All Forum Posts by: Alex Huang

I'm not familiar enough with Sheriff Auctions, but I found a few properties that I have interest in and am curious if there are any strategies to acquiring the property before it reaches auction.

The auctions aren't slated to begin until Feb 2018. If the house has already been scheduled for auction, does that mean it is too late to reach out to the owner and try to buy the property from them? 

FWIW the court case record says the case is "Closed".

I'd be curious to hear what everyone's experience or thoughts are on the various contractor services / bid programs offered by all the big box stores. Which one do you use, which do you prefer, and what about the specific store's program makes it better than the others?

I'll provide a brief summary of each from what I've learned speaking to the stores:

Home Depot - Loyalty credit card with a small % rebate on all sales. They also have a bid program where you can submit an order of $2,500 or more. They'll give an itemized discount, which varies from item-to-item.

Mendard's - Loyalty credit card with rebate as well. You build up a $6,000 minimum on your card and once that is exceeded, you get rebates on all the previous purchases + future purchases. Along with that you get a flat 2% discount on everything.

Lowe's - Loyalty credit card with rebate. Similar to Home Depot, you build out an order with all the items that you want and they send the order off to Corporate who provides an itemized discount.

it definitely isn't too late. 

I personally know of four friends who didn't begin their involvement with Real Estate until their late 50s. They were looking for revenue streams in preparation for retirement, so they bought a few turnkey properties and have now established themselves in RE.

While they might be in a slightly different circumstance than you (had more working capital), there are ways around it. 

Take initiative and start looking for properties. The worst thing you can do, if you are seriously interested in getting involved, is to find excuses NOT to take action. You don't want to be here in 10 years making the same post about being 58 and possibly too late to the game.

I highly recommend checking out this J Scott post on Estimating ARV.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/jasonscott/file/estimating-arv

I'd definitely suggest browsing Craigslist in your area and finding some interior pictures of other rentals targeted to a similar demographic (price point, size, location, etc).

One piece of feedback that I received from a PM is that it is better to have something slightly different than the rest. Not so different that it is extreme, but different enough to make your rental stand out.

I'm currently doing my first rehab for a rental and every area kitchen has either the old oak style or white cabinets. I am settling on a dark grey with a white laminate countertop (that looks granite/marbley). 

 Thanks Nik. 

That's a really good point about how much the market dictates the demand of updated properties. 

My assumption was that it was similar to firing out offers and dealing with sellers. Every person is different and you have to be prepared to deal with both people who are open to dialogue and others who are set in their ways and beliefs.

Thanks!

As I continue to look at property listings, one thing that I always struggle with is establishing the fine line between "needs rehab" vs just stylistically different than my (and 'mainstream') tastes.

For example, I see a lot of properties that are advertised as 'move-in ready' but the pictures show very outdated styles like oak cabinets, oak trim, brass fixtures, etc. Something that looks like a really old person lives in it.

Now, by most of our standards, a house like this would be candidate for a complete update. So how do you approach houses like this and its owners? Is it as simple as just expressing that they 'need' a rehab to get their house ready and expecting that a certain population of sellers will disagree / argue with that assessment (which we would just move on to the next property)? Or is there a recommended process in trying to reason with the sellers to the reality of how outdated their property actually is?

I looked heavily into Sect 8... and admittedly, I had a lot of preconceived (and ignorant) assumptions about it. Just like all things, there are good people and bad people, and one of the luxuries that S8 seems to afford you is that payment is on-time and there are a specific subset of rules that can be the landlord's benefit.

Any links for some suggested tile layouts / designs?

I've stuck to the strategy of finding properties myself and then reaching out to the listing agent and look for dual agency. I'm not loyal to any other agent, so the economic incentives of dual agency make me believe I have an edge in offers.

I've considered getting an agent to monitor the MLS and look for potentially attractive deals, but I am in a situation where I have the time to do it myself and I feel the experience of sifting through houses, analyzing areas, and crunching the numbers is great for my own growth in REI.