All Forum Posts by: Adam Black

I agree side by sides are the way to go. Another downfall of up and downs is that if the top has plumbing problems, so does the bottom. I have a friend that had a toilet overflow upstairs adn flood the entire bottom before it was found.

My method works for me but may not be the best way, I am sure others have better ones. I get the appraisers that I use on a regular basis to run me comps for the property. Normally they can get me within 2-4k of the actual value based off of what I tell them about the house.
Now the secret is getting them to do this when you are calling them with 10 or so houses a week. What I do, (and you need to check your state appraisal laws to see if this is legal) is pay them $10 every time I call them. Doesn't sound like much but when they do 10 or so a week and turn in an invoice for $100 or more, it becomes significant to them. Plus it shows them that you respect their time and effort unlike the other investors that call them 20 times a week and never compensate them.
Other than that,just low ball her and hope it works!

All about the "at bats" and not being scared to low ball them.
Sooner or later you get one at your number and those are the ones you make money on.
When you get caight up in the bidding wars, you normally buy out of emotion and nothing ever good comes out of it.

Be very careful as someone else mentioned you are begginnign to sound like a security and with that you fall under a whole new set of rules with private placement memorandums and such. Can be very sticky.
Mna, if your making 75% profit on every flip, you are doing things right. I am very envious. Good luck with everything.

We are getting cloer and closer to our goal of 10, 10, 10 monthly, 10 buys, 10 rehabs, 10 sells. As we get closer we are trying to streamline and standardize everything we can.
I have put together a excel sheet that goes from room to room and list every item down to the number of electrical sockets needed for that room.
On a seperate worksheet, it populates this info to a "bid sheet" with a entry for labor, another worksheet populates sku numbers for the itmes we use, ceiling fans, stoves, etc for us to pick up at Home Depot.
My problem is getting these guys to fill it out. It's like you are insulting their intelligence to give them help like this. The excuses run the gammet from "what if we tear out the tub and it is rotten behind it" to "I can provide material for less than you are buying them at Home Depot".
Anybody else doing anything similar? Doe this sound like a good idea?
Of course, we disclose on the form that we understand additional items may occur due to unforeseen problems such as rotten wood, etc. But they still try to buck it?

Your biggest problem is the lender letting a family member buy the property. They tend to be very anal about this. I notice it in al the short sales we do.

Explain your ROI a little further please. At 75%, are you saying you by the property for 100,000 and selling for 175,000. If so, that is not a true ROI for the investor as he would not be recieving that complete $75,000. Am I understanding correctly?
ROI in the investmetn world is a term used to compare returns on investments where the moneys gained or lost are not easily compared using monetary values. For instance, a $1,000 investment that earns $50 in interest generates more cash than a $100 investment that earns $20 in interest, but the $100 investment earns a higher return on investment.

$50/$1,000 = 5% ROI
$20/$100 = 20% ROI

Not bashing your plan at all but unfortunetly I deal with investors everyday, both in our company and buyers of our houses and ROI is very important to them.

I agree with the others, the granules on a roof ar ethere for a reason. I really don't like the idea of pressure washing a roof but I know people that do it.
If you are intent on painting it, do it on a inconspicious area to test it.
Other than that, maybe try to pull more focus to the front lower half of the house, landscaping, paint, new shutters,etc.

My company was primarily a hard money lender before the crash. We still do some lending with very stringent guidelines.
One thing we require now is a pre qual letter from a permenent lender. Of course this doesn't guarentee the borrower an exit but it eases some of our fears by getting another set of eyes on the borrower.
We charge no points up front unless the borrower wants to buy down the rate.
We used to do a balloon payment but the times have driven us to begin requiring a monthy Interest Only payment.
Hope this helps you some. If you need any more info, please contact me. BTW, we only lend in a limited area so this isn't an advertisement. Just an offer to answer questions and help you make an informed decision.

Well,that is an interesting story. I had absolutly no experience. In fact I was a plant superintendent for a company that made seats for Nissan. I had spent 7 years in the industry working my way up the ranks. Part of my latest promotion had involved having to go to night shift. The adjustment came very hard for me plus I was tiring of always producing the best numbers and getting paid the same as my peers.
I knew I wanted to do something in Real Estate and that I wanted to "eat what I killed" so I would be in charge of my own destiny. After researching the industry I settled on lending. However, let me disclose I didn't go into it blindly. I have always been a huge networker and had built a significant "call list".
I started with a local broker and after 2-3 months I began to realize I didn't like the atmosphere. Guys working in shorts and flip flops, working 15-20 hours week, partying pretty hard, etc. I became the outcast fairly quickly because I acually had a work ethic.
I soon began plottting my exit by starting my own company. About that time, the owner got indicted on 47 federal charges of fraud. Needless to say, that expedited my exit! Luckily I had built a reputaion quickly in the industry and hit the ground running until the credit crash.