Quote from @Joe Farrance:
Exploring many options I have noticed a franchise company called (HomeVestors or We Buy Ugly Houses) franchise. The cost of this franchise to start is about $80,000, now apart of me says that is money I could use to purchase a piece of property and hopefully I won't buy a dude and recoup that money with a windfall. The other part of me says this may not be a bad deal to purchase the business model. As I get closer to retirement (5 Years) Would it be beneficial to hit the ground running with a franchise model or go at it on my own. Would the price to purchase a proven business model be worth it or should I keep my fingers crossed and depend on information from another experienced investor who will not soak me for ungodly amount of money that could potentially add years back on to my retirement goal. I do understand the risk no matter what option I choose, I'm just trying to eliminate as much of the risk as I can in my later years.
Disclaimer, I do have a HomeVestors Franchise.
That’s the age old question, do it go on your own and work through the problems with the benefit of have lower costs, or do you just pay for the experience and like you said “hit the ground running”. I had this same question before I joined.
couple things from your post that you should look into further:
The franchise cost actually is lower (about half) for what’s called an Associate Franchise, which good because you can use that money not spent on the full franchise for advertising. HomeVestors has in house lending, so I wouldn’t use any of that money you have to purchase property’s, you can buy and sell more properties if you borrow for the purchase and rehab. Whether you end up with HomeVestors or not find a lender to fund your flips.
When I looked into HomeVestors 10 years ago I hesitated because of the costs and spent a ton of time on BP looking to do it on my own. I’m impressed to those that have made it work, I guess Im just not that person because after a couple hours of searching I couldn’t figure out if I needed to actually have a yellow letter, lick the envelope or not, use a Post card and didn’t find any metrics for success for any of it. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about that, HomeVestors does all of it. It does come at a price but very low overhead.
With RE investment there’s always risk! The franchise model isn’t right for everyone but does have its benefits and I think looking back when I came in, HomeVestors did a good job of having you understand the good, bad, and Ugly before they will let you sign.
