All Forum Posts by: Eric L.

Congrats Ryan! I too am doing a lot of the work on my first rehab. For me, every project seems to take a heck of a lot longer than I anticipated. I'll blame it on being new though.

Hope you come across more deals like this one!

HAHA you are crackin me up!

Got it. Thanks everyone for the input. I'm just going to bite the bullet and re-do the hardwoods. Convinced my partner too after showing him this post!

Good to know about the prices. I think I am going to try and crank it out myself, but if/when things go horribly wrong I'll know what to expect to pay to have it done right!

See that is what I am leaning towards too. I got this house with a 203k and I've been living in and gutting the place since the day I signed. The year of homestead is up in Aug and at that point I'd like to sell with my exit strategy being renting it out. I'm in it with a partner and he is gung ho on getting carpet in there because HE DOESN'T LIKE the hardwood floors (bed moves, gets dusty faster, etc.). Personally I think we should re-finish the floors and be done with it.

I like the rug idea, I really don't want to ruin the floors...

The living room and 2 small bedrooms are currently hardwood, the old 1.5" stuff that needs to be refinished really bad. I'm trying to decide if I want to refinish the floors in the living room AND both bedrooms or just the living room and go get a carpet remnant and have someone put that in the bedrooms.

Personally, I would want carpet in a bedroom, but what do I know? What would you guys do??

I haven't used it yet but I followed the blog flippingjunkie.com and the owner Danny Johnson created software that manages leads similar to what you are describing. I doubt it pulls in tax info or can grab comps for you or anything but it is definitely worth taking a look. Plus it is free! I've been meaning to give it a try... The blog is down but if you go to the site I think you can still access the lead manager he created.

Sounds like a nice little business idea you have brewing there! Software that can do everything you described sounds like it has some serious value in it!

I'll invest $5,000 for 51% of the company. Shark tank on ABC? Anyone??

I purchased my first house (not just investment, first house ever) last July, which was a REO that I have been fixing up while I wait out the year it has to be homesteaded.

If I rent this out when my year is up, I become homeless. Is having a mortgage on a rented property that cash flows going to help or hurt me if I try to get a loan for my own place of residence?

I just don't know if banks see a rental as income that will increase my buying power or as a debt that decreases my buying power. I know there are factors involved like rental history, etc., but let's just say in this example I will only have a few months rental history at that property to show the bank.

What do you think?

Great post! I am currently in the middle of doing this! 10 to 15k is probably doable around my area, but I couldn't find my bulletproof vest when I purchased, so I picked one up for 72k in a better area and currently living in and remodeling. The forclosure had burst pipes so it turned out to be a more extensive rehab, but for all the extra work I have had to put in I am still only a few thousand over budget, which I am actually pretty happy with. The extra money turned out to go towards outragous building permit costs I didn't account for (and the fact that I needed a licensed plumber to do the work according to the city when I planned on doing it myself). Learning a lot though!

You definitely have to be willing to sacrifice! My mother has anxiety whenever she stops over at the construction mess I live in, but apparently I'm not too picky with my living standards right now...

I went FHA and my year is up in august. Actually got a 203k loan with 10k rolled into the morgage to cover most of the rehab costs. I still have quite a bit of work left but I am itching to get another property soon, which I plan on purchasing with my lottery winnings. Can't win if you don't play, right?

I agree, PEX is the greatest stuff ever! I re-did one property in a day and I had never done it before. One thing to watch out for (at least here in Minneapolis where the inspectors are really picky) is what type of PEX you use. I used the rolls from Menards and the inspector said it is not an approved brand but after thinking about it let me go anyways. I just about pooped myself! Thought I was going to have to re-do it all!

Anyways, PEX is all I will be using from now on.

Hey Tony, I definitely think your numbers are viable in the area, as long as you do you due diligence on the properties, not just go by what your realtor says. I just picked up a single family in NE minneapolis that I expect to return 25k, but it took me around 10 offers to finally land one, and even then I bid higher than asking price and higher than I probably should have. It was my first property and I was gettin antsy. I'm glad I am conservative with my numbers so I will still end up in a good position, but I had to change my rehab plan.

Every single offer I put in resulted in a 'multiple offer situation' where you have to put your highest offer on the table. Part of me thinks that is a good thing because I found a good deal that others are interested in, but part of me also thinks the realtors have a hand in this. Nothing against realtors but my mind tells me they are going to do whatever they can to get the best price on a house. All I can say to this is do enough research to be confident with your numbers and if they don't work, step away. It is better to put in offers that don't get accepted than raise your price, get a property, and end up losing money on it.

I completely agree with what Bryan said, the MLS right now is crazy and good properties are getting eaten up pretty quickly. Finding some creative ways to locate properties is definitely worth the time.

I'm just speaking for myself here, but I think it would take quite a bit of time and energy to track the market for everywhere 30 mins-ish outside of the cities. I was suggested to pick a pretty specific location and learn that market like the back of your hand, to the point where you can look at a house and pretty much guess what it would sell for. In Northeast minneapolis I know where there are pockets of nice, quiet neighborhoods and which ones to stay away from. I know at what streets the house values start to increase drastically.

Another thing to keep in mind is the city permits. In Minneapolis and I believe St. Louis Park they are really strict on permits. My fault for not doing my research, but for everything I did in my house I had to have a contractor licensed by the city of minneapolis. My contractor wasn't, so it was kind of a pain. I don't know much about the south metro because I am from the north, but I've heard there is a lot of activity in the Brooklyn Park area. Something to look into if you have some time...

I'm pretty new to RE investing so I'm sure there are some people on here that can provide a lot more insight, but hopefully this gets you thinking a little bit..