All Forum Posts by: Griffin Wilde Cardew

My guy!  See you tomorrow Baird

Just moved to Ventura, stoked there is a meetup and looking forward to this Thursday!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

I found the Ugliest house on the block that I'm turning into something beautiful.

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

I'd been living in a custom sprinter van I built for a year+ so I could save up for my first home. It was a sacrifice that allowed me to put a roof (fixed, not mobile!) over my head and utilized the knowledge I've acquired professionally over the last 8 years.

REI has been something I've been incredibly interested in and passionate about for the last 5 years, this is my first step towards financial freedom.

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

I found it on the MLS. I was able to leverage a motivated seller and dropping market to go in below asking and knock off additional dollars after inspections.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional. 30-year fixed, used some of the money I negotiated off during inspections to buy my rate down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Sweat equity. Flipping the house myself.

What was the outcome?

TBD!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

I found the Ugliest house on the block that I'm turning into something beautiful.

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

I'd been living out of a sprinter van I built out for 14 months in an attempt to save up for my first home. REI has been something I've been incredibly interested in and passionate about for the last 5 years and this is my first step towards financial freedom.

I wanted to put a roof (fixed, not mobile!) over my head and use my skillset and network to flip it. I felt this was the best opportunity for me to get into a home, go through and learn the process myself with my own money, then scale.

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

I found it on the MLS. I was able to leverage a motivated seller and dropping market to go in below asking and knock off additional dollars after inspections.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional. 30-year fixed, used some of the money I negotiated off during inspections to buy my rate down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Sweat equity. Flipping the house myself.

What was the outcome?

TBD!

Thank you @Josh Miller, this is great info.  I really like your advice on searching for a good PM company.  I find myself feeling overwhelmed at times, but this can help us quickly eliminate many areas while narrowing our focus to areas meeting the criteria you laid out above.  From there, we can use the benchmarks in my previous post to ensure the area fits our needs.

 I've signed up for the newsletter and added Big Shifts to the top of my read list!

Thanks again!

Great post @Josh Miller, always interested in hearing how people adapt to stay relevant. Think that's a trait we all must adopt to be successful and stay relevant in the REI world (I know @Jay Hinrichs agrees with that statement!)

Curious though what it was about Omaha that caught your attention?  I'm in LA and recently accepted the reality that "investing in my backyard" just isn't realistic/smart to begin.  My partner, who is in Boston, and I have begun the process of  locating which market we want to invest in.  While we've been listening to podcasts, reading blogs and books, I'll happily welcome advice from a seasoned investor.

Criteria we're using to narrow down the field is below:

Median income above $35K, Population growth exceeds national average, solid/diverse economies (anything in particular you looked for or liked seeing in this category?), Solid schools, Less than 15% population below poverty level, landlord friendly states, business friendly states, not in a flood zone, and No/low crime area.

Thanks again!

Awesome job Casey.  Will be using some solid takeaways from this for myself!