All Forum Posts by: Jason Arcuri

From my experience, it sounds like you have to go with a hard money lender. Most conventional loans won't support a flip. Hard money lenders aren't horrible but you just need to know that they are going to cut into your profit. A hard money lender will want some skin in the game but each has their own rules. My guy requires that the LTV of total project is no more than 65%. Depending on the deal I get, it changes how much I have to put down. I'm just one person though, maybe someone else has some other insight for you.

awesome!  I'm an investor in Connecticut and a real estate agent here.  I can't speak to what the best area in those states are but I can tell you what I find the best places are in my areas.   New haven is generally the best in my opinion when you combine roi and how many people are looking for rentals.   However, 200k investments are becoming harder to find there.  You can move north of there and check out towns like ansonia or Derby to be a little more competitive.  If you want to go cheap and be in another city you can do Waterbury.  Try to stay out of the middle though.  The outskirts have nice areas at competitive prices.  Client of mine got a 4 unit for 195 in the beginning of this year in a good neighborhood that rents for 800 a unit.

@Paul Kaflinski Thanks for the tip.  I'll look into it but currently have 2 about to be 3 houses under contract and one up for sale.  All my cash is tied up in the hard money loans I have on each.  I haven't taken on any real big projects yet just small ones with finished basements that have mold. Currently going with easy and quick flips.  The high priced ones scare me because I always see them sit so much longer.  

@Michael Noto is absolutely correct.  I'm one of those lazy investors lol.  I do not have the time or care to go out of my way to look for a flip.   I'm also in Connecticut and since I'm lazy, I generally find putting offers on short sales that have been on a long time or homes that have mold have been the best way to find a house.  It seems like even investors don't want to mess with mold remediation.  I haven't had any luck finding good multi family flips.   Doesn't mean they don't exist just my personal experience.

@lisa beauchamp was it a multi family you bought in southbury? 

Also we should meet, I live in southbury myself.

Working on a single family in New Haven. Found on the MLS. Putting in offers on 2 others both off the MLS.

I'm familiar with SE CT.  Nearly all my investing is done in New Haven so that's where I generally try to focus.

Hey Welcome to investing!  Don't worry about cosmetic stuff, and definitely don't go overboard on it. If you want to make the place super nice make sure the rent increase will justify it.  Unfortunately there are just bad tenants out there that don't take care of their place and you can be the nicest, best landlord and you'll still get someone like that eventually.  

Congrats on the first place and you took a step that most people never actually become brave enough to take.  This is a great community to be part of so don't be afraid to ask anything.  Groton is a decent place especially with having the navy base there.  Should always be able to get renters.

Tell us a bit about it.  What's your numbers looking like initially, goal with it, type of financing, etc.?  I believe newbies posting their stories are the best for other people looking to get into it.  People who've been doing it a while definitely have more knowledge but I think they forget what starting out was like and can't relate as well because their criterias have changed and their ability to get properties has changed.

@Russell Brazil  thanks!  Luckily I got into investing with multi families and got to learn a lot that way.  I didn't tackle the flip until much later.  I think there is always something new out there to learn, especially with how laws and ordinances change.  I wanted to illustrate that because there are times we think we know what we are doing and after 10 years doing this, I still have to keep myself in check.   Everyone is different but I'd hate to see people constantly reading up on this and never actually making the leap because certain things don't meet certain criteria.  

Hello everyone,

I'm not a highly active member but I try to pop on and help out where I can and gain great info where I can too.  I recently just sold a flip that my business partner and I did in the Westville location of New Haven.  I don't know how long the pictures will be up but you can check it out on zillow if you're interested 116 Kohary Dr.

This is only the second flip I've done/been part of. The first, I ran the whole project and actually did a lot of work myself. This one I did the complete opposite.

I took more of a backseat roll and my partner ran the project.  I would check up on it and follow up to see how everything is going.  We took on a general contractor that is young and just starting out.  I love working with younger contractors because they usually are more aggressive and more active.  Well, this one did not work out that way.  He ended up charging us the prices of a high end remodeling company and was a pain.  Lesson learned, good bye.  We gave a new plumber a try and when inspections came around, there were numerous things done wrong.  On top of that he single handedly set us back a month to two.  Lesson  learned, good bye.  

On the good side, my electrician is phenomenal.  I've been using him for years and he's never failed me.  We had some things the inspector wanted fixed and he made sure that he squeezed us in on off hours.  We ended up having a mold issue and we found a great mold remediation guy who did it at a fraction of the cost of everyone else who came out to look at it.  He even sent a piece out for testing afterwards to show us he did what he said he was going to do.  We also had the water supply for the heater burst 2 days before closing.  He let us use his fan and dehumidifier.  Lesson learned, Hello.  

Overall, the whole thing took over a year from purchase to sold.  That's just horrible.  However, I'm a real estate agent and this is just a side thing.  The same goes for my business partner.  I know where we can save money now and I know where we still need to find more guys.  We are on our second flip together already and just hit the 2 month mark with probably only a week or two to go before it's ready to be on the market.  Can you say night and day? We also went way over budget on the first and are looking to be coming right in on budget at the moment on this one.  

I'm writing this to show that every experience in real estate is a learning experience.  There is no way every deal is going to go perfect and sometimes you get burned.  There is amazing information on here but until you get your hands dirty, you really won't know what is going on.  Things look great on tv and on paper, but tv's fake and paper is theory.  Start small where the loss (if there is a loss) will be minimal.  Figure out who you are working with and don't be afraid to ditch them and go onto the next guy.  When you find someone who is good, don't ever burn them.  I know we all want to make the most, but I'll take a few thousand less to keep myself surrounded by the right people.  When the **** hits the fan, those people are the ones that bail you out.  The house is in my name and I'm the real estate agent that listed it.  My business partner is also an agent at another firm.  I made sure that he got 50% of my commission because it's the right thing to do.