All Forum Posts by: Darrell Lee

I'm flexible on this Toledo house. I'm happy to sell it, I was restricted by FHA to not sell for 90 days and that has now past, so I could just sell it now.

Thought if I partner on a flip, I might earn more profit. But a straight sale would be fine.

On a whim, I bought this house sight unseen. I'm thinking I should partner with a flipper that wants to get started in the business or an experienced flipper to rehab this 3br/1ba house and then sell or rent it. In the 43605 area. Zestimate is around $38k. Kitchen has been demoed and the bath needs rehab. Roof, heater and water heater seem to be okay. 

I put a value on it at  $6k. Should I just sell it? If someone wanted to just want to buy it, fine. I might carry the paper short term and the investor keeps all the profit. But maybe it would be better to partner and he/she could get in for low/no down. Partner put in your sweat equity and total the costs of materials. We add the material costs to our combined basis and when we sell it, we split the profits. Attractive idea?

I live in Vt and I renovate homes and commercial properties as my full time business, so it is too far for me to run the renovation. PM me if you are interested and I"ll send you the address.

Looking for a flipper that wants to get started in the business or an experienced flipper to rehab this 3br/1ba house and then sell or rent it. In the 43605 area. Zestimate is around $38k. Kitchen has been demoed and the bath needs rehab. Roof, heater and water heater seem to be okay. I put a value on it at  $6k. If you just want to buy it, fine. I might carry the paper short term and you keep all the profit. But if you want to partner and get in for low/no down this could be the deal for you, You put in your sweat equity and total the costs of materials. We add the material costs to our combined basis and when we sell it, we split the profits.

I live in Vt and I renovate homes and commercial properties as my full time business, so it is too far for me to run the renovation. PM me if you are interested and I"ll send you the address.

Last year I bought 12 properties in 4 different states... almost all sight unseen before consulting with my CPA. He advised me to stick to just one or two states as I will have to file a state tax return for each state. Sage advice. So now, I just invest in two neighboring states... Vt and Nh.

Guess it depends. Your right, usually those not in the white house will say the market is bad and that will normally cause a decline in the market. This year is unusual because if Trump wins, I believe that will be awesome for real estate wners and investors.

Also your market makes a big difference. My market is still depressed and about 30-50% below the 2006 peak. So I'm already fully invested at about 20% prices of 2006 so I feel my market cannot decline any further and can only go up. 

I've been buying commercial properties for less than $10/s.f. and sfr's around $20-30/sf.

I've closed on the GCC but getting water will be a challenge as there's several burst pipes in the plumbing and heating system so that might take a little time to get going. The electricity is scheduled to be turned on today, so hopefully that goes off without a hitch.

Who all from Vermont/New Hampshire would like to have a meeting in Claremont or Springfield? My Oddfellows Block in Springfield ground floor spaces now have plumbing/heat/electricity. Or we could meet at a local restaurant.

Is week night or weekend better?

His SD house expenses will be lower than average as his property taxes are based on a $35k value not the $500k market value today... So his expenses are probably only $60/mo taxes, $50/mo insurance and maybe $30/mo water plus Mgmt, so maybe only $200-300/mo.

Not all MLS have special keyed lockboxes. In Vt and Nh, they just use regular combo lockboxes. I buy them by the dozen on Ebay... but I own houses in 4 states and not a broker anymore, just a principal.

Being from California, Vt and Nh do things very differently so I do hire listing agents and transaction lawyers and have learned a lot from them.

Last year I bought a dozen houses sight unseen... 3 of them I still haven't seen yet and it's been over 6 months since closing... lol They were too cheap and I probably shouldn't have bought them as they probably aren't worth my time as I'll probably only make about $10k each instead of my usual $50-100k each...

i was a lifelong So. Californian. We sold all our California properties and I took my share and invested in Bank REO's in Vermont and New Hampshire paying 20% of median average prices expecting to have to renovate and then hold. My typical is a $150k house that I buy for $30k and spend $20-30k to renovate and then it should rent for about $1300-1600/mo. Do this 5-8 times and you will have doubled your asset value and built a nice income stream of $10-12k/mo before expenses and then sell your second house and then repeat...

Last year I bought about 12-14 houses cash. One NH house I paid $17k and I made it into an AirBnB house that rents for $100-145/day. My worst performing house is another in NH I paid $30k and so far have spent about $50k including adding a brand new master bath and it should sell for $150-175k when I'm done... I've bought Vt houses mostly in Springfield where I now reside but also in Rutland, Bellows Falls where I bought large 3k-4k s.f. Victorian stately homes for $25k and $29k and when I finish those restorations they should be worth $180k-225k after spending about $30-40k on their restorations/remodeling each. My plan is to test to see if they can become co-living homes and if successful, they should general a higher income of around $2500+/mo. each.  

http://www.shareable.net/blog/6-coliving-networks-...

I've also bought large surplus properties from a city and a surplus school house that I'm converting into a 12,000 s.f. residence for myself, but those are sophisticated/complex investments that I can't recommend to a novice investor... These are sexy investments and 3 of them made the front page headlines in the local newspapers even though my purchase prices are relatively small... I guess when the tax assessed value is about $1 million each and I buy for $60-90k each, I guess the reporters consider it newsworthy as they would hunt me down and then interview me... as an investor, I don't need the publicity, but I don't avoid it as I plan to buy more large surplus properties that have potential for huge gains, so now all the city/town movers and shakers know who I am and know I'm a real cash buyer... I pay cash with no contingencies, period... I've closed as quickly as 6 days...

The point being you will have a nice pile of California cash if you sell your two houses and have an opportunity to make some big bucks in the NEK. In Vt, no license is needed to become a General Contractor... So, now... I'm a GC. I have a full time crew of 8 I pay hourly and looking to hire 5 more trying to get all the properties renovated quickly. I'd recommend investing in NH so that you do not have any Vt Land Gains taxes to deal with. My plan is to renovate and then hold at least a year before selling and that way you can then sell/exchange via 1031 exchange and defer the income tax gains altogether. If you don't exchange, then pay long term capital gain if it will be less and then reinvest the money and do it again... and again... in 3-4 years you will have a large portfolio with a high income and large increase in asset value and pay little if any taxes...

This is a full time business for me but after 3-4 years I expect to have an asset value increase of a few million and a net rental income of over $400k which is enough for me to go back into retirement with a comfortable income. But the large commercial properties will hopefully pay huge rewards that the SFR's cannot do. I'm hoping if I'm successful in renting the commercial properties, they will each increase the asset value of $400-800k... again, this is not for the novice investor and I may fall short of my projections, but my bread and butter and low risk investments are the SFR's which I know best... But I'm also very comfortable with commercial/investment properties having been a RE broker for 30 years and completed all the CCIM coursework many years ago. My company 20 years ago, we'd sold a golf course, a So Cal pier and large apartment complexes... but again, the commercial properties is a very high risk game not recommended for the novice investor...

A lifelong So. Cal resident. Last year I bought about a dozen houses ALL sight unseen, out of state. In 4 different states. 3 houses after over 6 months I still haven't looked at yet and may never.... Sold my Hollywood Hills house that was also free and clear for a stupid amount of money and I like my new Springfield, Vt house better and I paid $62.5k for it... 

While I've been out of the real estate game for about 18 years, it is like riding a bike. My typical deal was buy for 20% of the median house price in that area. Most were bank reo's, paid cash and expected I would need to do a lot of rehab. One house I paid $17k and median houses are $75k, got lucky on this one as it only needed a new water heater and some minor work. In Norther New Hampshire, I rent it out on AirBnB for between $100-145 per night and I hope/expect to earn my money back in 2 years.

A money pit example is another NH house I bought for $29k where median homes are about $160k. I've had to pay for all new plumbing, all electrical, new kitchen/appliances, custom kitchen cabinets,  granite counters, remodel existing bath, all new flooring, new heating system AND adding a new master bath. Renovation costs I project to run about $40k. So if I decide to sell once complete, I'm still looking at 100% return on investment.

But I'd rate myself as an aggressive buyer, willing to pay cash and buy sight unseen. This year I plan to buy some interesting properties. Just won an auction for a community center with a huge gymnasium and 25 meter indoor pool plus a 7000s.f brick mansion. Paid $60k for about 24k s.f. that's about $3.50 per sq. ft. I have a use for the property but I'm guessing the property will gross about $8k/mo so I should get my money back in 2-3 years. I evaluate all the metrics, assessed at $985k, $3.50/s.f. $48k NOI/yr, 1.5 acres land value for prime downtown location, etc. I think it was a great buy...

I found every property myself. I've worked with a dozen brokers and it's usually me emailing some broker I've never met or emailed or talked with before and I send them an email... "Congrats, you just sold me a house".  Of the dozens of brokers I've worked with, only one broker ever sent me a property to look at... The price was cheap, but it was a crappy house... Pass...