All Forum Posts by: Darren Lenick

@Brian M. Time will tell. In the end I could be completely wrong not knowing their full strategy. My family, who were integral in getting me into flipping full time, got out of residential for now and are doing commercial. They are doing quite well but it requires a much larger financial commitment then I’m able/willing to make at the moment. Right now I only fix and flip for the cash-out ability but do plan on doing fix and holds for the passive income. I’m keeping my eye on commercial as well should the time arise when I’m ready to jump on a deal. In the end, the strategy is to do a mix of all three.

@Jared Cauffield from my experience I’d say no. It probably will create hype for properties in the area more out of curiosity than from real buyers but i dont think it will affect values. A homes selling price is dictated by what someone is willing to pay for it and not what was done to a neighborhood property. My opinion is based on doing an episode of Designed To Sell back in 2006 for my house in an LA suburb. It attracted a lot of attention but no qualified buyers. Part of my issue was the beginning of the real estate down turn but it’s also because many of the viewers of these shows are dreamers and not buyers. If you think about it, if you’re a serious buyer looking to buy a property, would you be searching HGTV or any other reality show for properties? The other side is that these TV shows don’t disclose all of the details. Some leave out closing costs, holding costs or the fact the house may not have closed because it didn’t appraise or the buyer wasn’t qualified in the end. You’ll notice most of these shows end with “If this deal closes, we may make $xxxxxx”.

@Brian M. To reiterate, I said in the long run. No entity can keep up for long with margins that low. Agreed, in the short term it will hurt the market, but it will also filter out those that want to make a quick buck and think it takes 1 week to flip. It’s like a lot of industries. I was in IT for 28 years before this and had a lot of competition from those who sold at a loss and made it up in volume. LOL I also made a good living following those “schlock houses” and cleaning up after them. Right now I’m buying full gut jobs. I find less competition in buying them and don’t mind taking a little longer for rehab as I’m all cash. Even holding them I’ve done better with appreciation then I would have in a bank or other investment. Example: purchased 46k, rehab 55k, ARV 180k. Since it’s under $200k it will sell fast in that area.

@Joel Falk in most cases it would depend on the market you’re in. Here in Florida, most of the properties are built with cinder block and stand the test of time and weather fairly well as they were designed to do. Also, you face additional demolition permits to take down an entire structure as well as different plan requirements for a new build as opposed to a rehab. I’m not sure if it’s still the same today, but years ago when I did a couple of houses in Los Angeles, as long as you kept a portion of the original house, it would be considered a renovation and not new construction. That kept permit fees lower and you could demo a large portion of the structure.

@Brian Garrett hadn’t thought of that before but makes sense. It’s great for deodorizing and sterilization. I wonder if it would also work for airborn mold spores after remediation?

@Matt Shields in the long run I’m not overly concerned as this corporate entities have huge overheads and as margins get smaller and smaller they will have a tough time sustaining themselves. Small operators who work from home or small “mom and pop” offices will do better as they will be able to live from previous profits as long as they don’t squander the proceeds. If we have even a minor correction in the market, the large corporations could be left sitting on a lot of negative value inventory that will need to be liquidated In order to cover overhead and can only benefit the smaller entities with cash to scoop them up. My 2 cents for what it’s worth.

Hi @Mitchell Jaworski, when is the next coffee meetup? I looked on Meetup and could only find the monthly meetings and lunch meetings.

I bought that house in 2016 and have been sitting on it. Had a few delays: moving my family from Toronto to here, Irma caused roof damage and then had 2 discs replaced in my neck recently.

Nice appreciation on it though and will still make out nicely. No after pics yet as we’re still a few weeks from completion.

Hi Sarah,

I moved to South Florida last August and loving it so far.

I’m finishing a property in Apopka and purchased one in West Palm Beach, so just getting my feet wet down here.

I’m starting to look into Broward as well but for my primary residence.

Keep us posted on how you’re doing.

Looking for a structural engineer for a property in Apopka.