All Forum Posts by: Brendan Lawrence

Hey Guys,

This whole tax lien thing really is interesting to me.  I've got a question about it:

North Carolina for example, is one region I was just searching through delinquent tax payments.  I'm going to assume there's a difference between somebody being behind in their taxes, and somebody having a tax lien?  If this is true, what happens if I click the "Pay by Credit Card" button and pay off $3,000 of some strangers back taxes listed on the site.  

From my understanding the tax liens for which you start acquiring properties are held at auctions, and not completed through this method.  

So, I guess this goes back to the original paragraph.  What happens if I were to pay somebody's property tax bill?  Are you just a rude home wrecker at that point, pissing off the neighborhood by paying the bill and telling them they owe you money now?  Or do you even get to go that far?  Have you just paid their taxes for them and they owe you a beer?

Really curious.  Thanks for any input on explaining this!

this is great, I found the form and just like you said it has a lot of the information right there.  okay, ready to tackle this.  thanks Wayne!

Hey everyone!

I have a call coming up shortly for a property I've found in Ohio which is off market. I've done all the research on this place and it needs some work, but they're asking about 45% of ARV for the house and I believe I can fix it up and still have a product that I've fallen well within the 70% rule margin. I've seen pictures of the property but being out of state I'll need to make sure I have the time to collect my due diligence.

My dilemma here is: I've spent all this time learning how to find these properties and safeguard myself....but now that the time is here, since this house is off market, I have no clue how to proceed with ANY of the legalities!  I assumed my first property would be through a real estate agent in one way or another and took peace in knowing that the paperwork would be handled by somebody else.  Should this property sound like a winner after talking with the home owner I'd like to be prepared to get the home under contract.  Being a contractor the rest of the process is second nature once the home is in my name but I'm stressing how this first step is supposed to go.

Main concerns:  Is there a generic form for the state of Ohio that I can access and "fill in the blanks", that gets the house under contract and allows me to state my contingencies?  Also, I know that I'll need to place earnest money....is this an easy process as well?  Find an escrow company and place a deposit?  If so does this need to happen before I send the purchase offer?  And, is the purchase offer the same form as the contract needed to state my contingencies?  I'm pretty overwhelmed with this part, any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!!!!

hey Gary this was just what I needed to hear.  thank you!

Hey Everyone,

I’ve been looking at some properties in the Beltzhoover neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. They caught my eye in that the current listings in the neighborhoods surrounding seemed to be going for $100-200k, yet these homes are listed far below that. They need work, but that’s the name of the game right?!

When I research the neighborhood however it gives some pretty grim reviews. Sounds like crime and gangs are pretty active in this area. Also, certain sources were pinning this neighborhood at a $50k average home value so if this is the case then it tosses out my interest in these properties.

I try to avoid calling local realtors and property managers in an effort to respect their time, since I hold no loyalty to any particular city right now and could very well end up never doing business there. So I figured I’d shoot something onto the forum to confirm my thoughts that maybe I should stay away from the area.

Thanks guys!

@Deisy P. Hey Deisy,

I hope this message finds you well.

I’m a licensed GC and have a handful of clients who are one woman shows. These women are tough, they know what they want, and they hold anybody they do business with accountable.

I don’t care what gender they are, and have never had issues. But I’ve seen many others try to one up them and I’ve watched these guys be put in their place. These women aren’t pulling any gender cards when doing this, it’s 100% natural confidence and zero tolerance.

I only say this, not to say the issue may be your way of handling it.... but it might be your way of handling it? I don’t know, we don’t know each other and I don’t mean that in a way where I even think I have anything to teach here. All I know is that I work in the industry on the “womanizer” end of this issue you’re having and I know that it’s possible to be a woman AND be highly respected in a business overflowing with testosterone. I think you can do it!

Good luck and I hope you don’t give up!

Hey guys! I've got some remote opportunities I'm probably going to be starting to take the plunge with.  Being a GC, I'm both rewarded and cursed with the concept that I do, and always have done, the majority of the work in-house.  This is great in that I'm very efficient in many aspects of renovating/building, but because of that my need to have a system that revolves around managing my subs hasn't been incredibly necessary for me.  I have a plumber I like, I have an electrician I like, and insulation/hvac companies I don't mind calling for large jobs.  Anything else I tend to do myself.  

I had a crew of 10 guys last year and I used TSheets to manage them and I think that the program is great.  If we had 4 jobs going on not only did it allow me to schedule and make changes to it daily, and assign everybody to their crew, but it logged their hours, and where they were, which came in handy when I'd find guys on the clock hanging out at their girlfriends house instead of being at the job site.  

One of the biggest perks it had though was the photo cataloguing.  Every day before clocking out the guys would give a description of the actions performed that day, and post up to 5 or so photos of the work completed.  I loved this is in that I didn't have to physically show up each day if I couldn't make it to a particular site.  If guys were siding a house and told me the day before, "we finished the east wall", there was no more surprise when I showed up the next day and found the detail they left out, "well, we still have to do the upper half".  

I'm a fairly passive personality....I work hard and value my reputation.  I do very well with my customers and its rare for me not to have relationships that last decades with them.  I eventually let the majority of the guys working for me go because that connection was dying and being replaced with stressed and upset customers.  I made the same amount of money just keeping a helper and picking my hammer back up and maintaining a good reputation and that's still where I am today.  Looking back I lacked detailed training, systems, screening, and back end help, but still I don't have a desire to have a multi-crew construction company.

With that, my question comes to those of you who have been around the block with long distance investing.  Obviously I'm more of a small operation kind of person who values close connections with a handful of good people.  Being a GC its natural for me to want to do all of the hiring of subs and oversight.  And if there was good software similar to TSheets then I would probably consider it.  Have any of you tried any of these out?  Or?  In your experiences is it more enjoyable to pay the money, and let a GC take the reins and the only relationship you have to have is with them?

I heard the podcast tonight about "Find your who"...maybe I'm about to answer my own question, haha.  Regardless, I'm curious what you guys and gals have to say.

Thank you!!

Hey guys!

I live out in Bend, Oregon where it’s hard to find a single family home under $300k....even under $400k can really limit you!

Same thing with the cities like Salem, Eugene and Portland. Oregon is expensive!!

My question here is what happens when housing prices officially rise to the point that you can no longer find the 1% rule anywhere? A house will rent for $2,000-$2,500 pretty easy but what if none of the houses in town meet the 1% rule anymore? What happens when the whole state finally exceeds it?

I do get that you can still flip these properties and use them in one way or another. But as long as home values keep rising and wages stay the same it’s only a matter of time before rents can’t support the home mortgage of the investor anymore.

Wondering what y’all experienced folks have to chime in with!

@Will Fraser hey man! I grew up in the northeast and have been hoppin around the west for the last 11 years. I’m a contractor and can grab work with ease after a few months of putting myself out there.

With that. The west is growing fast. I lived in Denver (twice) and have been a part of its massive expansion. When I first moved there it was truly like you were a part of this great adventure. But it’s a massive hot spot now and instead of an adventure feel it’s more like waiting in line at a theme park. It takes foreverrrrrrrr to get anywhere. And. If you’re going into the mountains you’re merging onto a 2 lane highway with everybody from the 3 main front range cities, everybody vacationing, and the Midwest states driving in for a long weekend. It’s all year. You’ll literally spend 3 hours making that 45 mile drive to the divide more often than not. And Little Cottonwood Canyon of Utah can do the same as the city grows.

We currently live in Bend, OR, but similar things can happen here. It’s 3 hours from the 3 main I-5 cities so come the weekends you’re not having anything to yourself. It’s quieter than Colorado is, and it’s great having the immense amount of climates in one state. It literally goes from desert to rainforest to ocean from one end to the other, as you pass over snow capped volcanoes and green mossy hot springs. But. Every house in town is the same as the house next door and it’s common to have to spend over $400,000 to get a 3/2 house.

We’ve done Washington as well which is by far my favorite mountain zone but with the cost of living there we don’t bother. Bozeman, JH, and Tahoe are all insanely expensive as well. And Idaho is hot on the radar with Californians, making many house prices $200-300/sf.

I think that Albuquerque is doing okay with prices and you can ski Taos. But where I’m going with this is we’re looking northeast again. Out west it’s beautiful and exciting. But you pay for that! And it keeps us in a small house tied down and not being able to leave town as often as you’d think we could. Burlington Vt, North Conway Nh, or the Adirondacks of Ny all have incredible mountains and it’s common to find real estate under $50/sf! With acreage! You’ll give up blower pow every week, but it does still come each year. It’s common especially in NY to find a single family home on 20 acres for about $150,000.

Either way. Hope this helped a little. Don’t get me wrong, if we lived out East, it would be to get acreage and ALSO be able to afford to spend more time exploring the west, as backwards as that sounds. Good luck!!!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $92,000
Cash invested: $15,000
Sale price: $162,000

I teamed up with an old friend on this project. He provided he financing and I did the work in the evenings after work. We opened up a livingroom wall, and gave the interior a full facelift, new kitchen/bath, interior/exterior paint job and had the project sold in 36 hours for $3,000 above asking price.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Id gotten into construction with the mindset of learning what I can about house building/remodeling so that I could take that knowledge and become a home investor one day.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found the deal through Redfin and was comparing price per square foot ratios throughout town. This property was listing low compared to the other houses in town and stood out.

How did you finance this deal?

My partner pulled a cash out refinance on a property he had just invested in down in Florida.

How did you add value to the deal?

We remodeled the entire house. Kitchen/bath, new trim work and paint job.

What was the outcome?

We profited about $55k before taxes and closing

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned from this that the process of trading work for a 50% share of profit was not the best use of time. In a typical situation, had I attained my own financing my margin would have been incredibly higher. Although we had set this agreement up from the start and it needed to be honored, once you added up my time involved to flip the house again my partners time to move money around, I felt that the time to return ratio invested was very unbalanced, even considering their financial risk.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I did not.