All Forum Posts by: David Olson

@Andrew Harwell FEMA has a flood map that is accessible to the public and so do most city websites. I've just used a google search in the past when finding it.

Hello everyone!!

It has been awhile since I have posted on BP. Mainly due to the fact that I was going through a 2 month closing process which is a long story and doesn't matter. What does matter is that I finally have my first property to my name which is something I have been chasing for a few years now. The house flooded during Harvey here in Houston but only due to the drainage pipe in the street collapsing causing the water to back up and to flood the home. This was the only house that flooded on the street and the city has since replaced the old drain with a new one. The street cut went about 1/3 of the way across the street so it must have been a fairly large repair.

The home is not in a flood zone and all the sheetrock has been removed. The home owners are still living there and have been living in the house since Harvey in August of 2017 which is honestly sad because I don't consider that home livable. 

A few stats on the home which we plan to flip.

• Purchased for $75k cash
• Rehab estimate is $50k
• ARV is $180 - $200
• Rehab time is estimated at 60 days (my business partner, whom I formed a company with, owns his own construction company and has his own crew so the cost will only be time and material with no markup)
• Since the sheetrock is removed I will seek a mold remediation certificate for the buyer

Anyways there are many more details than I listed above but that's the short version!! Feel free to ask questions or give insight!

P.S. I will post pictures of progress and plan to have a video log and hopefully a time lapse of the project. 

BP,

I recently came across a house west of Houston that is an off market SFH and makes for a great flip. I am trying to bypass the lender for the purchase and make this happen with cash. Walked the property yesterday with my partner (GC) and all looks good thus far. With that being said, I would assume I still need a realtor to write up the TREC contract to purchase the home correct? One caveat is the home owner isn't moving for about two more months but I want to get it under contract before someone sweeps it from me.

Title: Do I need a realtor for this?

Inspection: I will hire out.

Appraisal: Will hire out or is this only needed if I was using a lender? (either way I will get one)

What am I missing?

@Lucia Rushton Thanks and I will check out that company!! Is this there site? https://www.mckissock.com/

@Jessica Wygal I came across this site from the TREC that has a list of all the approved providers. 
https://www.trec.texas.gov/education/qualifying-ed...

I was considering Champions School of Real Estate but there are so many to pick from!!

@Lucia Rushton congrats!!! Is it a night course or online?

@Jessica Wygal since you live in Houston, what areas around here offer the required courses? Or is online an option? I have decided to pursue my RE License however I will need to find a broker whom does not expect me to actually sit in their office but rather pay a fee just to park it there. I work full time in the oil & gas industry but I want my license to be able to pull comps quick for flips as well as buy and holds and have access to other things that benefit investors. Just not sure where to start other than Google. 

@Jeremy Tallman what a read!! I'm surprised the tenant took the owner to court assuming the owner had a new property manager after the contract was terminated. I would hope that whoever took on the property as the new property manager would respond to the repair calls and get those things handled. Since they were ignored and the owner was taken to court maybe he didn't find a new property manager or the one he did find was incompetent? Either way what a situation!

@Jim K. you bring up some great points. That article makes total sense and is inline with what you're saying. I would not be seeking A class but more B-C class areas. I am working on getting my contact list of GC's, realtors, and property managers etc. prior to my travels so that my time is best spent with meetings and a productive visit. 

@Mike D'Arrigo what program do you use to generate that list? I am using USA.com and going zip by zip within a 15 mile radius of Cleveland and finding the population, growth rate, and avg income then placing that into excel. I will then focus on crime and other things. The list below is not complete but it is a painstakingly lengthy process. Maybe I am to far into the weeds? 

I was looking at Pittsburgh as well and Indy but having to do this for each city might be overkill. Then again you can never know to much about one market.

@Anthony Angotti All three of those areas have a negative population growth rate. There are other factors that still make sense in that area though so maybe I am putting to much weight on population % growth rate when deciding which areas to invest? 

@Anthony Angotti thanks for your input!! I asked because I have two markets I have been looking into which are obviously Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Both make sense on multiple levels but I was somewhat surprised when I looked deeper into the population growth %. I will look into those areas you mentioned!  

I'm putting together an excel sheet with each zip code and that respective areas crime, population growth, avg income etc. Time consuming but I can't find another way or a website that has a large data dump in excel that I can sort by based off zip or income etc.