All Forum Posts by: Laura A.

Brian Burke -- The way I'm thinking about this (correct me if I'm wrong) is that my buyer (a builder) is out there shopping lots and will compare mine to one that is "builder ready" (cleared, level and ready to go). The costs I'm deducting from the ARV of the land are the costs that would be involved in getting the lot "builder ready." I wasn't deducting costs to build and sell the house because that would be roughly the same regardless of the lot (for the most part). Am I thinking of this all wrong? I just need a sanity check.

Yes, the seller agrees its a tear down. (This is zoned for SFH only. I'm just trying to get a simple lot split approved by the county.) This is a house he inhereted. He is out of state. He had it listed last year for $100,000 for months with no sale. The listing expired. And a new broker relisted it for 75,000 about 7 months ago. Still there is no sale. The broker says the owner received a cash offer for 60k and turned it down.

There is ONE comparable sale for raw land of approx. the same dimensions in the neighborhood for 22,000. It's a single SFH lot. So if I can get two lots out of this property I'm looking at, I estimate the value to be $44,000. So, what's the best way to calculate an offer for this if I know my tear down costs will be roughly 15k?

OR, should I be basing my offer on: ARV of comparable raw land - cost of tear down? Is that enough?

I have an opportunity to buy a lot in FL (with house that needs to be torn down) that can be split into two buildable lots (it hasn't been split yet though). I want to flip/wholesale the lot to a developer.

I know the ARV for 3/2, 2000 sq ft brick houses in that neighborhood ($235,000 max), but I am having trouble trying to figure our my best possible offer for the seller because calculating "repair" costs really means I have to calculate the building costs, demolition costs, survey costs, septic installation costs, etc.

I'm a newbie to flipping. I need some guidance from someone who can give me some rule of thumb on the margin for builders on homes in that price range. Any other advice welcome too. Bring it on, please. :)

Yes, you can absolutely offer to buy it if its not listed. And, yes, you can find the address on the county assessors web site and then look up the phone #.

Does the property look like its well-loved or does it look distressed? That might give you some indication of the situation... whether you might have a potentially motivated seller or not.

If you reach out by phone, just think through your your introduction/pitch ahead of time and, assuming they are open to talking to you about it, try to learn everything you can about their pain points with being landlords and their goals in general (maybe they need cash?). Make it about them and how you, as an expert, can help them get what they want. Even if they say no to a sale now, don't write it off. Keep the lead warm with follow up communications periodically by mail.

Ned Carey - The sticking point was I had the wrong approach altogether. I was shopping properties via the retail market and trying to use conventional financing versus cash.

Reid, I wouldn't sweat the LLC thing on this too much. Just have a good insurance policy and make sure it coordinates with your umbrella policy. If you don't have an umbrella policy, get one! They are cheap and I promise your insurer offers them.

Joel Owens -- I'm targeting single family homes, town homes, and duplexs in the Prince George County MD, Prince William County VA, Loudoun County VA, Prince William County VA, and Fauquier County VA areas.

Hi all,

I'm a new investor in the metro DC area, based in northern virginia. My 'day job' is in marketing and communications, but when I'm not doing that, I'm focused on finding REI deals. Real estate is my passion and has interested me for a very long time.

I started my foray into investing in 2007 when the market was taking a dive. Keep in mind, at the time, I knew NOTHING about sophisticated real estate investing strategies. My strategy was just "buy low, sell high" and my goal was simply to buy a few rentals and make my money over time as the market improved and as my renters paid my mortgages, and then use the equity in those homes to buy other properties later on. I had some very limited success this way.

So, after about a year of beating my head against the wall, I had to step away from investing because, well, life was happening. But now that the waters have settled, I'm ready and able to get back in and, this time, with a smarter, more-informed approach.

Right now, I'm focused on low-risk strategies to build capital and passive cash flow until my real estate income replaces my day job income then I will focus full-time on real estate investing.

I'm looking to network with likeminded investors across the country and in my area. I'm also looking for a mentor.

Thanks!

Welcome Kiara!! I'm a new investor in the DMV as well. Glad to see someone else in our area here. :)