All Forum Posts by: Chris Vaught

@Account Closed, good to know!  30% is not very much at all - I can't imagine many flips are going on with that restriction.

Hey @Esther Goodpasture, it's a great question because investors and agents can be a huge benefit to each other, but like @Kevin Martinez said, there are two important things to do on your end to hold up your end of the bargain.  First, it's important to be upfront with them about what your goals are, and two, it's important that you know what it is you're looking for. 

One thing I was guilty of when I first started looking at properties with an agent was not having a great understanding of what properties were worth investigating, and which I shouldn't have wasted my time on.  And I wasted A LOT of time for both myself and the agent, who eventually gave up working with me - and rightfully so.  I eventually met an agent who really likes to work with investors and invests himself, so he's good at spotting potential deals and only contacts me when there's one he would invest in himself.

Good luck!

My biggest mistake was not forcing the contractor to keep me up to date on budget.  I asked a few times how he was doing on budget and he said he was in good shape.  He only asked for one draw before the end and since he wasn't asking for money, I wasn't sweating it too much.  At the end, he was $8k over budget.  If I had insisted on getting more details early on, we could have stayed on budget.  He was also a month late on delivery and we were getting close to the holidays, so I wasn't patient on offers because I wanted to move it before people got busy with end of year festivities.  I ended up taking one a little lower than I would have if I was more patient. 

Overall, I came out profitable, so hard to be mad.  But there was plenty of room for improvement!

What's up guys.  Back in 2014, I flipped my first house in Richmond, Va.  I made $12k, which was good for a 50% cash on cash return on my investment.  As first times go, mistakes were made and lessons were learned, and I've taken a couple of years to think about what I can do better next time and if this whole real estate investing is really what I wanted to do.

Since then I've done a lot more reading and homework and I'm ready to jump back in with both feet.  I recently moved to Virginia Beach, Va and would love to partner with other investors in the southside Hampton Roads (VB, Norfolk, Chesapeake) region to really learn the market.  While one flip doesn't make me a pro, it does give me experience to add a lot of value to a partner in a number of ways.

I'm excited to get back to it and jump back in the BP community.