All Forum Posts by: Alex Blonigan

@Pamela Sandberg Great take on the Phoenix market and thanks for the suggestions! I've been following the Phoenix market for past few months and you're right in the number of listings dropping daily and prices increasing rapidly. Nov-Jan timing might make more sense to buy, but right now I'm also trying to narrow down my search and focus. Been paying closer attention to Scottsdale / Gilbert / Chandler and can't find any cash flowing properties right now. MLS has been my main source. Getting on local wholesale lists is a good idea

Any thoughts on where the best investment opportunities for single family rentals will be in the next 6-12 months for cash flowing properties in the Greater Phoenix area?

Looking for <$350k, 3-4 bedrooms in area that provides a strong enough price-to-rent ratio that there are good cashflow opportunities... an area trending up with good family neighborhoods, good schools, population growth

@Robert Chuang Thanks, all helpful info and good ideas, multiple bids feels necessary to gather as much info as possible. I think what you're also telling me is there's nothing to it but to do it! Appreciate your comments

@Kenneth Bullock Good call on the estimation apps, I will be looking into those... and thank you!

@Will Barnard Thanks for the response! I guess I'm envisioning a shared drive of contractor bids that represents completed and billed projects (redacted to remove or black out the contractor info). But I do think it is wishful thinking that someone would compile and share this type of info. I just see it as an easy way to self teach/learn from if it was something I could get my hands on in my market. There's only so much I feel I've been able to learn from reading about rehab costs etc, but seems everything could vary so much by contractor and by market.

I am house shopping right now in Los Angeles tho. Looking at multiple houses each week, all which need various work and having a tough time projecting rehab costs on each property. Feel I could be way off in some estimates. I do agree with you tho in that best practice may be to hire an experienced contractor and pay them to walk a property with me or help me understand how they would breakout the costs. I haven't built or found that relationship with someone in my market yet.

Thanks for the response and yea, that all makes sense! I actually did read Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott. Great book and I learned a lot in understanding the process of how rehabs are priced and all possible work to consider... but I still feel pretty lost as far as pricing and ranges, especially in an expensive market like Los Angeles. Agreed tho, multiple quotes and comparing etc would be helpful, more info the better.

Hi – My name is Alex Blonigan & I'd like to introduce myself to the BP community. I am living and working in Los Angeles as a management consultant and CPA. I plan to buy a single family house in Los Angeles in the next 6 months, live in and rehab this property, and then turn it into my first rental property. I am also keeping an eye out for additional SFR investment properties in Los Angeles, but I plan to make out of state investing my core strategy going forward, likely in Minnesota where I am from originally. I've already learned a great deal from BiggerPockets and the BP community and I look forward to having conversations with investors and learning about others' Real Estate experiences!

Is there any place, website etc where contractor bids, rehab or building costs from previous projects are stored by investors to compare/learn from? This info would be helpful and would be great in learning rehab costs in an expensive market vs. other markets.

Also, any recommendations on good information available regarding the costs of demo and building vs. costs of expensive rehabs in different markets?