All Forum Posts by: Frank Robinson

Hi Damien, I think we would need to start with "it depends".  How willing/skilled are you at managing and coordinating trades vs your ability to pay the overhead for a GC to deal with it all.  I would suggest once you identify a target property you get 3 or 4 general contractor bids.  In the mean-time start getting your list of trade contacts (Plumbers, Electricians, Framers, Roofing, Painter, Sheetrock, Landscapers, etc).  Talk with them to let them know you might have a project coming up soon and inquire about availability and rates.  Doesn't hurt to get references.  If there are any construction projects locally ... drop in and talk.  You never know ... you might find some good guys to pull in.  Good luck with the team building.

Thanks @Christopher Mansfield for sharing this.  I'll be coming out to this event. 

@John Hickey

@Jared W Smith   Thanks for the feedback.  This one is in Peekskill and I've managed a large renovation on my primary residence recently so, I have a relationship with the building department.  In any case, you are absolutely right on the permitting challenges in the county.  I will certainly reach out if I run into any issues.

Hi All, I am working towards my first deal in the US which is a flip of a single-family property in New York, Westchester County. It's a 4BR/1BTH and I put in an offer of $154K (wish me luck), reno $84K (incl 10% contingency), Est Closing/Holding/Financing/Selling $52K and ARV @ $335K. The plan is to turn this around in 6 mos.

Has anyone utilized Accolend recently and can give some feedback either way - good / bad? Alternately, please share a good HML that you are using regularly.

The help is much appreciated.

This is shameful!! I came across the Morris Invest Youtube and podcast in January.  The guy sounds so sincere and convincing that I wanted to get a closer look.  I even scheduled a consultation which I ended up canceling after doing a little digging around the Better Business site.  Based on the scale of this, there is no way that they were not aware of what was going on here.  My prayers and best wishes for all those impacted by this scam.

Nice looking project.  The floors look great :).  Keep up the good work.

Congrats @James Gates and thanks for sharing.  

Hi Colleen, yes I understand.  I am mainly going for long term as there is high demand in this area.  We are also open to renting short term in the event of a vacancy.  There were no significant legal challenges given this is fairly small scale. Due to the risk of hurricanes we need to build the main structures from block, steel and cement.  So 2X wood structures are not ideal which drives the labor and materials cost quite a bit higher than they would be otherwise.  The property will be managed by a local property management company that currently handles units owned by my inlaws.

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) commercial investment investment.

Purchase price: $10,000
Cash invested: $50,000

Purchase of 3 Lots (1.5Acres) in Montego Bay, Jamaica WI just 10 miles from the airport + 3 miles from the nearest beach. Construction nearing completion on the first 4 Units (2BR / 1 BTH).

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We vacation in Montego Bay annually and also have some family still living here. Over the years my wife and I have dreamed of buying a vacation home instead of giving our money to the resorts all the time. We opted to first build some rental units since there is high demand. The side benefit to this is that it will eventually pay for our own vacation home.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We were lucky in that a family member purchased and built their home in the same community and we were able to witness the entire process as we visited yearly. Although we didn't get in on the ground floor we believe we got a great deal on our lots.

How did you finance this deal?

Cash purchase

How did you add value to the deal?

As opposed to building a vacation home for us to use a month or two each year we shifted to putting up rental units that will give us needed Cash Flow.

What was the outcome?

It was a long and slow process but we will

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Building a project such as this remotely is challenging to say the least. We could not have done it without the help and support of our family. The other item is that inflation and currency risk is a big problem in the Caribbean Islands and given that materials are imported the cost swing a lot. Move quickly on your construction and secure materials on the frontend or else you will pay later.