All Forum Posts by: Jacob A.

@Account Closed

This is another problem I have had with my agent. The only feedback we've received is that buyers aren't too thrilled about the fact that it is on septic/well water and not city water/sewer. I hate the idea of having to go through an agent to hear what the buyer has to say. It's like that game of telephone when you were in elementary school and the words could have completely changed by the time they get to the end party. There hasn't been any feedback about a garage or lack of storage that I'm aware of and one of the top 2 sold comps does not have a garage either. Sometimes I wish I could just show up at the end of the showing and talk to the buyer myself. That would make things so much easier.

@David J.

Great story and congrats on the success! Who knows in another year maybe you'll double or triple that number! Best of luck to you.

@Account Closed

I appreciate the response. You are right I do still have room in the budget to drop the price. I do know that I have the house overpriced by about 5k, but at my agent's urging that's where we put it to have room to negotiate. We had an appraisal done and it came in right around 160 and the house is priced at 165. The comps in the area are pretty solid at that number even though they are nowhere near as nice as my house. I may have lost my best comp that sold in July since it is further than 6 months out now so that may hurt me some. I've had 4 showings now and zero offers so that tells me one thing, my house is overpriced. I find it hard to believe that 4 families could walk through that house and make no offers unless it was overpriced. Sometimes you just have to step back and try to take a unbiased view at things and I think you may be right. However, my thinking was that it's a terrible time of year to sell a house and that if do drop the price now it won't do me any good. I figured I would wait until about Feb 1 in hopes that the market picks up just a hair to generate some more interest. Atleast, that's my theory and only time will tell to see if it works.

Thanks @Jesse Hyder

I have tossed this idea around in my head for sure. I haven't pulled the trigger on it for a couple of reasons. First, and most importantly, I do NOT want to deal with tenants at this point in my investing career. I hear horror stories and as a beginner I'm trying to limit my exposure to risk as much as possible. That's something I plan on getting over in the future, but for now I'm not in the business of renting. Second, I plan on getting very aggressive in selling this house in the next month or so. Third, my holding costs aren't breaking my pockets at the moment. Luckily, I've financed this property completely through a HELOC which I'm paying 3.25% on. It's not going to kill me to hold onto it for a couple of extra months and I'd rather go ahead and sell as soon as possible so I can get my cash out and move on to the next one as opposed to tying it up in a rental for 6 months. Sometimes it's better to just be patient and I'm hoping now is that time even though I'm cringing every day it doesn't sell. Thanks for the interest!

@Tom Scott

I think it's extremely important to operate within your own comfort levels especially when you first start out. Don't buy a house unless you are absolutely sure about your comps and that it will sell. As time goes on and you start to become more and more familiar with areas and your abilities increase, then it's probably a good idea to start expanding. I remember reading either J Scott's blogs or one of his books and for the longest time he focused on a tiny suburb of Atlanta and just bought up everything in that one small area. He was massively successful doing just what you are talking about. Sounds like you are on the right track, good luck to you!

@John Weidner

I appreciate the advice. I was going to drop the price here at the end of this week but I think you may be right in that I should hold off until February. It's easy to panic when nothing is happening and especially when you are dropping holding costs into the property every day it stays on the market.

I'll bump this back to the top of the forums because I'm curious to hear some discussion on this as well.

@Aaron Westerburg

Sounds like you've got it figured out pretty well to me. This topic has actually been discussed multiple times on the forums. Try the search feature in the upper right corner of your webpage. You should find what you are looking for.

@Tere R.

Hover over the resources tab at the top of the page, then click on REI resources, then under landlord resources click on forms & contracts, then you should see an independent contractors agreement under the rehabbing forms.

@Jason Eyerly

About 90% of the funds I used for this entire deal were through a HELOC that I obtained from a bank at prime (3.25% adjustable rate). I'm extremely lucky for my age in that I already have a lot of equity built into my home. The rest of the funds that I used were cash savings that I had sitting in a savings account earning about .00001% interest. Financing is definitely a big obstacle for a beginning investor. Basically you are stuck with two options being hard money and private money. I'd encourage you to get yourself educated to the point that you know the flip process backwards and forwards before you get into one and see if you can find a local private money lender at a local REIA or something that may be willing to partner with you.

The deal was indeed a foreclosure that I found on the MLS. I had a hard time finding much on the MLS though at the time and probably made 15-20 offers before this one got accepted. I'm now trying to work with a local wholesaler here that is using direct mail to increase the amount of potential deals coming through. If you have any more questions feel free to send me a PM, I'll be glad to share my experience with you and answer any questions I can.