First Flip Complete!

[Simone Johnson]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Atlanta.

Purchase price: $34,080
Cash invested: $114,222
Sale price: $385,000

This was my first investment property. I was able to stop the foreclosure, put in probate, purchase, stop abatement, rehab and sell! I initially was going to keep it as a rental property, but the market called for me to flip it.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I wanted to hold the property, but I wouldn’t have made my money back in the time desired. Since I decided I did have multiple exit strategies (Hold, Flip, wholesale), I thought that it would be a great opportunity to work on a flip and learn as much as I could.

I actually never had interest in flipping, but now I’m looking for another one!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Driving for dollars and searching the auctions. I was able to build a rapport with the heir to the property and wanted to help them not lose it completely without profit. They allowed me to work with the bank and get them to stop the foreclosure to find out the actual mortgage amount which gave me time to put it into probate to attempt the purchase. It was a very complex situation, but with lots of determination and BiggerPockets, I was able to learn all that I needed to know.

How did you finance this deal?

I paid cash for the home and was able to find an amazing partner, who I could trust and was willing to work with me as a newbie. We were then able to find a private investor to put up 90K and we put up the rest of the money to perform the rehab.

How did you add value to the deal?

Value was added by determining that it was better to expand the property by 800 sqft and work on it as new construction by gutting the home and building it out.

I have great follow through and by performing extensive due diligence, it ended up paying off well.

What was the outcome?

An amazing, quality property that went under contract in 5 days!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

So many lessons! Learning the market and understanding costs is so important. Also, building relationships with the city to build trust allowed the 2 month permitting process to go smoothly.

The biggest challenge was that by the time I could purchase it, the home was in abatement. It took 2 months before I figured out who to speak to in order to get it lifted.

I learned everything on my first deal from acquisition, probate, abatement, permitting, project management, and selling.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I had two amazing realtors who understand how it is to work with investors.
Purchase: Marta Brown, Blue Peach Realty
Sale: Eric Feng, Keller Williams

I learned so much from them and I’m forever grateful!