All Forum Posts by: Dan Bryskin

@Brian Reynolds, sorry for your predicament, its not a pleasant one. You should get good local attorney, and I am no lawyer & laws a different and nuanced from state to state, but let me try to help: 

1. Generally owner has to pay only once. If you paid GC for electrical, electricians lien should not hold in court.  He should go after GC who hired him. 

2. Generally people can only place a lien for the work they done and did not get paid  for. So if you paid GC for more work then he delivered he has no grounds for lien & he may also be liable (criminally or civilly) for impending your property  

3. What I would do, is to get a good, reputable local attorney to write them a ¨big lawyer¨  letter, stating you case, demanding they provide you a lien release in consideration of  $1 dollar & may be threatening them with the consequences. 

Good luck ... 

@Kate J. We buy windows from the supplier ( ABC inc) . For extra $20-30 to the price of the home depot cheapest junk window, you actually get a pretty decent one.  And we install them, ballpark in our neck of the woods - $500 per opening, labor and material. Last I heard window world was closer to $1000 per opening for lower quality product.  Good luck.

@Nyjuwa Newton For the potting soil it´s very simple. Value of raw land = number of bags * price per bag. Seriously, what are you trying to price? Hunting land, ag, build-able acreage? If you want a good answer - ask a good question. Good luck.

@Kay March, we sold one of our rehabs recently for $210k and it appraised at $205k .... Biggest problem we had - down the block was a new construction, similar size, sold couple weeks prior to ours at 190k. But we never leave appraisals to chance. We always send appraiser CMA with our comps, detail property features and what not. We have also challenged appraisals / order another one in the past ... What also helps an appraisal is a multiple offer situation, so we always trying to get multiple offers if we know we may have a challenge with the appraisal.

@Jeff C., Velocity is an interesting subject. Take a prospect I  am looking at tomorrow.  15,000 sq feet property, with it´s own page in a Wikipedia. It´s insured at 2x of the asking price because of irreplaceable woodwork. It´s been in the same family for 140 years. After I cast missing bronze & cooper pieces, spend time and treasure updating 1880´s technology, hire craftsman to match missing stain-glass pieces  - i like that to stay in my family for the next 140 years, but i´d still like a double digit returns. So let me ask you, take a 100k, do what you do, in 12 months, after taxes and what not - what do you need to get to call it good?

@Alexander Felice, I buy & maintain a portfolio of rentals. I use to do gut, rehab & rent. I would give renter a brand new house, have no capx for years & years, life was great. Now I am coming back to properties I have rehabbed 5-10 years ago and I am redoing a lot of work I already did ...   Getting a house to look like a post card is expansive, and if i do that -i rather sell at the premium. So I adjusted my practice to buy ¨almost rent ready¨ with some significant issue (preferably roof, concrete, foundation) for cash at the discount, fix an issue, rent for a few years then rehab and sell ...  Think about it - bathroom is more expansive then roof, to get premium money are spend on finish & finish is what´s gets destroyed by occupants ...

@Jason Hendrickson, ¨if you 1031 you never get anything out of it except rent¨ - my construction company can do a rehab on the rental held by my holding company & get a reasonable markup .... I don have a terrible accountant :) 

@Jason D. you can always hire an operation.

Death & taxes ....  Don do flips. Waste of time & money. Why would you want to work hard to pay ordinary Federal & state taxes, self employment, medicare and what not? Why to give 50+ percent of your profit in taxes? Do a time delayed flip instead. Add property to your portfolio as a rental, rehab and sell property from your portfolio. Now you can do 1031 and defer taxes, or pay a long term capital gains ... Makes your flip 25% to 75% more profitable ... What am I missing? Thoughts?

I will go against the grain here .... First off, BURR works. We started doing it in 1996. But I think conceptually there is a better way. Buy, Rehab, Refinance, Repeat - what´s wrong? OR in another worlds, can single families be done better? I use to do BURRR but then realized there is a better way. My thoughts: I get premiums selling rehabs. Once I am done with a rehab, I have a ¨brand new house¨. Its brand new only once. Only before first person spend a day living in it. In today´s environment people will pay premium for a quality rehab. Ours generally sell for 15% to 25% to the market price. Here is what I am thinking. Buy something almost rent ready. Do stuff you won have to redo, like roof, ceilings,  concrete. Rent. After a year or two, rehab, 1031 at the premium for another property. Thoughts?