All Forum Posts by: Amanda Fox

Wow, I really wish I had spent time/asked questions on this site before. I am blown away at how many of you are taking the time to answer our questions and give us insight! Mike H., I think its a really good strategy long term. We keep thinking we need to flip houses quickly in the beginning to raise more capital so that our money is not tied up for 8-12 mos while we build new. But I've definitely thought this would be a good strategy long term given my architecture background. What are your thoughts about the capital tied up issue? What has been your experience with that? Do you buy and hold or flip??

Makes a lot of sense, Justin. We haven't ever used time as a factor, I need to think about that. We've always looked at it as a risk buffer. Have you had any houses that have come back to bite you because you used a low profit margin and then you had a big unforseen repair item?

Thank you Justin! If you don't mind my asking, what profit margin are you looking for?? We have always been told and follow a 15% profit margin and have been told that other investors, seasoned investors, have been looking as low as 5%. We have felt that we need that much of a margin, more for a buffer against risk than anything else. You have been so helpful and I love your comment about N.A N.A. :) I think sometimes people forget that they also had to start somewhere.

Mark, are you a realtor?

Thank you Mark, so helpful, gives me/us a lot to think about!

Wow, Rag Man, you don't hold back! We don't have an option for my husband to stay in his job, so we are basically delaying looking for another "working for the man" job for a couple of months while we fully invest our time in investing. And though we have struggled a great deal, we are not exactly inexperienced. We have been educating ourselves very extensively and researching the market and pursuing deals for several years and like I said have been in and out of escrow for many. My background is in managing 5-7, million dollar commercial rehab projects at a time and my husband is a very knowledgeable RE broker. Our longterm goal IS to invest in buy and hold, but if you started with that strategy, how were able to raise enough capital to continue purchasing new properties while your cashflow was just trickling in on the first? Oh and we do have investment capital up to $1 mil. if that helps.

Mark, we are moving to Denver since my family lives there. We are leaving the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area and although the market does seem competitive (we've been looking long distance for 6 weeks now), it doesn't seem as completely insane as it has been here. That's super helpful to hear that you have had a really hard time with the MLS, that has been our experience so far in the past 6 weeks, too. Do you employ any marketing strategies/look for unlisted properties? Have you worked with any wholesalers? What advice would you give me? Have you been able to flip many deals so far?

Lauren, how many deals have you done? Do you flip your properties or hold onto them? What has been your most successful strategy? Has it been the direct mailing? Have you done bandit signs? Congratulations on going full time in a few months!!! Has your area been inundated with all cash competition, 10-15 offers per property like ours??

My husband and I have been pursuing real estate investing for a few years and have never been able to close a deal. My husband is a real estate broker and my background is in architecture and construction management. My husband is a real estate broker and plans to be the realtor on both ends of the deal. We have been looking solely on the MLS for deals and have been in and out of escrow 6 or so times. We have had to back out each time because our rehab costs end up being higher than estimated and we realize that if we had put in the offer that made sense it wouldn't have been accepted. So... my husband is leaving his main job as a pilot, we are moving to Denver in a couple of months with 6 mos living expenses and are making a go at being fulltime real estate investors. We only need to close 1 deal in the first 2 mos to continue and can build from there. Our end goal is to flip between 5 and 10 houses at a time and if the inventory is too low in our area to branch out to other areas in our state or others. We are planning to follow the MLS, put up bandit signs, buy car wraps for our cars, and direct mail to distressed homes. Please give us any advice you can to direct us in the right way and how we can best use our time before we get there.