All Forum Posts by: Dave G.

Hi everyone-

Like a lot of people here, I am looking to get into the development side of Real Estate. I've read a lot on the subject, and the constant advice is to partner with a developer on your first deal to see how it all works. 

I'm curious to know what this looks like. I know they can be structured anyway you can negotiate it, but I'd like to hear what the most common and practical ways of partnering would be. What would be enough skin in the game to make all parties comfortable in working with a newer player?

@Christopher B. Thanks for the response. It's tough to differentiate the dollar amount attributed to the historic neighborhood and the quality of the home. Thankfully there is no hood in this area, so I don't have to add that to the pita scenario. 

   I can only imagine this buyer purchasing a $500-$600k house and his neighbors are in $250k-$300k homes. I think with that sort of discrepancy you are required to build a moat. 

Hi Rehabbers and Flippers- 

I am trying to determine the ARV on a property that is unique within its neighborhood and could use some help. I'm a new RE agent, so I have access to my local MLS and have been looking at sales and listings to try to determine good comps. Unfortunately, everything in the immediate vicinity is much much smaller than what this property is; 500 - 1000 Sqft smaller (it's a rather large duplex I want to convert to a SFR). All of the lots are smaller too, much much smaller. And to make things worse, there is a neighborhood 2 blocks away where this house would be more at home, but still probably be the largest lot and the largest house.

   Is it reasonable to expand my search to this neighborhood despite it being a historical neighborhood with national recognition? There is another neighborhood further away where almost every house is a 4000+ Sqft 5+ bedroom mansion, but it also has a specific draw to to its name. All of these houses/neighborhoods are from the first few decades of the 1900s. 

  Tl;dr - Is it unreasonable to stretch a bit further for comps into neighborhoods that have the draw of a well-known name that my property obviously wouldn't receive?

Hi! I'm hoping this forum category is the right place to post this. 

I've come across an and have been speaking with the owner on a Duplex in a pretty popular part of town that has a high rate of renter occupancy.  It's a very large duplex on a lot of land.  It's been vacant for a while with a possible squatter in there. It's not rental ready. Cleaning and a bit of paint is definitely in order. Also, the electrical is bad in some places according to the owner (I have no idea the extent). Aside from all of that, this place is a great purchase because of the lots and land it is on. I want it. I just need to figure out how. 

The price that the owner tossed out in our long convo was $312,000, they have a mortgage for about 287,000. I have no idea how they even secured that. In its current state it is worth MAYBE $230k - $250k.  I could cashflow ~$435 if it were move in ready. I would suggest a Rent-to-own situation to the owner with a buy out anywhere from purchase to 5 years. But, it's not, and he's not economically in a place where they can repair it. 

Ill cut to the chase:

I don't think I can raise enough money for an outright purchase, even with a Short Sale agreement from the bank.  It's not move in ready without a large expenditure that neither of us can do at the moment. How can I get this house?

Thank you Don Harris

Jeremy Tillotson I was afraid that would be the answer I got. I'm trying to gauge if it's profitable to do it before signing any deals. I'm assuming any demo contractor would want to see inside the house before demoing it.

Hi all! I am became curious about new construction and wanted to run some numbers on a spec build. Could anyone share with me an avg $/sqft for various qualities of interiors? Granite counter tops, custom(ish) cabinets, premium hardwood flooring, highly detailed tile work, etc would be a class A property and it would go down from there. 

Ballparking is fine. I'd just like to know if I'm looking at $1.25/sqft, $2/sqft, $5/sqft, etc. Also, demo. How is demo-ing an existing structure priced out? Permits, labor, hauling remains, etc. 

Any help in this arena would be wonderful.

@Claire Trammell

Thanks for the response! If only I had seen it earlier...  One of the people on the 5 piece mailing called back and it turns out they are indeed looking to sell. Honestly, I was unprepared, but asked about the basics of the property. Is it rented/rehabbed? What does it go for? Etc, etc. 

I just got back from looking at all the units and its been rehabbed. The only person who lives there is the maintenance guy for all of the properties for this owner. He lives rent free and would like to stay. Its a 4 unit, so I suppose I'll be looking at comps all day to see how it sizes up. 

Thanks again for the response!

Hey everyone! Sorry if this has been posted before, but searching the forums for this results in every topic that has Direct mail in the title. 

I sent out a few handwritten letters to my top tier wants today. I am just trying to get a grasp of what to expect when they respond. The letter simply stated that I loved the area and I'd like to own property there. Please call to discuss selling your building. They were all 7-20 units. 

What is the typical response when someone calls back? Are they expecting an offer on the phone to get things started? Cause I dont have their expenses yet. 

@Eric Schleifand @Brent Coombs

Thanks for the answers!