All Forum Posts by: Guillaume D.

@Dan Welch The city we were dealing with was pretty lenient. It is not always the case though! We are working on several other projects like this one, and some cities are giving us a hard time. The hardest part is always to get confirmation from the city that you can subdivide before buying the property (not always possible to get formal confirmation), otherwise it is too risky to get stock with it if the city decides to decline your project.

Hope it helps!

Hey guys,

I am looking to invest in SoCal, more precisely in Orange County, in the next few months. Probably looking to buy a property that needs renovations (to pay a fair price), fixing it and renting it afterwards. The closer to the beach, the better (obviously, who would not want that :P). I will have other investors partnering up with me to make it happen. I will lead the project.

Any of you can provide me with some great contacts that could help me in this area? I need to learn how to invest in the USA as a foreign investor. Opening up a LLC? Taxes? Etc.

Thanks a bunch!

Hey everyone. I am from Montreal, Canada and have been investing in the area for 3 years now, but I have been very active for the last 12 months. 

People always say that properties are overpriced. It was true 20 years ago (when interest rates were very high), and is still true today.

The key is to understand that there are plenty of good deals, and always will be, in every market. The hard part is to find them! Most of the bargains are off market, so focus your search for properties based on this. We have to be creative.

I get 1 to 2 calls everyday from individuals wanting to sell their properties and they are not listed. 

Just closed 3 deals in 8 months (bought one house 50k under market value and rented it with a lease option, assigned a contract agreement for an 8-unit building for $12 500, and sold a house flip + 3 pieces of land for 110k profits).

Keep it up guys :)!

Merci Christine ;)! Thanks Jason!

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Looking forward to speaking with you!

Hey BiggerPockets community!

I thought I would share my most recent success story in order to help inspire new/beginner real estate investors. 

On June 4 2015, we bought an old house (1951) that had a pretty huge lot (32 000 square feet) in a residential area near Montreal, Canada. What was nice about this purchase is that the house was located on the left-hand side of the lot leaving the majority of the land "ready-to-build" on the other side. The fact that this area has all city services (water and sewer), that the house was not located in the middle of the lot, and that the city permitted us to divide the lot all made it a great deal for us!

Here are the numbers, because we should not be afraid to talk about numbers. This is what motivates us to always do better!

We paid 279k for the property sold by an old lady who wanted to move to a smaller place (she could not maintain the place anymore). We incurred 45k in total expenses in renovating the house (flipping it) and splitting the lot in 4 (taxes, land surveyor fees, etc). 

We sold the house in 36 hours for 220k (we aimed for 205k). We sold the 3 pieces of land for 80k each (we aimed for 85k). All through a broker.

Our net profit (before taxes) has been around 110k! Not too bad for a 3-month project for which we devoted a few part-time hours.

If we could do it me and my partner as a part-time project with almost no money, you can do it too :)! Don't let any excuse get in your way. If you don't have the money (like us), find money somewhere else.

Great job! Very well written and inspiring post. I am looking to do my second flip and sometimes the motivation is hard to sustain. Reading posts like this brings a lot of motivation back. Thanks for sharing and good luck in your future projects!

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated to get motivation from all of you.

To answer your questions, the 22k is net meaning every expense was taken out. Our holding costs were simply insurances, taxes and electricity. We didn't have a mortgage on the house, which lowered our holding costs considerably. We were able to find a partner that helped us pay for the house cash and only asked for a 3% annual interest rate on his investment. Great deal for us!

Thought I could share with everyone my first real estate investor move. It happened this year. Myself and 2 partners decided to go in business together and look for a house to flip. After about 15 visits and 6 offers, we finally saw a nice foreclosure come out on the market. The day it was put on the market, we visited and made an offer to get it off the market. Bank asking price 170k, offer at 155k accepted.

House was built in 2010, no major work needed but a lot of cleaning! And I mean, a lot. House had probably never been cleaned in 3 years. Disgusting as hell.

All in all, 5 weekends of work for a total of 10 days, about $3500 in expenses for paint, cleaning products, home staging and a few other stuff.

6 months later, house was sold for $198 500.

Net profit of 22k after all expenses to be split between the three of us. Not bad for 10 days of work ;)!

At age 24, that was my first deal. Now looking for the next one!

Hope this helps inspire a few young ones.

Cheers!

GD