All Forum Posts by: Amiris Brown

I wanted to use a contract that I plan to work with in the future, but you're correct @Mark Gallagher in that I may have chosen to only have them as my mold remediators (for two houses getting mold remediation of all exterior and interior walls I figured $20K was pretty reasonable btw) and I was going to get a different contractor for the house restoration and remodel as I felt his quotes were a bit high. I'm sure I could get it knocked down to $100K in repairs, for what I'm asking for to be done. Anything less than that, would make me fearful of a botched job regarding quality. My original estimate, I personally did, had total repairs at $103K so that contractor quoted me $27K higher than I expected. I also was impressed by him but at the same time uncomfortable as he only worked with 203K loan deals on big jobs like this. What is a newbie to do though?

Let me be real clear that this property was so unique that it would be a gamble as a flip, so it only made sense if we were going to either a) live in it or b) rent it or c) do both, live in and rent it. As it was a 2/3rd mile walk from a University. We were going to try to rent to a professor, or to an assistant, or to grad students.

We were quoted $130K for every single thing, including extras that we wanted like a sump pump, the mold remediation for both houses (2 came on this property) was $20K alone, @Mark Gallagher. Plus, it's not too far from the DMV area. I gave myself $150K because I wanted nice appliances etc. so I tacted-on $20K as it would be a live-in flip for us in the smaller house while we rented out the bigger house during our stay. Not to mention we cannot afford anything over a total of $350K, so sure the numbers would still work for $220K but then we couldn't buy it lol. This property, even when fixed-up, could not sell for no more than $375K in that area btw as it is a strange unique property. We weren't going to buy it as a flip though, it was going to be a buy-and-hold with one of the two houses rented out. In about 10 years we might sell it. So the fact that the market would not bare any more than $375K upon ARV didn't matter to us, except in negotiations.

I'd tend to the website, design and development wise (especially security). Other than that, sounds like you are going right at it. Good luck.

My Agent checked, it is true. It's now under contract. We will move on to look at other properties, but will keep an eye on it if it falls through yet again. Looks like a cash-buyer, even though the listing Agent requested Homepath 203K buyers to pick it up. Ugh, if I knew they'd favor cash I would have gotten a PML (which is what I was originally going to do until they demanded only Homepath 203K applicants). The listing agent made it sound like they didn't want a cash offer, so confusing. Next time I'll submit various offers, one in cash and another through financing regardless of what the listing Agent claims. Lesson learned.

This may help you too: https://youtu.be/X29BvoP1-bs

So long as you can streamline the experience for the end users, be they the listing agents or the buyers, then I think 100% virtual can work. You can test to see what is most preferred by adding limited and/or special features along the way to see what tools users will be more likely to gravitate towards.

Please note: I'm a newbie at Real Estate, but I'm a long time techie. So I have no idea what the legal loopholes are to all this being virtual etc. This is a good question and I plan on following this thread, since I plan to incorperated this one day within my Real Estate Empire. Thank you for posting this!

@Martin S. I wonder that myself, because what if a week goes by and my Agent finds that the MLS has yet to go to pending? I'm pretty sure this company has blacklisted me just from being a tenant who knows their Rights and demands those Rights be upheld, and I worry that such a blacklisting of my name will not allow me to do business as an investor with them. Not that I even want to, but my fiance keeps insisting that if we are buying it shouldn't matter, but I keep telling him it does matter lol. Just as I'd prefer to blacklist them as a renter and/or as a buyer, I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Which is why I'm tempted to try to talk to the bank directly instead of their Agent from this crooked company.

@Tom Day, good idea I will let my Agent know.

@Darren Budahn, I think we should get the paperwork together just in case for this one or any other possible REO. This particular one keeps going under contract and keeps failing, one time it failed so miserably that it took an entire year for the bank to re-list it back onto the MLS. I have a feeling it will be back, as many investors will probably freak out once they see it. Our Realtor freaked out just by the fact that we had to sign a disclosure document to even see the property, as the listing Agent's company did not want to be held liable if anyone was dumb enough to enter without the proper protective gear. If I didn't know any better about how to fix this mold issue, then I would run away fast too haha especially after seeing it. Though the reality is, the cause is an easy fix and the remediation can still be done without condemning the place for tear down.

I will have my Agent double check by looking to see if it changed to "pending" on the MLS. Thanks!