All Forum Posts by: Cyle Harris

@Adah N. Labor was by far the most expensive portion of the rehab but I interviewed a few contractors in my market and selected the one with the best price. Keep in mind this was a small home as well (~890sqft) which helps to keep costs down when doing things like flooring or buying kitchen cabinets. 

I would assume contractors charge different prices depending on the market, but drastically different, I wouldn’t know. 

@Daniel Taylor A small profit after calculating taxes. The biggest wins was that I recovered all the money I invested, made a profit (even though it wasn’t what I expected), and I learned what NOT to do in my next deal. 

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement! 

@Tyrone Marson @Daniel Taylor This entire process took me a total of ~10 months (2 months longer than expected) in large part due to the eviction and rehab taking longer than expected. My rehab did not stay on budget at all, in fact I spent double my rehab budget due to unforeseen issues with plumbing and the drainage system (original budget was $15K (didn't think the house needed much work after private inspection) and ended up spending $30K. That's even painful to write). 

I re-modeled the entire house as the previous owner did not do a good job maintaining the property. I re-modeled the kitchen, bathroom, all bedrooms, living room, new light fixtures, etc. I'm thankful that the house I bought was small (~890sqft) and I purchased it at a deep discount or I would've been in trouble. 

The home I bought is in Redford. 

I recently sold my first fix and flip in early June and I have to say that this was one of the most difficult challenges I've faced in recent years. From experiencing my first eviction (and all of the headaches involved), dealing with a terrible contractor, and working with an even worst realtor, I really learned first hand how difficult real estate investing can be if you don't have a good team. Despite all of these things, I was able to successfully complete each stage of this deal thanks to my 9-5 job which provided the financial cushion needed to push forward, books on flipping houses which provided me with insight on how to execute each stage of the deal, and my faith in God because at the end of the day I'm only capable of so much on my own. 

Some of the major take away's I have from this experience is to invest time in building a good team (realtor, contractor, lawyer), get rid of incompetent people sooner (i.e. don't give contractor too many chances to screw you over), and run my numbers by other investors/people to verify my analysis (this mistake was by far the most costly). 

I plan on using this experience to begin building my rental portfolio and house hacking to lower my monthly living expenses. 

Thanks for the insight Steven. Invaluable advise!

Thanks for your advise on recommending a realtor, I didn't think of that before.

Hey everyone! After months of research and marketing for deals, I finally placed my first house under contract. The house was beautiful and needed little work so I took a chance even though their weren't any comps within a quarter mile and the PRD wasn't too favorable. To make a long story short, I'm now having trouble finding a cash buyer. I've had many bites, but once they run the numbers, they instantly become uninterested. Lesson learned, never place a house under contract if the comps don't look right.