All Forum Posts by: James Guillot

 I'm still waiting on an email from the planning director, but I'm fairly certain she said it's residential because their intention was to have homes developed there from the beginning.

I have stumbled on something I have absolutely no knowledge or experience in. I came across some development land in a fantastic area of the city for middle to high class homes to be built. The city wants a developer to build these homes and is willing to sell the land for cheap to make that happen. 

I have no experience with development, so I have no idea how to assess the land, determine value, or determine which questions I need to ask about the land.

I feel like there is money to be made here. Is it possible to assign a contract to a developer from a city? 

I really need some information and advice. Anything is appreciated.

These "wholesalers are bad people" threads are so very similar to spam it's scary. It's not going away, stop talking about how bad a service most of you use frequently is. There are so many better things to do with your time.

When you put a property under contract, you gain an "interest" in the property. This means that you gain a temporary right to the property. An assignment contract means that you are signing over your interest in that property (the contract you signed), to that person. When you do that, they have access to the contract because it is now THEIR contract. So they will see everything, including the assignment fee in the assignment contract. Investors know what that means and if it's a good deal and a fair fee, none of them will have an issue with it. Real estate is an open world. Trying to be secretive or misleading causes problems damn near EVERY time. There's no reason not to be up front. You should always announce the fact that you are assigning a contract, especially to the buyer. It's easier to tailor an offer if you know that an assignment fee is added onto other things that affect your lowest offer (mortgage, liens, etc...).

Contractor estimates will be close to the actual cost. With the exception of unexpected costs, their estimates will be based on experience, expertise, and up to date knowledge on material costs. If you want to refine it a bit more, you could find a general contractor and have them go through every single detail that subcontractors may not think they need to worry about because it's "not their lane". A general contractor will manage all the work, not just a specific category of work. They won't just do that out of the kindness of their heart. You will either have to pay them for their time and knowledge, or actually hire them for the rehab.

I want to point out that a lot of these details are things a wholesaler should know before jumping in. @Matt Devincenzo said it best. You should probably pause and study up on rehab, wholesaling, and contracts. Very few people at bp want to see you fail. I'm sure you see all the scrutiny that wholesaling gets, and it's because many wholesalers don't really understand what they're doing or how to properly execute. Wholesalers are a huge asset to investors when they know what they're doing, but going in with only a little knowledge is a quick way to put you and the investor in a sticky situation.

What I understood from this is:

Purchase price - 250k

ARV - 430k

Rehab costs - 33k

Assignment fee - 20k (10% of equity)

Anything above that 250k that you sell it for is your assignment fee. If you're assigning the contract for 270k that's a 20k assignment fee. That is fair considering the sale is 180k less than the ARV, which would be a 10% fee based on the 200k difference between purchase price and ARV.

I'm not sure what you have done or how thorough you are, but if the repair costs are only a rough estimate and there's that much value after purchase, you should try to get a more detailed and accurate repair estimate. If you can give estimates from contractors and an accurate rehab budget, it will eliminate uncertainty from an investor purchase and sell faster. It will also help you tailor your assignment fee to a more accurate and appropriate number.

Your assignment fee is whatever you want it to be, but it would generally be included in that 20k. Adding a cherry on top of your ARV will make the property cost too much and you'll have a hard time selling.

@Charles Flaxel

I currently live in Lawton. I don't have any properties besides my primary residence yet, however I've been keeping an eye on the market. Rents are low, so buy and hold is probably not the best strategy.

There is a lot of money in short-term rentals though. Fires personnel come from all over to attend schools and events on Fort Sill. Military housing is at high occupancy on-post, making various home displacements more common off-post in hotels or short term rental homes.

Small multi-family homes vary in neighborhood types, but the majority of them (but not all) are in a low to middle class area, raising the chances of getting unappreciative or undesirable tenants.

As I mentioned earlier, I have no properties and only watch the market for now. I may not have information others have that invest here, but to the best of my knowledge everything above is accurate.

@Larry Fried if you have no interest in Oklahoma, why are you trolling a question about Oklahoma? He's asking people who actually have knowledge of the Real Estate market in Oklahoma.

If I need advice about a car, I ask a mechanic. I don't ask the plumber next door who's mad at the mechanic's shop for fixing cars.

Hello everyone! I'll be moving to Lawton at the end of this month and wanted to pop my head in and say hi. I'm new to investing, but plan on starting my first deal this fall, but hopefully sooner.

The best way to determine repairs is to have a rehab contractor go through the home and give you an estimate. That will cost you money and most won't do it unless there is some sort of agreement that they will be doing the work.

The only good, cheap, and reliable way to determine repair costs is to learn how to determine repair costs. Do it yourself. There are a few good books on the subject. You won't become a property inspector, but it will definitely be more reliable than not knowing anything. My advice would be to estimate on the high end of your assessment if you aren't absolutely sure. If you are wholesaling, determining the deal depends on how much profit the buyer gains after repairs. If you estimate a bit high, it just makes the property cheaper for the buyer.

Estimating ARV is on you. The basic idea is that you are using comparable houses sold nearby to determine the value of the subject property after all repairs have been completed. You can learn how to do this in threads on BP, youtube, and various other free sources. You could have a licensed Agent who understands REI run the numbers for you, but you should know how to do that yourself. Besides, I'm sure they would eventually get tired of doing your work for you.

The information you have there won't help determine if it is a deal or not. You absolutely must have the ARV and repair estimates. Without those, anything could or could not be a deal. Those are the PB&J in your PB&J sandwich.

Now that I have answered your questions, you need to do more research. This is information that you should already have before you decide to pull the trigger on any REI strategy. I recommend drowning yourself in BP podcasts, threads, and books. Watch some videos. Just get as much info as you can.

Also I want to warn you about posting questions on wholesaling. Make sure it is information you absolutely cannot find by reading other threads. There is a Coke vs Pepsi verbal war on wholesaling here. They will hijack your thread to argue about wholesaling legality and equitable interest.