the yard when it was almost completed and had it under contract 2 days later for 154K.

All in I'm at 107K, but the buyer is going FHA and I agreed to pay his realtor 3% commission. I hadn't had the landscaping and sod done when they called and it was going to cost $3,200. In lieu of me paying to have the landscaping done, I agreed to pay the buyer the $3,200 to use as he wished for a frig, blinds, or whatever. I also agreed to replace the electric panel as it came up on the buyers inspections as a fire hazard. ( 1% of purchase price $1,500)

I learned a lot and couldn't be happier. I have pictures and can post them another time.

Big thanks to bigger pockets!