All Forum Posts by: Rick Jones

@Nick Coonis

Great project and thanks for the picture updates.

Can you please expand on the site costs?  Why so much for the water taps?  Is it due to the sheer distance that the pipes need to be ran to the house location?

Thanks

Rick

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions.  Below is a quick diagram of the property.  I looked into sod prices and they are very reasonable here, ($ 0.21-0.40/sqft).  This area would cost on the order of ~$60 to sod and like someone said I will wait till the last minute to do it.  

With sod prices so low I am seriously considering sodding the entire back yard and maybe the front.  They are small and it may boost the curb appeal tremendously.

Thanks

Rick

Happy Sunday Everyone,

I had an approximately 10 by 10 foot concrete slab chipped up and removed.  Under it is rocky soil.  I need to determine the most economical way to clean this up or make it look good for buyers.  The house is being flipped and the rest of the landscaping is also going to be done.  

I definitely cant leave this eyesore but I don't think it will be easy for grass to grow either.  It is directly next to the house.  I am exploring some different ideas like maybe putting crushed stone there or maybe even a flower garden.  

Anyone have any other inexpensive ideas?

Thanks

Rick

@Allende Hernandez

I use UpWork for a number of things and love it.  Could go into more detail about using it for scout CL?  Like what instructions you give and how you manage the work?  I am also interested in the mass emailing. 

I sometimes have VA cull large lists for me, (architects, builders, dumpster vendors, etc) and then I have been sending out the mass email. This is time consuming though.

I know that I could really get to the next level if I could fully utilize VA and other people in general.

Thanks

Rick 

Hi Everyone,

I am fresh off a successful flip and need to get my mailings going again.  The target market is about 900 address and I have sent various pieces in the past year, (yellow letters, white letters and zip letters).  My last mailing was a white letter in an "urgent" envelope from bro Mike's website, (which landed me the flip), but this time the response rate was quite lackluster.

Anyway I am looking to send a postcard to get the new year started but do not have much experience with this sort of mail piece.  Particularly what to put on the back of it.  There are a panoply of post card designs that will work but they do now contain any back content.  Should I just write a friendly message or include more calls to action, "cash", yadda yadda yadda.

I am interested in other's experience and thoughts.  Especially Mr. Q  @Michael Quarles

Thanks as always

Rick 

@David Vitarelli

Hi David,

Finding a good contractor(s) is tough work.  Many people have made good suggestions in both this thread and other threads.  You could also try doing a brute force method.I paid a virtual assistant on UpWork (Odesk), $9 to generate a list of contact info for all contractors within a radius of the subject property.

This gave me a list of 200 or so contractors.  I then shot gun emailed all of them with the basics, (time frame, rough budget, summary of the scope of work, address of house, etc).  Then had them all show up together on two days.  You are going to get all sorts of responses.  It will be up to you to initially screen them by their appearance, way they talk, bla bla bla.  You can then further screen them by their bids, references and make sure they are licensed and insured and in good standing.

Make sure you have a scope of work ready to go!  This is very important!  Otherwise the bids you receive will not be directly comparative as you will be relying on the individual contractors memory/interpretation of what you want.  Generate this and print off however many copies to give each contractor one.

Good luck

Rick

@Ray Hurteau

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your message.  I am not in a position to put my capital into one of these projects just yet and would not want to either before gathering more information for myself.  I do delight in strategizing and hearing from Boston investors and reading their comments.  I am curious how effective direct mail might be in the denser, high value areas.  For a larger project I would expect to send thousands of pieces across several months to generate actionable leads.  As we all know issues come up with sellers that create motivation and an opportunity for investors constantly.  We try to have our marketing land in their lap at that precise time to capture their interest.  The competition may be fierce but my thinking is simply if someone else can do it than why not me.

As far as hard numbers I apologize for bringing up the $200K initially.  I was just using a number and did not mean to divert our attention from the concepts I was trying to discuss.  Obviously the more expensive the acquisition, rehab, marketing, etc the more capital required.  This is least mysterious part of the equation to me.  That being said I agree with your comments, about working in less expensive areas and moving up.  I and i am doing exactly that.  I have been marketing to lower MA all the way up to Needham.  I have been slowly expanding and sending out more mail every month.  

Using commercial loans for these projects is an unknown area to me and I need to put some time into researching and speaking with local banks. Also even in the short time I have been doing this I have cultivated a significant pool of private investors through being passionate about REI and having a reliable track record. Point taken about using expensive HML and a potential partner.

My rehab experience is modest at this time. I am actually a full time Mech Engineer. I have purchased and renovated a 3 family house first, then purchased a 3 family and went through the process of adding a legal 4th unit. Both were successful and provide fantastic rental income. My latest project is in Walpole, MA. A small SFR that is being renovated for a quick sale. So far it is going well. The contractor I am using has the project ahead of schedule and under budget. I have two more, larger deals that are just about to go under contract that I am looking forward to getting started on.

I outsource all of my marketing which is basically buying a list, paying for mailing service and also paying for a 24/7 call center to handle all calls.  I may get better results in handling some of this myself but I am always trying to build systems that take me out of the loop so I can focus on high value actions.  When you say "in house" what do you mean?  Are you handling all incoming calls?  When I send out mail i get 100s of calls with most being junk.  I would not want to field all of these.

Thanks again

Rick

@Josh Parra   @Troy W.

Gents, 

Great responses and information.  This is exactly was I have been looking for.  Other people experiences and methods.  

Josh,

I really appreciate the general construction cost and zoning/building department lead times you have experienced in Boston. DFD, or probably better in Boston is, walking for dollars sounds like it could be high value activity but more time consuming. That being said I have seen a number of properties in Boston that I should follow through with and contact the owner.

It is good to know that you are operating currently in the Boston area.  I plan on marketing to some of the higher end projects, (needed capital wise), before I am actually ready to do a full scale flip myself.  The marketing feedback as far as what works and what doesn't is invaluable and a real advantage.  I have a call center set up that is more than capable to handle additional incoming calls and filter through the time wasters so I am excited to get started in this new area.

Troy,

I am originally from Northern VA and I love DC. Glad you had a good experience there. A simple fact is that the higher the value of the property the higher profit a flipper or wholesaler can expect all things being equal. These higher rewards are offset by larger barriers I am sure.

Thanks again guys

Rick 

Good Morning Everyone,

@Richard C. @Ann Bellamy @Clinton Holmes @Account Closed

Sounds like a fantastic deal.  I am glad your friend had such a great experience.  I plan on creating an additional arm of marketing to a few selected areas with these sort of properties, to feel out the market for motivated sellers.  I am interested in learning for myself how saturated it may be from other investors similar efforts.  The relatively small cost of marketing is well worth it to gain some market feedback.  Even an investor without the capital or flipping ability would still profit from even wholesaling the deal.  A indirect benefit would be suffering through the details of contract negotiation, building contact with a condo conversion attorney, realistic timeline planning and other details of this sort of project.  

Thanks for the responses everyone

Rick

Hi @Richard C.

Thanks for you questions. I fear I was not clear above. I am trying to think ahead and wondering about larger flips as opposed to the more conventional SFR flips.

The $200K, i mentioned, would be the down payment, plus costs, etc in order to secure a hard money/financing for a larger million dollar project.  I also did not mean to imply that it was simple.  Only that the key principles are the same.  I would rather have one large 1 million dollar flip going than 10 smaller, $100K flips, is all I meant.

I think brownstones may have an advantage because many of them are located in both dense and hot markets as opposed to searching for other larger projects like luxury homes in more rural areas.  A place like Boston has 10s of thousands of them.

Thanks again

Rick