All Forum Posts by: Doug W.

Any updates available @John Blackman? 

This is my life both at home and when I did my fix and flip. My wife will/does ask "How long will that take?" and whenever I say "Oh, easy. 20-30 minutes" it always ends up being 2.5 hours when I count in the trip to Lowes because I need something. The same thing happens when she asks "How much will it cost?". I've stopped trying to answer that last one. 

Thanks for taking the time to document these here @Martin Peter.  It's really inspiring to see and be able to follow along with. Best of luck to you on #3. I'm also looking forward to the final numbers on #2 after it closes. 

It's not necessarily over-incentivizing at 33% of every $1,000 under the anchor point because at a price under the anchor you're getting a discount regardless. And 77% of a discount is better than 100% of no discount (i.e. a price not under the anchor). 

Put another way: you can define incentivizing and over-incentivizing however you prefer. I define it as "am I getting more at the end of this and, if yes, what am I willing to forgo to get that higher profit number?" 

I feel like $150 per year is a small price to pay for the added privacy.

When you all are partnering with a builder who will be GC'ing the job and using his own crews how do you split the profit? Assume you are the one who is supplying all of the money. 

Are you considering the builder's costs for materials and labor (for him and his crew) as part of the rehab budget? If so, then why give him an additional payment via profit split? I feel like the builder is getting paid twice in such a scenario.  

I was at the meeting, too, @Christopher Cole. I have thoughts on this but I keep coming back to wondering what the contract terms are. I bet that if we saw them it would explain a lot. I also wonder who handles repairs, etc. I assume that the buyer does? 

My thought for the scenario is that if you are the seller and you don't need the entire sum of money immediately it would be nice to have a steady stream of income over the 8 year period (or whatever was negotiated) without the hassles of being the landlord. Plus you pick up the additional dollars above your asking price over that period of time.

Another question I wonder about from the buyer's perspective is how long does it take and how much does it cost to find the right types of sellers? It can't be cheap in terms of marketing dollars and time spent reaching out, etc. 

Clearly I did not attend the follow-up day event. :) 

Hey @Trevor Hawn. How did the meeting go?

The reason I am responding the the thread is to say from experience that I think you should be careful about how much time you put into worrying about what your business card says. I, like you, come from a background in sales so I can also understand the branding perspective. When you meet other investors at REIA meetings or when you checking out a property or even on a site like BP they are going to remember you based on if you perform or not. If you don't waste people's time and you act on a deal when the deal is right the other investors who you need in your network will make sure that they have your contact info handy. And the same goes the other way around.

I've seen, and have collected, cards that run the gamut from just a B&W with name/number/email to ones with crazy bright colors and WAY too much info on them (two-sided!). And that's in both REI and my former life in sales.

I wasted a lot of time years ago when I first tried getting into REI worrying about my website and post cards and business cards and signs and so I spent no time on actually meeting people and shaking hands and really putting myself out there. Eventually most the marketing materials ended up in the trash. In my 2.0 REI adventure I'm keeping it simple and to the point -- I've attended 2 REI meetings in the past two weeks and drove by 4 properties in the same time frame (I went inside one of them this morning thanks to a wholesaler I met at an REI meeting last week). Oh..... and I don't have any business cards right now. :)

I'm not shooting down cards and marketing your brand or yourself. In fact, I started to put together a Wordpress hosted website in my spare time over the past weekend and the next time I drive by a Staples or Office Depot I'm going to grab some business card stock so that I can print some simple cards at home. That way I can have a couple dozen that say "Rehabber" and some that say "I buy houses" and some that say nothing but my contact info. When I get to a point where I need more like 50+ I'll order them online but in the mean time I'm trying to spend my time focusing on the stuff that is going to make me money.

Best of luck to you. 

Thanks for your candidness @Theo (not sure why tagging isn't working). You're getting a priceless experience that you can't get in a seminar or from reading a book... or website. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. 

My first flip had hardwoods in all rooms except for bath and kitchen. Actually, there was wall to wall carpet in the master and a wall to wall carpet cut into a rug in a 2nd bedroom. My brother is a floor installer and he said that he could tell from photos of the carpet seams that the carpets have probably been there for almost 40 years. I could have told you that from the color (shag carpet that was a mix of red, orange, yellow and green). All of that is to say that the carpet did wonders to protect the hardwoods in those rooms. There were some minor water stains (probably from spilled water) but it was nothing that a floor refinisher and his sanders couldn't fix.