All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Ervin

 Hey, Bryan.  Yes, the cabinets and white countertops are both IKEA.  I highly recommend them for the price.  Certainly more work to put them together, though.  I got the Butcher Block from our local Lumber Liquidators.

 Hey, Peter. That area has really grown up.  Between Bubba Watson, the Studer Group, and Navy Fed, Pensacola's economy has been heading in the right direction since about that time.  This house is north of Cordova Mall, close to Scenic Highway, if you're familiar.

Bernie, of course! We have not begun marketing in any way other than communicating our goals in REI and criterion for leads to agents and wholesalers in the area. I suspect we will have to develop a marketing plan moving forward as deals are scarce. Our idea was to get one under our belt to put a little weight behind our name and show the real players in the area that we are serious, and here to stay.

Financing has been addressed, but this thread is getting pretty big so I'll restate.  We put together a sample deal package after analyzing a number of leads and took it to literally the only person in my life I knew was an investor.  And I use that term loosely.  He is really more of a person I knew had strong personal finance practices his entire life.  I approached him with the intention of getting feedback on my plan and he actually decided he wanted to be the one to get us started.

In terms of the design, this was ALL my wife.  I have an okay eye for this stuff, but her taste is very good.  I've always said the only difference between her and Joanna Gaines is resources and a camera crew!  She thinks that is crazy, but I truly do believe she gives us a competitive advantage with her ability to find excellent value for materials that people love.

Hi, Savannah.  Congratulations on taking down your first deal!

As far as your question goes, I don't really have a solid data point to say yes or no until the house sells.  Even then, I would submit there should be a pattern of success over a significant enough period of time to really determine whether or not this business model works.  My only comment would be that we did not intend to sacrifice critical functional needs the property had in favor of using more funds in the cosmetic areas.  I believe that would be a recipe for disaster long term in a business where your name is everything. 

 Imelda, if you look at my original post, you can see I have already subtracted $10,500 (assuming $175,000 sale price) for commissions in getting my final projected figure.  You'll also notice my final projected figure does not say $51K+, as you've stated, but rather it reads like this:

$51,810 – Taxes & Any Additional Selling Costs

 Yehuda, we actually began removing the popcorn with the intention of doing a knockdown texture.  But we felt the quotes we received were a little high to apply the knockdown when considering it wouldn't be a feature item.  For about the same cost (with our labor though, of course), we now have a plank ceiling that has gotten REALLY good feedback from folks who have viewed the house. 

 Thanks, Rose.  We did do a good bit of the work ourselves.

Jax certainly interests me as a market for flips.  My brother lives in Jax and is considering doing a house hack when his current lease is up.

 Nick, I am still pretty green but my suggestion to you would be to start educating yourself.  This means doing market research, learning the terminology/language, listening/reading to podcasts/books, etc.  There is an incredible amount of FREE information at your disposal.  Take advantage of that and put the horse before the cart.

Logan, thank you for your input.  We absolutely agree this would be a terrible rental based on the design choices we've made.  In fact, the numbers work as a rental, but practically speaking the materials do not.  We understood this when making the choices we did. 

We intend to use the BRRR method in the future, but until we can generate revenue to use for cash reserves, I prefer to not to hold any properties. That will absolutely change soon.

Understand the financing terminology.  That rolled over my head while reading/responding, so thanks for the clarification.

I am already discussing cash out refi options with my local credit union.  I've banked with them since I was 14 and opened my first checking account, so I have built a pretty good level of rapport already considering my lack of experience. 

 Hi, Lisa.  The answer to your question is no, we are not required to have a GC license in order to flip homes purchased under our name.

Thank you for the suggestion.  My wife is currently in the process of getting her Real Estate license, so we intend to avoid those costs moving forward.  Regardless, I feel like the realtor we've used (this will now be our second transaction with her) has added a lot of value for us throughout this process.  Certainly far more than the 3% we are paying for her service.  That is my opinion, of course.