All Forum Posts by: Michael Galloway

Joe, i will be back next week on the 9th. im in LA for the week. I would be happy to show you some deals in Contra Costa County. Michael PS sorry for the delay in responding. Been super busy. Michael

I have my crews working all over Contra Costa County. It does not matter if they are working in Antioch or Orinda, the cost is the same. Hope this helps.

David Taylor, welcome to BP.

Seek and you shall find.

Wesley L., I do add on flips a lot right now. It makes sense in the areas where price per sqft is $500+, but areas that are less than that seem to be more work than the pay off is worth.

Here is my rule of thumb for you.

Your cost to build at the very low end is going to be $100 per sqft new construction. Your cost for rehabbing the existing house is going to be $50 per sqft.

Here is the math on your example 1100 sqft = $60k remodel + 1000 sqft new construction = $100k, total rehab on this project will run $160K. Not including your plans and permits.

Then of course you have fixed costs, holding costs, realtor fees etc.

Upon quick calculation it looks like you could make 90k if you exit at 600, however if you exit at 500, you make zero. In fact you lose 10k. This is a minimum of 6 months work. Lot of work with not enough pay, for me.

PS many of these smaller homes have only 1 car garages, if its a single car garage and you are adding another car space there is no value added for that extra sqft you add to the garage. Usually a 2000 sqft house has a 2 car garage.

First of all Welcome to BP. Second, to answer your questions? Yes there are deals here that you can find that meet these rules/guidelines. (ask me how i know) ;) For those who tell you that California is the exception to the rules... maybe these people aren't looking hard enough. Can you find these every day, probably not. (maybe I'm not looking hard enough,lol)

If you would some concrete examples PM for the addresses of my latest buy and holds. Again, Welcome to BP.

PS if you haven't done so already, set up your "key words"

Jacob Yufa, Welcome to BP. There is so much information here. If you haven't already set up your key words, please do so. This will help you find local topics and the latest topics of interest. There are lots of us local investors here in the bay area. Glad your here.

Jimmy Chim, welcome from another Bay Area investor.

Michael D., I have some comments that may help. In additions I have some questions as well.

1) Standard estoppels can be purchased online, in addition your attorney or commercial broker can provide this for you. Some lenders have there own Estoppel certificate forms that they can provide you as well.

Because the tenant estoppel letter verifies the assumptions made in the loan approval process, its significance to the
real estate transaction can be greater than the landlord’s rent roll. (my opinion)

Naturally as Investors here on BP we are into the details of the deal. Please do tell. You don't have to give the address or city, but we are interested in your evaluation process as well. In sharing as much as you can it allows the forum to give you better advice. Better details = better (more tailored) answers. Based on this new information we can help you better construct your contract.

What is the age of the building? What is the unit mix? Do you pay garbage and utilities? Are the utilities individually metered? what is the foundation like? is it garden style? is it a flat top roof? Is there HVAC? what type of windows?

The reason for the questioning is that we can (the forum) based on our experience tell you more about what needs to go into your contract to avoid any negative surprises. You want to go in with full disclosure and eyes wide open. I hope you can give us some more details.

I Hope I was able to give you an answer or at least provoke some new thoughts ;)

Jay Dao, Welcome to BP. Always glad to see other local investors here in the Bay Area.

K. Marie Poe

I could see the benefit for both sides including avoiding the foreclosure sale for the original owner. However, this would be very risky for the investor. Here is why. ---If the second does not send you the Trustee's Deed, you have no stake in the property. I personally have bought several first trust deeds and a week later my check is returned to me with no explanation except that "the Trustee is no longer going through with the sale." The same thing could happen with a second position. TOO RISKY