All Forum Posts by: CRAIG BILLINGS

I appreciate that. My current update on this purchase:

I spoke with another lender today. This lender told me that since I am former military I should be using the VA rehabilitation loan. But this loan was just approved as of yesterday for some lenders. Supposedly it was briefly suspended. I'll ask my current lender Monday regarding this new change. If my current lender doesn't offer the VA rehab loan I am switching lenders IF I can finance over 75K in repairs. This house is going to take about 100K ....I think.....Yes, I'm still waiting on now 4 contractors out of 7 I contacted. I think I may switch careers and become a contractor. :) LOL. Na. I'm kidding. I did take an online practice test though. Yeah I failed. hahaha. I'll stick to the money part.

I did not ask. This is mainly due to our 30 minute conversation and the loan officer spending 20 minutes explaining to me how the process works. I will ask as soon as I can. They are on vacation at the moment but I am also being proactive and searching for a lender who has experience with this type of loan. 
Thanks for all your help. I’ll keep you posted 

Wow! Thank you! My lender told me I need the contractor quote before moving forward on anything. I'm now on my 5th contractor (I have 2 more lined up as of today) but what you said makes sense. I just reached out to a HUD consultant. Thank you. Do you accept Bitcoin? :) just kidding

The thing is that I cannot move forward without a contractor's itemized written quote. So I cannot ask a consultant yet.

Hi folks. I've been listening to the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast and the newly formed business podcast. I also listened to the audiobook 'BRRRR' by Mr. David Greene. And of course my first real estate book was 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad'. Needless to say the real estate bug has bitten me and it is bad. I blame you guys. LOL I've also had a small business for 7 years so I do have some business experience.
I'll try to keep this short and to the point. My wife and I are looking to buy a property to both live in and rehab to pull out equity for later investment. We have a purchase agreement signed to buy a home for 135K with about 60K-80K (estimated) worth of rehab work to be done. We are using a 203K loan to get started. The goal is to hopefully get this thing appraised for minimum of 30K in equity from the start. The plan is to save more cash and continue to invest in the property for a year then pull out the equity and go find another rehab. Right now the selling agent claims the home can appraise for 240K if it were in good condition. But I'm having issues with .......wait for it......getting contractors to give me good quotes. I'm on my third one now. 

The first one didn't work out because "he misunderstood the scope." This was after spending 4 hours of a walkthrough with him. He is more of a "renovation guy and not a rehab guy". The house needs to be livable. Right now it is not. Like in poo poo shape. LITERALLY on the floor! Yeah, I know. 

Second one never showed up. After 4 calls and waiting twice. He still claims he will visit.

The third one is still getting information. But he is giving me "worst case" estimates before he actually does a complete thorough walkthrough. Right now he is at 60K just with electrical, plumbing, and installing HVAC. He doesn't want to waste his time getting an accurate quote in case it is too much. I get the idea of "we have other jobs going on right now" and I respect that. But I cannot move forward without an actual, written quote.

1. So....I'm looking for a good contractor in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area. Any suggestions?

2. How am I supposed to know when a contractor is giving a good "estimate" instead of "worst case"?

3. Are my expectations with contractors out of perspective?

Any tips are very much appreciated.

Thanks!!!