All Forum Posts by: Debashish Majumder

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Mount Oliver.

Purchase price: $18,500
Cash invested: $15,000
Sale price: $55,000

My very first fix-n-flip attempt!! Bought a small house in Mt. Oliver PA (paid more than I wanted to) that the owner was in the process of fixing up.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Was just looking for my first deal

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Driving for dollars - saw the property was for sale online.
Drove by and by chance the owner was working on it outside. Struck a deal on the spot - in hindsight, I could have struck a harder bargain but was too eager to own a property.

How did you finance this deal?

My first deal - had a partner at this time so we pooled some money from our savings and fronted the cash for it, including the repairs.

How did you add value to the deal?

Made moderate upgrades, put in some nice cabinets and flooring with plush carpeting to make it extremely appealing to someone looking for a cozy SFR.

What was the outcome?

Made a nice $15K profit after commissions - property sold within 2 months of putting it in the market

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Don't put a house on the market in the off season :-)
If you do, don't despair - it'll sell as soon as spring pokes its head out.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

My wife is my real estate agent.
Keller Williams was the brokerage that handled both the purchase and the sale.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Mount Oliver.

Purchase price: $19,152
Cash invested: $73,000

My 3rd flip attempt - bought a property on auction.com that resulted in an immediate large equity position pre-rehab. Beautiful house near downtown Pittsburgh in the Mt. Oliver neighborhood that needed some cosmetic work for a quick flip.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This deal was a little magical - I was outbid in this auction (see section below) and only managed to procure this property by chance.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

My realtor (wife) found it on auction.com - we made a bid at the opening price.
Of course we were outbid immediately but the person who won the auction couldn't follow thru with the financing.
The bank then reached out to me asking if I wanted to buy the house at the price I quoted (which was ridiculous - the house was worth at least 3x as-is. Of course I said yes and we proceeded to move towards closing. I mean I was already in for $2500 - so I was also in for $20,000.

How did you finance this deal?

Fronted the cash for the purchase upfront from the profits of my 1st fix-n-flip closing.
Had to drag my feet a little on the closing date so things were up in the air for a little bit while my 1st flip sale was in contingent state.

How did you add value to the deal?

My realtor (wife) told me the house can only sell for $115K but I felt the potential was of the property was much more. So I did all the cosmetic changes with nice high-end finishes, with a brand new roof, landscaping, paved walkways and stairs etc to bring the house to where it will command the target market-price. Now, I attempted to increase value by adding a whole new finished basement w/o blowing up the budget - the house appraised for $150K due to the full bath and basement added.

What was the outcome?

Found a buyer within the first week of putting the house on the market (helps when you're listing the most beautiful house in the neighborhood!). Buyers loved it, got the house inspected and appraised - it appraised for my target value ($150K).
Unfortunately, buyer was trying to bite off more than they can chew with a inter-state move and got cold feet and no-showed on closing date. We sued, won and were compensated fairly. So we rented the property for top dollar and will re-list this summer.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

You can have the best-laid plans - all it takes is one person working in bad-faith to undo it.
Always plan and be ready to execute your contingency exit strategy.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Realtor - Carrie Majumder (my wife)
Lender (rehab) - Lima One Capital
Rental & Listing - Keller Williams Realty
Lender (refinance) - FlipSimpli (Beach Park Partners)

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Mount Oliver.

Purchase price: $19,152
Cash invested: $73,000

My 3rd flip attempt - bought a property on auction.com that resulted in an immediate large equity position pre-rehab. Beautiful house near downtown Pittsburgh in the Mt. Oliver neighborhood that needed some cosmetic work for a quick flip.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This deal was a little magical - I was outbid in this auction (see section below) and only managed to procure this property by chance.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

My realtor (wife) found it on auction.com - we made a bid at the opening price.
Of course we were outbid immediately but the person who won the auction couldn't follow thru with the financing.
The bank then reached out to me asking if I wanted to buy the house at the price I quoted (which was ridiculous - the house was worth at least 3x as-is. Of course I said yes and we proceeded to move towards closing. I mean I was already in for $2500 - so I was also in for $20,000.

How did you finance this deal?

Fronted the cash for the purchase upfront from the profits of my 1st fix-n-flip closing.
Had to drag my feet a little on the closing date so things were up in the air for a little bit while my 1st flip sale was in contingent state.

How did you add value to the deal?

My realtor (wife) told me the house can only sell for $115K but I felt the potential was of the property was much more. So I did all the cosmetic changes with nice high-end finishes, with a brand new roof, landscaping, paved walkways and stairs etc to bring the house to where it will command the target market-price. Now, I attempted to increase value by adding a whole new finished basement w/o blowing up the budget - the house appraised for $150K due to the full bath and basement added.

What was the outcome?

Found a buyer within the first week of putting the house on the market (helps when you're listing the most beautiful house in the neighborhood!). Buyers loved it, got the house inspected and appraised - it appraised for my target value ($150K).
Unfortunately, buyer was trying to bite off more than they can chew with a inter-state move and got cold feet and no-showed on closing date. We sued, won and were compensated fairly. So we rented the property for top dollar and will list this summer again

Lessons learned? Challenges?

You can have the best-laid plans - all it takes is one person working in bad-faith to undo it.
Always plan and be ready to execute your contingency exit strategy.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Realtor - Carrie Majumder (my wife)
Lender (rehab) - Lima One Capital
Rental & Listing - Keller Williams Realty
Lender (refinance) - FlipSimpli (Beach Park Partners)

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $12,000
Cash invested: $59,000

This was my first flip - bought a bank-owned REO and did a complete rehab knowing that it might not sell at the appraised value, given the neighborhood it is in. It was a calculated risk - the property is rented and after the BRRR strategy, it's netting me a nice monthly return as I wait for the neighborhood prices to catch up.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

It was my first project - a full potential rehab.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

On the MLS - my wife is a real estate agent. I had to know whether I could do this fix-n-flip thing with relatively low exposure. So I bought a run-down bank-owned REO at a great price and obtained my first rehab loan.

How did you finance this deal?

$12,000 out of pocket - my tax refund and a little bit of savings took care of the purchase price.
Hard part was to find the right rehab loan partner who would give an inexperienced flipper a chance.
I went with a company called Lima One Capital - they have good programs for first-time flippers.

How did you add value to the deal?

Read up on flipping, made a detailed list of what needed to be done and the biggest place I added value was ACCURATELY predicting the rehab costs. I used 100% of my rehab loan on schedule and did not go over.

What was the outcome?

It did not sell for the appraised price so I rented it out to the most qualified, stable-income buyer and promptly refinanced to pull equity out.
Netted almost $25,000 and got a stable cashflow with a decent mortgage rate.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I have the most beautiful property in the neighborhood - which is a problem :-) - I did not study the neighborhood in great detail to realize that the property might not sell at the price point I was aiming for. So for my next few deals, I did more analysis and found the comps before I made my offer.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I have an unfair advantage - married to a real estate agent.
Lenders I used were Lima One Capital for the rehab loan and FlipSimpli for the refi.