1st Successful Flip with a 30k+ Profit

[Ceasar Rosas]

Hi BP Family!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Just wanted to write a bit about our first successful flip. I'm from the Bronx, NY where prices are insane. We decided to do our 1st flip in Pennsylvania about an hour and a half away. Below you'll see a before and after pic of the exterior:

I'd like to thank Bigger Pockets for encouraging me and allowing me to put together a meetup to surround myself with other people in this area. While this flip was done with a couple of other guys not in BP who I have a couple of rentals with, I've met partners for our next flip through BP. I'll run through the numbers real quick, so that you can get a feeling of what we did here. I ran this whole flip from beginning to end. I'll round numbers up/down to keep it simple. 

• Purchase Price:                    25,250
• Closing Costs:                        4,000
• Rehab/Holding Costs:          33,000 (We took a chance with no insurance, our holding costs were utilities, electric and water. We had the property for about 5 months.)
• ALL IN TOTAL:                      62,250

We were listed at 99k and after a week and a half on the market we had 3 offers and we went with an offer at 100k!! 1k above asking.

• Sold Price:                                       100,000
• Closing Costs and commission: 6,000 (Our closing costs included transfer tax, property taxes, recording and doc fees. And we paid out a buyer agent commission of 3%. Since I am a real estate broker in NY I decided to pay a fee to have it on the MLS in that location and do all the marketing myself. We put a lockbox on it and marketed it to realtors out there.)
• TOTAL PROFIT BEFORE TAXES:           $31,750

We had the property from July 18th and sold date was December 23rd. We could've done it faster, but we had trouble getting contractors in the beginning. At one point I was dropping off guys from NY and leaving them out there for a week at a time to do the interior. I eventually found a good roofer, siding guy, asphalt/cement/paver guy, all around handyman, electrician, and my granite place. My wife and I did do some stuff as well. 

Some things to note:

• We did not have an LLC, I do have one in place already with our new partners.
• We did not get builder's risk insurance, something I'd be looking into for the next one.
• The bank had this property as occupied. After driving by it several times we knew it wasn't, we looked in all the windows and saw the condition and estimated it that way. We assumed frozen pipes and we were right. 1st thing we took care of. 

I just did whatever I had to do to get one under my belt. Were all my ducks in a row, Absolutely NOT!! I will do better now that I've learned so much more. I will continue to build off of this momentum and reach my goal of 15 flips in 2017. And even if the flips don't work out for any reason then I will do the BRRR strategy. I look at properties for both market value and rental value. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all much success for 2017!!!!!