All Forum Posts by: Brad P.

I did a cash-out refi last year with a large, national bank (Wells Fargo) and here is what they required:

-Ownership for more than 12 months
-Property could not have been listed for sale within the last 6 months
-75% LTV
-Full appraisal, extra documentation on renovation work, and A LOT of underwriting questions/requests/paperwork
-Took a little over 2 months to close the loan

Maybe a smaller, local bank would be different but that's my experience with a big bank.

Had a similar BOA requirement for a house we just looked at yesterday. Wanted to put in an offer but was told "bank is only considering cash offers." Why not put that in the description instead of requiring pre-approval through them?

Is there any good way around this? We've tried to require a reponse within 2 business days and in most cases, they just ignore it.

Lowe's often has the $97 whole house deal and you can buy any carpet and basic pad. Many times Stainmaster will run free installations but you have to use premium pad and Stainmaster carpert (obviously). We penciled in out and it made sense to go with the stock carpet and pad w/ $97 install over the Stainmaster deal.

We just had Lowe's install carpet last week and the breakdown was something like this:
-Basic Install: $97
-16 stairs: $112 ($7 per stair)
-Tack Strip: $80 (around $.30 per LF)

We did our own tear out and hauling. So while the $97 is a great deal, they certainly make up for it in other places.

It was still cheaper for us to use Lowe's than the other carpet installers we called.

@Kelvin. I have no idea if its common, its just how I look at potential properties. Working backwards to get the maximum I can pay for a property just makes sense to me....I know my carrying costs and I can quickly get a ballpark estimate of the rehab costs.

Also, I would never use a wholesaler's ARV or estimated repair budget. I would always do my own research/analysis.

Again, that's just how I do things...

I know you've sold your properties but for other wholesalers, if you use ARV - Repair Value = Profit, 9 times out of 10 you will get ignored or not taken seriously. For example, from my perspective (a flipper) it looks like this:

Sales Price: $130,000 (We wouldn't list at full market price)
Utilities/Insurance/Loan Payments/Property Taxes: $900 per month x 5 months = $4,500
Purchase Closings Costs/Realtor Fees/Sellers Closing Costs/Seller Concessions = $15,300
Repair Costs = $15,000
Expected Profit = $25,000

= Maximum Purchase Price of $70,200

Maybe we are just extra conservative with our criteria but we wouldn't even think twice about a deal like #1.

J Scott, that is definitely our goal. Looks like its going to take some trial and error to get there.

We called about 15 local banks before finding one that would work with us. We explained exactly what we were doing (primarily fix and flip with rentals mixed in) and what we wanted (contruction loan).

We found one that was actually excited to work with us (commercial department). Everything is in the name of our LLC with our personal backing.

Keep looking around, its worth it.

Being relatively new to the game (working on our second flip), we do not have a big list of contractor connections yet. So we've been using google, references, craigslist, etc to find potential contractors (plumbing, electrical, gutters, chimney, etc). We've found 2 common themes:

1. They don't call back.
2. They don't provide a bid when they tell you they will, if at all.

Here is a rough breakdown of how our search has gone:
-Called approx. 12 contractors
-3 answered their phone
-Another 4 called back
-7 walkthroughs
-All 7 saying they would get us a bid within the week
-3 actually did

These aren't big jobs but we try to explain what we are doing and that we are looking at future works as well.

Is this normal?

It seems that 1) you answer your phone and 2) you deliver on your promises, you would be on your way to being a successful contractor.

Property we closed on last week has a raised concrete patio going into the front door. Concrete is in good condition, no cracks or spalling, but there is a sag in the middle which leads to standing water every time it rains.

What's the proper way to fix this? I've read a bunch of different things from "use a concrete leveling agent", "concrete leveling agents are crap", "overlay the existing concrete with a thin layer of new concrete", "NEVER overlay concrete on existing concrete", etc.

All we want to do is make the patio level to get rid of the standing water issue.