All Forum Posts by: David Rodick

I'll be transitioning to full-time wholesaling in 60 days. What are your suggestions for pacing investment into marketing?

Past:

• I'm changing careers, but have been learning real estate and networking for over a year. I aim to wholesale full time in 60 days.

Timeline:

• Begin marketing to motivated sellers in 60 days
• Until then, plan, set up systems, and network

1st Quarter Goal:

• By end of first 3 months (after marketing begins), achieve $3000 NET monthly income

Budget

• 15k startup funds

Strategy

• ROI will significantly increase over time as I learn and get better.
• I need to pace myself so I don't waste money early while I'm learning
• This is in tension with needing to scale to meet my 1st quarter goal
• Plan so far: I've heard 5k/mo in marketing is a good place to start. I plan to pull my own lists of probate, evictions,  property tax defaults, in that order of priority. (Let me know if you have other suggestions to either of these plans.)

To meet my 1st quarter goal, how would you strategize:

• What is your recommended spending pace for the first month? Second? Third?
• What marketing campaign strategies would you recommend for the first month? Second? Third?
• As I learn, is growing as simple as scaling marketing volume?
• What other strategies would you recommend? What are good ways to invest in efficiency? When would you recommend changes or making new investments?

Thank you all so much for your helpful advice.

I have calculated living expenses with excruciating detail and conservative buffers. They come to 3k/mo with almost 1k that could, in an emergency, be cut. Without emergency cuts, I estimate I could live for at least 5 months without real-estate income. Additionally, I have enough money separately to cover start-up costs like attorney's fees.

The goal is to pressure myself to accelerate growth as fast as possible, but I don't want to be reckless, either.

1. When you say I shouldn't quit my job, or start with flipping, why not? Is it just the time delay in getting paid?
   
2. If I were to quit my job to do real estate full time, what would you recommend I start with, if not flipping?
3. If I had a mentor, would this change things? I plan to watch another's flip, have them watch mine, then go solo while staying in touch.
4. Why should a flip take up to a year? I find financing, look at wholesale deals of single family, run the math, if cost+rehab+holding+insurance is under 60% ARV I write scope of work, get financing and insurance and buy, get bids from contractors I've vetted, write good contracts with a real estate attorney, hold contractors accountable daily or replace them, get second opinions along the way, pay contractors as work is done right, sell the thing at a competitive rate, pay off financiers and profit. (The agent, by the way, is for listing, not buying.) This is a rough list, but why should this take more than 3-6 months on my first go?
5. If I do go ahead with flipping, what is the estimated personal time investment required first year to keep flips lined up, one at a time? Again, I plan to focus on systems and management and
   contract out as much as reasonable. (This estimate could be hours per
   week, or days per month, whatever makes sense to you.)

Situation: I'm strongly considering leaving my full-time teaching job ($20/hr) to flip full time. I have savings to last for several months plus enough to cover a flip gone bad if necessary while I get my feet under me. However, right now, I am a team of one (plus an agent and am working on nailing down hard money lending options, a CPA, and attorney).

I am looking for realistic projections for:

•   Net income per flip my first and second years
•   How long each flip will take the first and second years
•   Time investment required first year and second year- 

Background & Education: I'm a high school science and engineering teacher. I've been listening to Bigger Pockets, reading articles, and attending 1-2 real estate meetups a month for a year, networking as much as possible along the way. Listened to Brandon Turner's audiobook on rentals and am working my way through J. Scott's audiobook on Flipping Houses. About to attend a 3-day intensive training on flipping as well. I have a little bit of experience with rehabbing as I helped out my father who was a do-it-yourself landlord.

Personality: Very strong discipline and work ethic, smart, analytical, detail and numbers oriented, currently improving a weakness of time management and getting lost in the details and getting better every day.

The plan:

•   Flip as full-time as possible while:
•   Flipping one house at a time to start so I don't over-leverage in case something goes wrong
•   Hiring out as much work as possible to focus on the big-picture process, plan for the next one, and maximize the pace of flipping, learning, and scaling
• Target C class houses and neighborhoods in Kansas City, MO (maybe 60k-100k ARV to start). I want to maximize net profit over time and am not averse to highly distressed properties if that's what it takes.
•  Fill any slower days with substitute teaching to augment income until the pace and scale of flipping picks up

-->Please help me to nail down realistic projections (or a realistic range) for:

1.   Net income per flip my first and second years given the above plan
2.   How long each flip will take the first and second years given the above plan
3.   Personal time investment required first year and second year in order to keep flips lined up, one at a time, and holding contractors accountable. Again, I plan to focus on systems and management and contract out as much as reasonable. (This estimate could be hours per week, or days per month, whatever makes sense to you.)

Separate first and second year projections would be ideal. Thank you all so much in advance to helping me make an educated decision.

Thank you, Oscar for your thoughtful and informative reply. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Perhaps from another point of view?

What are other investor's thoughts? Anyone have experience with moving frequently during developmental years that was adversely affected by it? Or is moving frequently not a major factor to one's personal success?

TLDR: The specific action of forcing a family with school-aged children to move with a month's notice during a school year, for no other reason than I prefer to move in, seems like a line that shouldn't be crossed.

I am a new investor seeking my first property. My goal is to house-hack a duplex. (I am also required to owner-occupy as I intend to use a VA loan.)

I'm frequently running into the problem of both units being occupied and a scarcity of duplexes with one side vacant. This occupancy is certainly a good sign, but would require that I terminate the lease of one of the current occupants (who are often on a month-to-month lease). This often raises an ethical question to my mind.

Terminating leases doesn't bother me in and of itself, as a business needs to be run as a business, and there are no breaches of legal contract as long as I give the notice required by their lease. I certainly have no problem swiftly evicting non-payers. My moral question comes from terminating a lease, for no other reason than I prefer to move in, when children are involved when it is the middle of the school year.

As a teacher in a low-income school, I almost weekly observe the enormous challenges students face whenever they have to change schools or districts, which for too many students, happens frequently. All of this is enormously stressful on a student, they have a hard time catching up with their new school's curriculum in the middle of a semester/year, they struggle to form relationships, and they often struggle with distrust, lack of motivation, even withdrawal. All of this leads to them struggling academically and reinforces cycles of poverty and being disadvantaged.

I have no illusions of fixing social cycles, using real estate as a charity, or being a savior, but I am keenly aware of the responsibility I have with the power of property acquisition. The specific action of forcing a family with school-aged children to move with a month's notice during a school year seems like a line that shouldn't be crossed.

I am eager for the perspectives of others on this issue. Is there something I'm not considering? Am I being too considerate (and if so, why)? Are there any alternatives I'm not thinking of? And please share any other thoughts or advice you think may be helpful. Thank you all in advance.

I'm buying a sixplex and want to know what kind of insurance coverage you all would recommend, and what companies are you favorites to work with. Thank you!