All Forum Posts by: Jamie DeRossett

Really! I am so thankful that for your help.  Maybe someday I can aspire to be your level of success.  Thank you for your help and have a blessed day!  If you would like to meet sometime I am at 4seasons gym over on floyd dr monday-friday from 12-1.  Come by sometime and introduce yourself maybe we can do lunch.

Who is we?

Brandon how many properties do you own and how many have fix and flips have you done in your career?

Rental investments are only profitable when you have a large downpayment, greater than 50%, or when you buy with 40-50% equity in a wholesale type deal. When you take out a mortgage a market value and pay 20% down it is a uphill battle. By the time you factor in taxes, insurance, vacancy, reparis there is very little left, and you are hurting your debt ratio and ability to do deals that make money unless you are a doctor, executive or make a boat load of money monthly and do not have to worry about DTI (Debt to Income Ration) which lenders use to determine credit worthiness.

I hear investors say I am going to make money on the appreciation.  Good luck property values have peaked and are not going anywhere for a long time.  I hear investors say I am going to pay it off in 30 years that is if you dont refinance.  Every time you have to refi the clock starts over again at 30 years, but if you look back if you keep a property 30 years you will have had to replace everthing twice and when the updates and modernization is calculated into the formula the returns are less than stelar.

The only way to make money off rentals is to pay all cash and have no mortgage or pay at least 50% or buy a property with a ton on equity or multi-family with a ton of income. 

That sounds very expensive to me and I have done 5 kitchens this year, but it all depends on the quality of product. $9,000 seems high for low quality.  I just did a full kitchen last week from a cabinet company (Hager Cabinets, Richmond, Ky).  These were not barber, but they are knock off barber with laminate countertops and installed for $4,000 and I thought that was high.  That does not include stainless applaince package $2,000. So, I get a middle of the road working Kitchen with cabinets, countertops, and Applainces for $6,000.  

I never use my contractor to do my Kitchens.  I use a cabinet place and there is a home depot (preferred by me and ask about the bid room for orders over $5,000) and lowes.  Anybody can go either of these stores and price installed cabinets.  They charge a small fee to come out and do the drawing and give the estimate, but it is well worth it to make sure you are not getting taken advantage of by the contractor.  Thanks for the post and have a great evening! 

The most accurate way to run comparables is use the mls.  If you are not real estate professional you will most likely not have access to the sold data which is what you need. The most important characteristic is always location.  It depends on the neighborhood and some change street by street.  You can always use the assessor which is available to the public, but the problem with that is the information is sometimes incomplete, incorrect, and there is no way to determine condition.  This is a art and one you must learn to be successful and it is difficult without access to sold data on the mls.  Thanks for the post! Good luck and have a great evening!

Hey Mindy that is great info! I have already used it to connect with people in my area. Thanks and have a great evening.

The overwhelming majority of people start from scratch.  The other 1% don't need to invest anyway.  To start with no money wholesaling is the name of the game.  Become the best wholesaler in your area and you will get invaluable experience without needing any money to begin and you can start tomorrow with bandit signs.  I Buy Houses, Close in 3 days, Cash, No Commisions.   This way you will not be using your money and have no exposure to risk.  Thanks for the past and have a great evening!

Hey Rich you hit the nail on the head with concrete board and drywall.  There are only 2 types of wall coverings commonly used and that is drywall and paneling. I do think the concrete board is good for the lower portion in case of future flooding.  Thanks for the post and have a great night. 

First don't use the mls. I have bought 3 properties off the mls this year and made $30,000. I bought 1 wholesale deal and made $40,000. Once it hits the mls there is instantly 6% and alot of competition. All three properties I bought off the mls this year had over 5 offers and I had to pay over list price, but they were all REO's and I knew I could make money. I underestimated the repairs on 2 of 3 and barely made any money.

This is because of low inventory nationwide and especially in the major markets which has caused prices to rise all over the country. This summer I was basically buying property off the mls just to keep my workers busy because there was very small margins as I paid over list for each property. We went $30,000 over list on 1 and lost it because they countered a all cash buyer at our offer and they took it. The mls is over valued.

If you want to look for kicks and giggles set your filters to reo, short sale, auction, foreclosure and those are what you want to look at and you are probably only going to find overpriced stale listing unless they were just listed. 

 Where do I find the houses? The best deals are always at the court house steps at your local foreclosure sale.  There is some property exchange in every state where properties where the lender has filed foreclosure on a homeowner that failed to pay the mortgage.  In Kentucky it is the master commisioner sale and every county has one and they are all cash and means there is alot less competition.  Another place I have made some money recently is auction websites. I have recently bought 3 houses off of www.hubzu.com and done really on each of them with about 30% return on my money.  I also search www.homesearch.com and have bought 1 house from there, but they had title issues and could not close it.  Contact your local wholesalers or better yet put up some bandit signs.  We Buy Houses, Any Condition, Close in 3 days (right), No Commisions. Hope this helps.  Thanks for the post and have a great night!