All Forum Posts by: Jason Sinclair

Hi all-

I'm testing the waters to see if my contractors are missing something. My partner and I are looking for windows for a duplex in South City and being told the lead time is a few months and that each window could be 1k... for 35" by 45" vinyl original construction windows? Tell me I'm missing something. I haven't been ordering materials for a few months but wow!

Are materials prices really that bad? 

What are the workarounds you guys are finding for expensive materials these days? 

Happ BPing, thanks for reading/replying.

I just found this on another thread.. might help

"I have been a wholesaler in St Louis for 14 years and now in Orlando FL.

My advice to new investors is to start wholesaling properties. This is the quickest and best way to get started with the least cost.

First pick a neighborhood that you are either in or close to. Driver around all the streets and look for vacant houses. There should be some. Then look in the county assessors website to find the owners. it should give their name and mailing address. Send them a letter telling them you found their house to be apparently vacant. But if it is obviously abandoned, say so in the letter. Tell them you will pay them cash for a quick close.

Many times the owners don’t update their mailing address with the county so you may get the letters returned. I use beenverified.com to get the most updated info. It costs me $24.95 a month but it is well worth it because it also gives me email addresses and phone numbers.

If you are going to buy the property, fix it up and then either sell it or rent it then you are through.

But if you want to wholesale the property to another investor, then contact a local RE Agent to give you a list of all the houses in that neighborhood that have sold in the last 5 years with all cash. This typically is investors. Then again go to the assessors website and find their name and mailing address. And again use beenverified.com to get the best and latest contact info.

Once you get a response from the seller of the vacant house, negotiate a deal to buy it for all cash. Then immediately contact all the cash buyers you just found that buy properties in that neighborhood and tell them about the house and would they be interested in buying it.

Once you have done all that with that neighborhood, go to the next one and 'rinse and repeat.'

I hope this helps.

Steve Anderson"

Sounds like you got crickets, Josh. My partner and I are working in the counties around St. Louis as investors but I saw your post and had to check in... have you gotten further in you investigation? 

Keep movin! 

David O! No surpise to me you did well, man! Congrats! What a big win, 20k over is amazing! The neighborhood I live in has detached garages but the trustees are fierce on changing the "look" of the houses. I'd be interested to see if I could get away with similar on some of the models where it makes sense. 

So was it originally a sunroom... I'm interested in how you enclosed it... did you replace glass with walls? 

Hope to see you again soon. Congrats again, great to see those wins. 

All the best, 

Jessi and Jason

I agree with Mark Gruse and Kenneth Garrett in that you are making money while getting hands on experience in Real Estate which should feel like wins and continue to motivate you as you make more contacts and garner trust from those contacts. 

I bet if you spend your time focusing on that while you are tightening your belt, your credit will be good enough to get some help on your first deal and hopefully that will start your boulder rolling down hill. 

I wish you gratitude at the fact that you know you are headed in the right direction. I think this will carry you the furthest. 

Gratitude. =)

¡Hola amigos!

My business partner and I pretty successfully BRRRed our property and as the dust on the refi. settles and we look at our marketing budget we are debating whether to put a letter campaign out for probate or for general foreclosures. 

Before COVID we had the idea that we like the idea of the probate niche and I do see us there in the long run so it would make sense to have that be our bread and butter deal flow from the get go and expand from there but what do the pros think about the idea that 3 million Americans are seeking mortgage forebearance as a sign that the barrier to entry in foreclosures being lowered in the next year or so?

We would probably include foreclosure and other monetarily distressed sellers in our deal flow in the future but we want to make sure we have our systems and do well at one to start. At least that seems to be the prevailing wisdom. 

Thanks for reading, happy Thanksgiving if you celebrated it and thanks ahead of time for any musings... 

Happy Investing, 

Jessi and Jason

@Paul DeSilva, what a relevant question and what an awesome number of responses. 

Exactly what most of us are thinking everyday; so great to hear from so many and that so many are still moving. That's what we want to know, that we're not crazy AND stupid to keep moving right now. 

We bought our first rental-sf 3/2-closing on March 13 and the next week in Missouri the stuff started hitting the fan. 

Looking at refinancing now to BRRRR-successfully rented-and realizing the values are skyrocketing so we'll only leave 8k of our 70k downmnt+rehab monies in the property.

We'll be looking hard for another here soon and like the collective wisdom seems to say, be more scrutinizing with the deal. 

Gotta keep moving. 

Instead of saying good luck I think we should be wishing preparedness to each other. 

So I say;

Preparedness and courage. 

Sr. Avila-

I installed a light/fanswitch that has a moisture detector on it where the fan will turn on automatically when a certain humidity is reached and it automatically turns off later. It has worked beautifully in my personal master bath for years as my wife was not as aware of her long showers' effects on our paint. 

Hope you find a solution. Good luck. 

Hi David. 

I went through Vantage Credit Union and got a 5% interest HELOC, later subject to prime with all else similar but no fees. 10 yr draw but $300minimum repayment from the start. Different strengths, different weaknesses.

My partner and I spent a long time debating which bank had best but at the end of the day realized we are BRRRRing ideally and thus the refinancing numbers were ultimately more important. 

Kudos for the HELOC decision. Younger me knew it was a good idea to buy vs. rent but had no idea it would be my key to REI. Good luck out there!

@Peter MacKercher, thanks! I was doing that but wondering if there were a way to filter responses but I can just continue to parse through a bunch of STL mentions that don't apply.