$200k in six months - long distance RE challenge

[Sam B.]

I day traded currency futures in a past life and always kept an online journal to keep me accountable, share what I was doing with the community and have a little bit of fun.  

Even 10+ years later, I enjoy reading back over it, reliving the sweaty palm wins, the heart sinking losses and more importantly, seeing the evolution of my mentality and how I dealt with the highs and lows of risk, wins and losses.

With that said, I've set a challenge for myself to make $200k in equity over a six month period, June-Dec 2018, investing in a market that I know well but am not physically located in.

Details are below - enjoy.

Goals

1) Buy (5) single family properties in 2018 and get them refinanced into long term mortgages

2) Purchase under market and achieve a minimum of $40k in equity per property after all repairs are completed

3) Cashflow $250-400/mo after expenses & debt service per property

Funding

1) A single line of credit established on an existing single family property

2) Private money from existing private money lenders that I've worked with over the years

3) New lines of credit that I'm currently in the process of setting up on existing properties - probably will not be established until late August

Background

I work in oil & gas and I’m currently on assignment in Mexico and will be here for another 10 months. The area I’m focused on is Southeast Texas, where I know the market, rents are strong and rising, housing supply is limited and there is major industrial capital expenditure committed to the area over the next 10 years.

I'm an experienced investor, having built my portfolio almost entirely while abroad and avoiding turnkey companies.  I focus on building quality teams, finding decent opportunities and most certainly over-communicating. 

The Team

1) Project coordinator – my boots on the ground. This is our first project together but we’ve built a relationship over the last few months and he’s an active investor in the area. 

2) Various contractors, some that I’ve worked with before, others only via reference. Despite not being in a HCOL, contractor prices tend to be higher in Southeast Texas due to labor demand in the area. A high school graduate that wants to work 60-70 hours a week can make $80k+ and those with further aspirations can make much more in supervision. So trying to find a decent contractor at a reasonable rate is difficult. Hurricane Harvey has further compounded this problem as rates have skyrocketed.

3)  Agent - young, hungry, willing to write a lot of offers.

Let's get started!