All Forum Posts by: Briana Bean

Happy New Year! - from another 417er

Where are my pocket neighborhood people at? I am looking for people to connect with that have invested in small home communities. My husband and I have been looking at buying some land and building up some small 1-2 bedrooms houses on it. Would love to learn from any advice you have to share-any resources that helped along the way. Your comments are appreciated!

Anyone know of any books that break down this process? Any podcasts of testimonies of the ones that have done it? 
 

Do you have any BP podcasts to recommend that deal with approaching a home owner about selling and deal structuring? I was looking for something that may have word tracks, what to say or what not to say when talking with a home owner. I've heard about the 3 offer method, but wasn't sure if there was a formula people use when doing this.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $93,000
Cash invested: $10,000
Sale price: $147,500

This was a live-in flip. We stayed in it 2 years to avoid capital gains tax. After realtor, title fees, ect... We made a little over 30K to invest in future rentals.

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

We needed some extra cash to invest in real estate.

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

We found it on the HUD foreclosures list. It involved an blind auction, highest bid was the winner.

How did you finance this deal?

Standard primary residence gov't loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Rennovations

What was the outcome?

An extra 30K

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It was definitely difficult having small children in a construction zone and coming home to work everyday. In retrospect, we would have gotten more work done up front prior to move-in.

Hey gang! We've always used Lowe's for the convenience of getting everything we need at one place; therefore, we use a personal credit card with them for that 5% cash back. I've been looking at their business card options as something we may switch to for the convenience for accounting purposes. I see they now have an option with American Express so you aren't limited to just Lowe's. For those of you that use credit cards with your rehabs, what have you found that works best for  you? We don't always use Lowe's for materials -- sometimes it's a local vender, a contractor, or another big box store like Home Depot or Menards. Is there anything out there that provides bigger discounts for construction supplies tailored for people like us? 

We have a house with a hydronic heat system we are looking at selling. Would it be better to replace with a standard furnace? Or does it have any affect at all on resell? Works just fine. 

We bought this house as a flip. The main problem is the ugly stone fireplace and stairs smack dab in the middle separating the dining and kitchen. There's one wall we can take out, but we aren't wanting to mess with the fireplace and stairs. Just curious what you other flippers/realtors think. Have you ever done had like this and had issues reselling?

@james wise Good point. Thanks for your response! 

@Kim Meridith Hampton @Robert Posta

I like that idea! We were avoiding a month to month scenario, but could look at doing a month or two given the circumstances to avoid turnover. 

However, while due to COVID the tenant's income has been reduced, there's also the fact that the other tenant's income is not coming in. Based on just his income when there was no COVID, he would not be eligible. So what do you do at lease renewal when tenants leave and one remains, but the income does not meet requirements? 

@James Wise 

I totally agree. You should always screen your tenants prior to move-in. In June 2019, he and his wife were income producing and met our requirements. Now he is recently divorced and wanting to renew his lease. Should we be in the middle of the lease, I would leave as is, but since he is wanting to renew and it is just him, we need to write up a new agreement. What do you do when roommates, a partner, or spouse leave at lease renewal? Do you re-evaluate your requirements again before signing up for another year with this person? Or do you let it ride knowing they don't make enough by themselves? Turnover and vacancies are expensive but so are evictions.