All Forum Posts by: Cody Cross

At this point in my career, I have owned an apparel company, a "media" company, flipped some houses, wholesaled some deals, and kept some rental property. I've also helped build sales teams for a technology company (which was fun) and have done some light consulting. I have experienced failure, success, and the myriad of different colors of mud and blue skies in between. Now, today, I would consider myself a "full time" investor and house flipper/opportunist. 

When flipping houses, I keep my criteria tight, opportunistic, and attempt to create multiple exits. How can someone create multiple exits flipping houses? When I buy these houses I have a very strict criteria and stick to it, only budging on a few things if I need a deal. For example, an ideal flip house for me is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom brick slab home that is not in a flood zone. Having a great layout helps, updated a/c and plumbing systems also helps, newer roof.. you know al the big ticket item stuff. I will buy this house if the ARV is between 175-270ish and can purchase and renovate the property to be at maximum the 1% rule. For example, if I'm flipping a house with the intention of reselling it for $260,000 I'd like to be all in 165-175 in case I need to make it a long term rental for $1,800.

Now, I get this seem like a "perfect" flip house scenario. And honestly, it really is and this market is proving that. If you're flipping houses with only one exit and interest rates triple you're stuck holding this nice and new asset but can't sell it because the market softens and prices come down. I find this time in the market so interesting because it's what Dave Ramsey always talked about as far as getting into real estate with 0 debt. Which is not what I have chosen to do but I now completely understand why he promotes that. I wanted to share this with the bigger pockets community just to share my strategy and get some feedback. I don't think I'm right and I'm open to a better way of going about this.

Hope this helps one person when they're looking for some good info on flipping houses. I'm learning there's better ways to go about this every day and am open to any pointers from anyone else in the community! My only ask: What are you doing to sell your flips once they are listed on the market in this season? Thank you! Very grateful for Bigger Pockets. 

Buy something different, don't get stuck on cash on cash. First deal I bought was 120 years old and regretted it 3 months after buying.

Buy cash with hard money or private money then refinance with a DSCR lender or local bank.

I bought my first 8 single families with 15% down bank financing and am having trouble being able to pull cash out and buy more. However, if I would have bought them cash, I would be able to do a cash out refinance no problem.
 

Wish I would've known this method before working the hundreds of hours to save up cash for the down payments for the houses. Hope this helps.

When/where are the credible real estate meetups out in Austin and surrounding areas? Thanks!

Hey everyone! I'll be moving to Austin, TX in 2 weeks. I'm looking to fill my calendar up with the local real estate meetups and networking events! Any contacts, dates for events, suggestions etc send them my way! I'll be living in north Austin a little west of Pfluegerville but am wanting to travel anywhere in the surrounding areas! Thanks!!

I am in the process of moving to Austin TX looking to network with other realtors in the area to help me decide on which brokerage and team would be the most advantageous for me to join. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

@Lawrence Briggs congrats man!

@Anthony Parsons what are you specifically trying to accomplish in this first step?

@Barrett Boone I’ve never paid more than $500ish for a new hot water heater. Maybe another $200 for install.

@Kaylee Walterbach In the beginning of my journey “on my own” when I was 16ish I started to look at every single penny I spent and where it went. Cooked a lot of food, never ate out and if I did I only ordered an appetizer and a water, counted my grocery spending dollars by the meal and what I was paying per meal. Which was probably $1.50/meal then. Somehow lol. Now, I have a spreadsheet and I know about what I’m going to be spending per month on the fixed costs things like house notes, grocery, etc. Expense tracking and budgeting is important and I’m also very focused on how much money I could bring in as opposed to how much I can spend. 80% of the time on income and 20% on expenses. Could get more granular too if you’re interested further DM me!