Hi Mary. I currently a flipper in my backyard in CA and am in a similar situation where I'm looking to flip out of the state. David Greene mentioned that when he does out of state renovations, he likes to leverage property managers to overlook the construction process. In our situation, property managers won't likely fit into the pie since we are looking to sell the property in the open market.
However, you can always leverage your "rock star" agent who found you the deal (assuming it's not an offmarket deal or from a wholesaler) to check up on the construction every so often. They have every incentive to make sure construction is up to standard since they will receive 5-6% (to be split with buyer's agent depending on state) of the sale price in commission. Another option is to hire independent inspectors or even handymen whom you can pay a flat fee for every time they inspect your house. This can be far cheaper than having an in-house project manager to do this for you.
Based off your statement "this will be my first time managing a renovation out of state", it looks like you are familiar with the renovation process. I'm sure you and I both understand that as flippers, having control over the construction cannot be stressed enough. Make sure you put in your contract with the GC some performance incentives to make sure the renovation is done on a timely manner. Let them know that there will be routine quality control checks/inspections so that if your third party inspector finds any issues with quality, the GC will be responsible for paying for the correction.
These are just some theories that I think will help and plan to implement when I operate out of state flips. I hope this helps!
I would like your advice on one thing, however. Having lived in Southern California my whole life, I live in a bubble and am not aware of the flipping market outside of my backyard. The purchase price, construction/labor costs, and ARV are all higher here in California than most states so I already have a high tolerance for risk and have the necessary liquidity to scale. How did you go about finding your next market to flip?
