All Forum Posts by: Cortney Arenstein

 Thanks for the well wishes! HOPING to stay on the west side. We live in Katy and we are from Alief so we grew up on the west side and know the market well from MoCity on the south side to CyFair on the north side. That said, I have not set that in stone just yet--we have put a lot of   time into researching a few other areas with lower entry points--so we shall see. You? 

Have searched the forums to little avail--seems no one has a great answer yet.  Apologies if I have just missed something. 

I refuse to believe Houston has no quality contractors available! In the past we have used Taylor Merchant with Honey Do List Services out here on the west side (Katy). (https://honey-do-list-services-tx.com) and he is VERY reliable and they do WONDERFUL work and so far have been pretty affordable--although full disclosure we have not hired them for a full remodel YET. (I have referred them to my real estate retail buyer and seller clients and my husband has used them in his HVAC biz) However to my knowledge they have not worked much with investors, so they tend to need to "send someone out to get an accurate estimate." Which--mostly I get--I wouldn't want to bid a job I had not seen either. BUT, we are hoping to find contractors that have enough rehab experience that they could give a ballpark based on square footage, age of the house and photos.

I may be asking far too much there. Is this even possible? I'm talking BIG ballparks. Like, is this $5000 or $25,000? SURELY this is a reasonable ask? 

We are getting ready to interview the following contractors and would love to hear if any of you have any experience with them! (Reposting this as an original post too--for maximum eyeballs.)

https://fasttrackremodeling.com
http://www.re-titans.com/
https://www.marwoodconstructio...
https://www.investhomepro.com/...

Giving this a bump as we are in the same bind. (Have searched the forums to little avail) I refuse to believe Houston has no quality contractors available! In the past we have used Taylor Merchant with Honey Do List Services out here on the west side. (https://honey-do-list-services-tx.com) and he is VERY reliable and they do WONDERFUL work. (I have referred them to my real estate retail buyer and seller clients and my husband has used them in his HVAC biz) However to my knowledge they have not worked much with investors, so they tend to need to "send someone out to get an accurate estimate." Which--mostly I get--I wouldn't want to bid a job I had not seen either. BUT, we are hoping to find contractors that have enough rehab experience that they could give a ballpark based on square footage, age of the house and photos. 

I may be asking far too much there. Is this even possible? 

We are getting ready to interview the following contractors and would love to hear if any of you have any experience with them! (Reposting this as an original post too--for maximum eyeballs.) 

https://fasttrackremodeling.com
http://www.re-titans.com/
https://www.marwoodconstructio...
https://www.investhomepro.com/...

thanks everyone, I think I have a better understanding of the process I need to do! Appreciate it!

Well. Crap. OK. So Edward I edited the post. It did not occur to me that anyone would do that. My bad. 

I don't want to wholesale. I want to be a buyer's agent for an investor that wants this deal. I don't know the first thing about wholesaling. I just want a list of investors who know they want to buy in this area and build. So I can bring her the buyer and say "Here! Let's make this happen!" 

I get the benefit of handling an investment transaction AND the joy of helping out a colleague and the seller who really just needs to move on with her life. 

I can't "get the deal under contract" without a buyer, right? Or is that the whole "wholesaling" thing? Wholesaling is the big scary monster under my bed in RE for me. 

Winston, I was told there was no flooding to the house but there was some damage to the street nearby--as was the case with a lot of this area...the property remains unscathed.

I'm not at the point where I can buy a deal like this myself. But I am a realtor. Is it OK for me to try to look for Houston investors here?

A fellow agent in my office has what I THINK may be a STEAL of a deal in Houston, TX, in a HUGE up and coming area. She can't seem to get any bites because a lot has slowed down here with oil prices being so low and our economy tied so closely. So I thought you guys might have a suggestion on how I can help her find a buyer (thereby adding to my investment capital pot through my commission, and adding to my experience of working with investors.) 

It has a house on it but needs to be lot value--If you know anything about Houston, it is practically downtown in Area 9... the seller is VERY motivated and I KNOW she will take considerably less. 

Should I "run the numbers" before I post an ad? I really don't know how to do that for something that is lot value. THoughts? 

@David Hunter we used the Dean Jackson "Get Listings" program. The offer is a free home price evaluation. (Basically a CMA) based on other properties in the area. Once they respond there is an initial big first packet with all kinds of goodies, then a follow up mailer for months.

@Sean Dolan I will look into that thanks! 

@Scott Schuetz you are not the first person to recommend that book! I will buy it right now! Thanks!

Thanks for all the incredible advice everyone. I'm the realtor wife. :) I'm of the opinion that our DM campaign fell flat. I continue to follow up with the 15 or so responses we got from mailing 2100 mailers three times in a row. I will send them stuff until they ask me to stop! But that was a pretty big disappointment. I definitely think there are just too many mailers in our area. 

Door knocking is super not cool in this area. (Katy, TX a Houston suburb) People hate it and will report it as "soliciting" to the HOA and on Nextdoor. I'm not a fan of strange people coming to my door myself. Not sure I could convincingly pull off a conversation when I know I would be annoyed with me if I was in their shoes. Ha!

I do think the best thing is (like @Patrick Britton says) just having a great big pool of people that know I'm a realtor and love me for whatever reason. That's where I got my first listing and my first buyer. So I carry on being the social butterfly and trying to just be everywhere all the time. 

The goal is to use my extra realtor income to fund our investing. I'll just keep my eyes on the prize and use the old fashioned charm to grow that pool. ;) We may do another round of mailers because it was fast and easy and not too pricey with EDDM. 

We will certainly let everyone know if we find something that rocks our world! Something other than BP forums, of course.