All Forum Posts by: Hoa Nguyen

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $88,000
Cash invested: $25,000
Sale price: $179,900

I got this deal from an agent who was initially going to list it publicly but thought of me first. The property was in a great market but needed a full cosmetic rehab and basement finish to add a bedroom and increase resale value. The rehab took 5 months and I did 90% of the work myself, saving $30k but losing a lot of time. In the future, I’ll factor in contractor costs more. The property sat on the market for a month before an offer came in, but the buyer backed out at closing. Thankfully, int

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

Being an agent I knew the market and the potential it had.

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

The deal fell into my lap. I posted on Facebook that I was looking to buy a flip, and a fellow agent sent me some details about a property she was going to list.

How did you finance this deal?

Hard Money finance, with about $5k of my own funds going into some over-budget costs.

How did you add value to the deal?

Full cosmetic rehab, added AC, new electric, new waterlines, and added a finished room in the basement space.

What was the outcome?

$60k profit pre-tax. And A LOT of learning lessons.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

1. Will not be doing the work myself again
2. Plan for the unexpected
3. Whatever the initial budget is, plan for 20% more.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I was the agent, so I recommend myself for all your southwestern IL investments.
I used Three Doors in St. Louis for the hard money loan. Their fees and interest rates were high, but they had the least restrictive approval terms from what I gathered.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $88,000
Cash invested: $25,000
Sale price: $179,900

Found this deal from another agent who was initially going to list on the public market, but thought of me prior to doing so. The property was in a great market but needed full cosmetic rehab and a basement finish to add an additional bedroom which in return would bring up resale value. Rehab took 5 Months and was done 90% by myself. Saved about $30k doing myself, but also lost a lot of time. Moving forward I will start analyzing deals based on potential contractor prices. The property sat on the market for a month before receiving an offer, however, the initial buyer backed out on the day of closing. Luckily, interest rates dropped by the time of relisting and we found another buyer within 3 days of relisting. Property closed and profit pre-tax, was $60k. I was able to use a chunk of that to invest into the next one which set to profit $100k. Keep an eye out for a post about that one ;)

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

Being an agent I knew the market and the potential it had.

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

The deal fell into my lap. I posted on Facebook that I was looking to buy a flip, and a fellow agent sent me some details about a property she was going to list.

How did you finance this deal?

Hard Money finance, with about $5k of my own funds going into some over-budget costs.

How did you add value to the deal?

Full cosmetic rehab, added AC, new electric, new waterlines, and added a finished room in the basement space.

What was the outcome?

$60k profit pre-tax. And A LOT of learning lessons.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

1. Will not be doing the work myself again
2. Plan for the unexpected
3. Whatever the initial budget is, plan for 20% more.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I was the agent, so I recommend myself for all your southwestern IL investments.
I used Three Doors in St. Louis for the hard money loan. Their fees and interest rates were high, but they had the least restrictive approval terms from what I gathered.

@Chris Seveney

Downpayment. My HM lender does 0-5% down depending on deal. Vs 20% upfront

Was curious about the process and possibility of securing a rental via a hard money loan and refinancing out of it within a month. My go-to HM lender has approved to finance a purchase that needs some minimal work, like a month or less worth of work. Is this a common practice or are there rules against doing so? I am not approved to buy outright with a conventional loan, but by going HM first and then refinancing seems like a solid workaround. 

This may be a simple question, but have yet to find a clear answer. 

Got approved for an HM Loan, and it mentions that the construction portion of the funding will be held and construction draw requests will be sent accordingly. What exactly does this process look like? Do I complete work out of pocket and send invoices for reimbursement? Sorry first time going this route. 

Just got denied lending from a supposed HM lender due to the source of the down payment coming from a personal loan. I understand the risks, regarding the method of using a loan to get a loan, but was told that Hard Money will overlook that if the deal lines up. I've run dozens of calculations on this flip deal. When it closes not only will I be able to pay the HM loan off but I would also plan to pay the personal loan off and still walk away with a decent profit. Should I explore other hard money options or is this a roadblock Ill continue to face?

Got some numbers from a hard money lender who had me itemize and budget me reno. Playing it safe, I over estimated some cost to get to the allocated budget. Question is, when the time comes and I finish work, what happens if I do so under the rehab budget? What happens to the funds? Do they go back to the loan balance? Can I pay myself as a contractor? Just trying to grasp the process here.

Nice to meet you! As a long-time BP member and mid-level investor, the best advice I can tell you is to ask questions on this platform. Even simple ones. This community is great and is on top of helping investors regardless of their experience. 

A property manager is a great resource for all the above and more. Sure everyone likes to save money by doing so yourself, but eventually, you would want to scale your business to the point where you can hire a PM to do that work for you. 

Now if you absolutely want to do it yourself, (may get hate for it) I have actually found Zillow rental manager to be a pretty decent way to solo manage your properties and collect rent.

Just wanted to get a grasp of what criteria Hard Money Lenders look at when qualifying someone for a loan. I know experience is a big factor, but what about DTI? Credit? and any other needs I need to prep for when going this route.