All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Duke, the answer you seek exists in the BP forum posts, blogs, and in the flipping books and other resources available for sale on this website.  If you want to make it as a house flipper you're going to need to embrace initiative, hard work, and hustle.

That begins now.

Hey Nicholas, my wife and I live in San Diego but have two rentals in Western Nevada that we manage ourselves.  Both are rented to fellow military members so we have a kinship with our tenants and ask them to help take care of certain small things in our absence.  But we also have connections with local service providers, like a landscaping firm who winterizes and spring-izes the irrigation system every year to make sure it's done right.

Otherwise our strategy is that we have home warranties on each home so when the water heater springs a leak in one of the pipes we simply call in the warranty company, pay the $60 deductible, and they dispatch a plumber to take care of it.

If you're going to travel back and forth between areas where you own rentals you should be able to manage them yourself, in my opinion.  As an added bonus, you'll be able to write off the trips as expenses.

You might check with a knowledgeable realtor in the area--might be that one is better than the other from his or her point of view.  You could also check with local developers.  Otherwise there's no easy answer to this one--it depends on your risk tolerance, available capital, long term goals and strategy, etc.   You could also build yourself a rental...

BP has a lot of good resources.  Spend some time in the forums and blogs.  Check out their books and other stuff too.

I used Shane Stroberg for my taxes this year and he was awesome.  You can find him through Google.

Keep good records of expenses and mileage.  Have a system of reminders for meetings, deliveries, utility connections, etc.  If you are subcontracting the work take notes on who is on time, on budget, and does good work as you will want to use them again.  Take before and after pictures (but don't go too wild).  For the most part, just try to take it in and learn what you can, and enjoy it.  It's not rocket science, but it's not child's play either.

PayPal.

It's a leap of faith but, yes, we typically book a time we think people will want and then float it out there.  Worse case scenario you take less than you hoped but we've never been completely stuck.

My wife and I have been successful doing what you describe with eBay.

Well, shoot, Austin--there's no substitute for experience.  Go get your hands dirty on a flip and you'll learn pretty quick!  There's theory and then there's application--getting out and actually doing something is the best teacher.  I'm glad doctors and other medical providers don't get their degrees and qualifications by simply reading.

The next best thing would be to find a general contractor or someone else with that experience and see if he or she can work with you to come up with a good system.