All Forum Posts by: Dean D

Good Morning Eric
Thank you for the welcome and a Merry Christmas back at you.

I'm about to just finish my first flip. We close on 1/31. It took me just 3 mos from start to accept an offer. I feel very lucky to make a profit on the first one. I've been actively looking for RE since the begging of the year. This MI market is very bad and getting worse every week. All my first offers on houses that I past on were much lower in just a few weeks time. I'm so glad none of my offers were accepted.
My next step I think is to set up either an S or C-corp. After I find a real
estate financial att. I've never stopped looking for the next flip, but man
this is a very scary place to own a home at the moment. Luckily I have a good realtor who is guiding me. He found me my first flip. It was a REO that they got the listing for and gave me first dibs before it hit the market. I was scared at first. But he said the only things really selling now are good clean homes in the 100-120 range. And he was right, we had 2 full price offers in the first 2 weeks. But home prices here are just dropping like a rock. This past week in my sub 3 REO's just poppe up for
150k. My sub is only 10 yrs old and 3 yrs ago most homes were fetching
220k. Its like this in all the price ranges. So I'm just going to focus on the
lower 100k first time owner stuff.
I just saw your website. How long have you been investing in RE. The
website looks great. Is this a fulltime job for you. My intentions are to try to slowly seque into this as also the job market here is very bleak. My job
is stable at the moment, but you never know.
If there is anything esle I can answer for you just let me know.
Have A Great Day...
Dean

Hello to all fellow investors!!!
My name is Dean. I live in S.E. Michigan. I've been lurking here for almost 8 mos since I found this website. I have learned so much from here to date. Over the past summer I bid on 4 houses and won on the 5th.
I 'll bring you all up to date on the 5th in the starting out forum.

Have a Merry Christmas
Dean

Hello all,
I'd like to bring everyone up to speed on my first almost Flip.
Over the past summer in S.E. Mi I bid on 4 houses, lost all , and as time past all 4 sat and eventually were priced lower than my previous offers.
Needless to say this concerned me greatly as I questioned my ability to
procede any furthure. In the course of this I met a great realtor. He new the market much better than me. I almost stopped my pursuit when he called me with a new listing his office just got. I stopped,looked, called and told him to make sure I got it. At this point I saw enough props to know a good deal when I saw one. This is what it was. Either poop
or get off the pot, as my Dad would say....

1955, 3bd,2 bath brick ranch, 1050sq ft. 2 1/2 car garage, on a cul-de-sac. House prev. sold in 12/2006 for 144k. I purchased for 67k after all
closings costs. Prev owner flooded property just before walking. Realtor
said after repairs quick sale price would be 115k.

So I jumped in, Partial remodel in kitchen/floor, Bathroom, basement drywall. Total paint top to bottom. City Inspections.. Wow what a blindside
there. 4 pages of stuff that cost me an extra 2500.00 not planned. Hired 3 different contractors and did the rest myself. After a full day at work.

So heres the money....
Purchase 67k ....used HQ in my house. I know crazy :goofy:
Repairs/carrying costs to date 10k... credit cards / cash.
Had house reappraised, came in at 128k.

Listed house for 114,900.00. 2 weeks later 2 full price offers. With a catch of course. Both buyers wanted $ back at closing? What the ? is that all about. I almost kicked back both. But after the realtor explained to me that minus the kickback both offers were for more than what I was hoping to sell my first flip. So heres the deal:

Accepted offer: 115k with 6k back at closing. Brokerage fee
and closing costs almost 9k. Approximate due to me at closing 100k.
Minus my investment of about 77k I'm looking at a profit of about
23k.
I'm kinda happy about this but vary scared of capital gains tax.
This deal should close in the next 30 day. All in all , not to bad for my first
flip. I've learned ALOT. Might even try it again. Hope this helps someone else get started.
I would also like to hear from anyone how I may curb the tax on this sale.
Sorry for the long post... Just had to tell someone about my first...

Thanks...