All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Ervin

 Wow! I know people say you can invest in any market, but CA's market seems like another world to me.  If you want good weather and good beaches, just come to Pensacola! It's much cheaper lol.

But seriously, we paid cost + liability for the GC permits.  Our GC is a friend who was willing to allow us to manage our own deal without making a profit from us.  His only requirement was (obviously) to use licensed and insured subs, which we do. 

 David, we bought the first deal in February of 2018.  Started looking in October of '17.  Everyone's timelines are different, so I would be careful reading much into mine.  There were a number of factors at play (beyond real estate) for us that impacted our pace.    

 Hey, Adam.  We did some of the work ourselves, but contracted out the majority of it (including all "major" upgrades).  We only take on projects we want to do and feel confident we can do with good quality.  

Finding contractors is the name of the game.  And it is hard.  Referrals are our primary source for labor, right now.    

Thank you! We are surrounded by new construction here, as well (particularly in neighboring cities/counties).  The new builds are littered in the good school districts which makes things a little more challenging for investors in Pensacola, considering the public school system here leaves much to be desired.  We've made a conscious decision to rehab houses to this type of quality and design just to compete with the influx of new builds all over.  

@Steven Rubino, nice job and nice find for you and your partner on this property. Can I ask how much your window expense was and how many windows you replaced?  

 Thank you!

Hey, Joseph. The timeline on this one is a little misleading.  In total, this has taken about 7 months from purchase to re-fi, but we didn't have to press as hard on the gas pedal considering we wanted to make this a primary residence.  We also had about 60 days of little to no progress due to some medical stuff with my 2 year old.  

While not disagreeing with your math, you have to understand these numbers would look a little different if we had decided to maintain this project as a flip.  We would have cut out a minimum of $5k (conservatively) in the rehab budget and pressed harder on the timeline.  I feel confident this would have and still could be a profitable buy, fix and sell style property.  When we are ready to move in 3-5 years, we will evaluate whether it makes more sense to rent this property out or sell it.  The good news if we decide to hold it is that the cap x stuff will be deferred significantly due to the rehab we've done.

 Are you just interested in seeing the spreadsheet I use?  I wouldn't have an issue showing it you, just not sure how helpful it will be.  The key to the analysis is in the methodology and accurate/relevant information.  The tool is use is just a way to organize and display that data. 

 Well, I haven't gone so far as to attempt to quantify my time spent on this project being as its now a primary residence, it just didn't matter much to us.  I'll continue to tinker on things after I get off work in the evenings because its something I enjoy doing anyway.  What I can estimate is that we saved somewhere between 10-15K in the work we did ourselves on the project.  The time exchange associated with that is null and void to me because I did it while spending time with my wife and the kids.  We weren't taking them to SkyZone or the movie theater, but it was still time well spent where they are learning important lessons.  Important to my wife and I, anyway.

I couldn't agree more about the nature of the site and how it seems to emphasize much more heavily the successes than the failures.  That said, it is a reflection of the community, not BP.  The site is built for collaboration and sharing stories.  More people are inclined to be active on here before and after finding success vice losing their shirt on a first (and probably last) deal.  

The truth is Flipping houses requires strong fundamentals just like anything else.  If you want to discuss successfully scaling operations from 1 - 2 projects at a time to doing 50-100 per year, I'm not the guy to hand out any advice (at least not yet!).  But in terms of when operating ONE project, the fundamentals are key.  Good analysis upfront, buy right, manage the rehab well (metrics would be time, quality and cost), and effective disposition (market well, good and fair pricing, etc.).  There are a million nuances and subcomponents to break down into a much more granular level, but the fundamental principles remain the same.  

Regarding the unknown expenses, yes they happen.  They've happened on nearly every project I've ever done from replacing bathroom hardware to structural work removing load bearing walls.  You have to understand this is just another line item in your accounting.  Prepare for those expenses to be incurred and mitigate them to the extent possible.    

 Thank you very much! The kitchen is one of my favorite parts of the house now and its definitely functional!