All Forum Posts by: Chris Low

Salesforce is kind of the holy grail of CRM software programs. We don't use it for our investing work because we're not big enough (yet) to justify the expense, but my wife's company uses it exclusively and they love it. It isn't the cheapest, but it's incredibly powerful.

We haven't worked with RealtyShares yet, but probably will after we get a few flips done. We've had a few conversations with them, both over email and phone. They're very responsive, professional and they have a solid business strategy. I can't vouch for how they are to work with once you get into a deal, but so far, I'm impressed with what I've seen and we do intend to do business with them in the future. Their financing is better than the HML we're currently using.

Welcome @John Degen!

You should absolutely develop a detailed Scope of Work. They will not and cannot be expected to remember everything you go over verbally. The other advantage of a Scope of Work is that if you're working with multiple contractors (very common) or have a General Contractor or Project Manager overseeing the whole job, your SOW can show all the work that has to be done and the dependencies of each sub's work. For example, your SOW might show that you need bathroom cabinets installed by one contractor, but before that can be done, your plumber needs to run a new water line to the bathroom sink. The SOW would  show both of those activities with the plumber's work to be done first. That way the contractor knows someone is coming in before him or her and that work must be done first. Post the SOW at the job site - just a big print out posted on a wall or somewhere that it's visible to everyone helps keep everyone on the same page. We use an online tool called Smartsheet to develop our SOW and budget and just worked off a template they already had so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel, but there are other great tools out there. @J Scott has some examples in The Book of Flipping Houses and The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs and I'm sure you could find other examples online. Good luck to you!

I know investors who claim every property they purchase will be owner-occupied and often when they already have existing owner-occupied mortgages, but it's not a safe business strategy. I would not personally do it. The risk of getting caught may be low, but you want to set yourself up from the beginning as a reputable investor within your community, with the banks, financiers and partners you establish yourself with and also as part of the greater real estate investor community that we all belong to. You just don't want to be "that guy".

There are virtually unlimited ideas through BP for raising additional capital - from partnerships, to family members to credit cards to 401k loans and many more. I would shop around your local banks (not big banks) and credit unions to find a more favorable financing option and I would look into some of the other finance options like RealtyShares (they're a BP podcast sponsor) before even considering claiming owner occupied if you know you truly are not going to live there. It's good that you're considering what to do and asking for ideas. This dilemma is one that a lot of people who are just starting out face.

Whatever either candidate proposes has to ultimately be ratified by Congress so I'm more concerned about how the Congressional races will play out at this point. CA is an expensive place to do business regardless of who wins this race. Our state electeds are responsible for many of the policies that are driving our costs as real estate investors. And the cost of building permits is dictated by your local jurisdiction, not the federal government. But I agree with @Thomas S. that good business people will always find ways to make money in any economy.

The last thing you want is a tenant slipping on a wet entry floor and suing you. I'd go with a surface that provides some slip resistance, like a rough tile or carpet. If you lay a rug over your refinished wood floor, just make sure that also does not come up and provide a slipping hazard. You can get inexpensive commercial-grade carpet floor runners and mats at your local Office Depot. Then you would have both the nicer look of the refinished floor with some slip resistance.

We're seeing quite a few foreclosures in our area on homes that had reverse mortgages. We've been told by our Realtor that the bank's asset managers on these properties absolutely will not entertain an offer less than list price on reverse mortgages, unlike standard foreclosures where they often will consider up to $10,000 below list price. As a result, these properties can sit on the market vacant for a LONG time, possibly going through price drops every six months or so. It seems like a big waste and I'm curious as to why the bank would hold on to a deal that long simply because it was a reverse mortgage. Should we push our Realtor to submit an offer below list price anyway? Has anyone else had experience with reverse mortgage foreclosures? I'd like to figure out how to get them to move faster.

Hi @Charlie McClskie - I don't have one specifically for rental properties, but we use Smartsheets for most of our project management tools. It's online, you can share it, it has a lot of functional similarities to Excel and it's pretty easy to learn. Right now, I'm working on a scope of work for a flip. I just used their Project with Schedule & Budget template instead of having to create it from scratch. You might find a template you can use there.

@Eddie T. - almost every flip house we look at needs a new roof. The giveaways are the age of the roof (that may be included in the MLS listing and, if not, the County or City building dept should have the previous roofing permit on file so you can find the age that way), leaks anywhere inside the house, wear and tear, melting or warped end caps (the pieces that wrap around the edges on comp roofs), missing shingles and eave damage.