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All Forum Posts by: Greg Wilding

Greg Wilding has started 4 posts and replied 9 times.

Post: The Good, the Bad and The Ugly! First "solo" Deal

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

@Kevin Dong I'm still a little baffled by it. We had it listed with the lowest price/sq ft. in the area, and had run this by other realtors who agreed with our pricing based off the updates. This was a big house built in 2006 in an area where a lot of new homes were going in, across the street from a park and from what I was told by neighbors, it was one of the more desirable floorplans in the area. ARV came in at $510k without a finished basement and around $535k finished. It would have cost us around $20 -25k more to finish the basement, so we opted to not finish it as it didn't make sense for only a couple thousand more for a lot more work. However, I believe that might have made the difference. many of the listings we were competing with had finished basements, and I think buyers who were going to spend $500k+ would rather have a fully finished house, than have a project. Newer homes with similar sq ft. were selling around $550-580k without finished basements, so we felt good about the numbers. Another factor was probably that this only had a 2 car garage(which was common for age of house and neighborhood) but 3 car garages are more desired in that price range. I think this house just fell into a weird gap in the market, but probably not having the finished basement hurt us most. It eventually sold for $460k

Post: The Good, the Bad and The Ugly! First "solo" Deal

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

@Jay Hinrichs, you are right, I had the ARV coming in at $510-520k, confirmed by my more experienced partner and the hard money lender, but still not quite enough cushion for that house. Lesson learned.

Post: The Good, the Bad and The Ugly! First "solo" Deal

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

Ok so "solo" is a bit of a misnomer, because this is a relationship business and you can't do it alone.  I had plenty of help from investors, hard money lenders, brokers, tenants etc.   But, this was the first deal I put together on my own with only $1000 of my own cash(more on that later).  So the story begins with my first disaster...

The Good

I am a Realtor, so I had been checking the MLS regularly and had even been under contract on a few, but always backed out because of something that didn't quite work or a lack of knowledge on how to solve a particular challenge. Or at least I would talk myself out of it because of some excuse to why it wouldn't work, some real, some exaggerated by me due to fear. The competition on the MLS is rough, and usually I was outbid by one of the 10+ other offers that come with investment opportunities on the MLS. But, I kept at it and finally found one at the upper end of the market($500k+ ARV) with great numbers on paper, and I picked it up in Nov. for $374k. The goal was to fix it over the holiday season and list it at the first of the year and sell it by March or April. I didn't have much money I could put towards this deal, so I had to get creative and I found an awesome partner that I met at a local REIA meet-up who would help finance it. He secured the hard money, brought in $30k of his own cash, and he would oversee the project. I brought the deal, found an investor for the other 30k that we needed to purchase the property and would list it for free. We would both help with lining up contractors and doing some of the work ourselves to maximize our profit.

The place looked great after we were finished!  We were stoked and ready to walk away with $40k in profits, or so we thought... 

The Bad

I got it listed and we waited, and waited and dropped the price again and again.  All the comps showed that homes in that price range were under contract within 10-20 days.  It was showing plenty and we got really good feedback from everyone who went through,  but we weren't getting offers.   When we got to a break even point in our numbers, my partner graciously bought me out of the deal for $0 dollars, and wanted to try another direction with a new realtor. I was fine with that, as we weren't making any profits at the current price and lender fees were starting to hurt.  My partner knew he would probably lose some money but was ok with that because he was able to strike a deal with my investor securing the use of his money for another year.   I was glad the investor was taken care of, but bummed and a little humiliated about losing a deal that I thought would be such a slam dunk!  I had sold many other houses without a hitch, I thought i knew the market and it was a sellers market with homes selling quickly, this should have been easy.   Luckily for me, my partner took on this burden and ended up losing money on this deal but eventually sold it.  I was super grateful that I wasn't out any of my own money and vowed that I would make it up to my partner with another deal and try to erase the sting of failure, but this was definitely a blow to my ego and confidence, could I make this Real Estate business work? 

The Ugly, a good kind of Ugly

Well, you have to learn from your failures, so I started looking again, educating myself more, using better tools (Thanks BP!) and about a year later and after many more double and triple guessing about if the next deal will work, I purchased a small townhouse for $87k from a wholesaler that I met at the REIA meet-ups.

 This sucker was Ugly!  But  I noticed that it didn't need any repairs and I could list it right away as-is for about $110k - $115k for a small profit. I still didn't have much money, so I lined up some hard and private money to purchase it trying to make it so that I didn't have any of my own money in the deal.  My calculation were slightly off, because when i went to closing I realized I needed to keep $1000 of the earnest money I paid in the deal to make it work.  I had seen many sets of closing documents as an agent but I focused more on my commission than the title fees and there were a few that I hadn't accounted for.  I could live with having $1000 tied up for a short time.   It already had a tenant in it that was a good tenant and it just barely was cash-flowing so even if it didn't sale right away, I knew it could float itself.  But the market was still hot and at this price point there are way more buyers as opposed to my first deal so I wasn't worried about finding a buyer.   I listed it right away and got to know the tenant. I discovered he wanted to own, so I offered to sell it to him and he took it.  42 days after purchasing it, I signed it over to the happy tenant/new owner and  netted $13k while my investor made 58% Roi.    The funny thing is the investor was kind of bummed to only make 58% because it was originally offered to him to pay 100% of purchase price and we would split the profits.  However, His other half put the brakes on investing the full amount, hence the hard money.   This actually worked in my favor as I earned way more profit using the hard money loan.  But I was happy to do it either way. 

Now I know this isn't a huge amount, but it is a good start to build some seed money for the next deals that will surely follow!  

Post: Turning Single family into a Duplex?

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

Thanks Alex, I don't want to get burned or into something that I have a hard time getting out of  because of zoning issues.  I think I have realized its better to just get something that is zone properly and already set up as a multi unit property

Post: Turning Single family into a Duplex?

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

thanks for the Info!  I was looking at one in Saratoga Springs to do that also, the city said that the city council needs to approve a duplex status, and it most likely it wouldn't be approved to switch it to a duplex.  Have you ran into any issues with the city?   Another concerns I ran into was how to refinance it to get out of the hard money loan.  the lenders i have talked to said they would not be able to use the income from both units because it is a single family home. 

Post: Turning Single family into a Duplex?

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

Occasionally, I come across deals of a single family residences that could be turned into a duplex really easily.  Has anyone had experience doing this,  is it a good strategy and what are some of the concerns to consider when doing this.   

Post: 5 bed Rambler in Saratoga Springs UT

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

I am in possession of an assignable contract for the purchase of a great property in Saratoga Springs UT.

1378 Lake View Terrace Dr, Saratoga Springs UT 84045

Purchase Price: $338,500

ARV: $405,000

Repairs: $15,000   -Paint throughout and Flooring upstairs

Closing date 8/29/18

NO ASSIGNMENT FEE!!! take advantage of this great price!

Year built: 2004

Rambler - 3500 Sq Ft

Fully finished

5 bedroom/3 baths

This would be a great fix and flip or rental property.

Great condition

Awesome area in one of the fastest growing cities in the nation! (this means values are increasing fast!)

Vaulted ceilings upstairs

It is already mostly set up as a Duplex, 3 bed/2 bath up, 2bed/ 1bath down.

Downstairs is walkout, needs kitchen(have a quote for $3800), there is space for a 3rd bedroom.

3 bed rentals in area are $1500-$1700/month. You could gross $3000/mo rent easily.

Good Cash Flow!!

Cash partners welcome also.

Please contact me for more info or questions. Greg 801-831-3288

Post: ****potential Duplex in West Valley UT****

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

Great property in good shape! Can be converted into a duplex very easily. There are already 2 separate entrances, 2 sheds for extra storage, 2 driveways. Kitchen in good condition and downstairs is updated. Utilities are newer. Roof new in 2010 great condition.

Potential repairs:

Wall off front room doorway

Turn front room into kitchen for downstairs unit (it is already plumbed)

Create new bedroom by putting wall and closet in Master bedroom

Door in hallway to new bedroom

Some paint

Carpet master, new room, hall and upstairs family

Covered deck painted

Rents in this area go for $1300-$1500 for updated 3 bedroom homes. At market rates you should gross $2500+/month! And you could rent the sheds separately. Interest has already been expressed in renting the basement unit for $900/month and that is without a kitchen. Basement has 3 bedrooms and 2 family rooms( one of the family rooms could be a bedroom, it has a closet but no window)

Post: Starting out in Utah

Greg WildingPosted
  • Saratoga Springs, UT
  • Posts 9
  • Votes 5

Hi, I am just starting out investing in Utah also, but I've been an agent for a while. The REIA has some good meetups and do a meeting specifically on wholesaling regularly. Its a little tricky here especially if you find stuff on the MLS with the market as hot as it is.