All Forum Posts by: Jimmy Chin

 You are indeed right Adam - he actually walked out on two other investors and owes them each 3 times the amount he owes me. I've already filed my lawsuit and have a court date set. I realize my stick is much smaller but I'm hoping that since my lawsuit is first in line and involves much less money, then I hopefully can get something back.

@Bill Thompson Turns out you were right. The contractor finally turned up and sent me an email late last night with his excuse. He apparently was juggling multiple jobs at a time and one of his big projects went south so he started "borrowing" advance money from other jobs like mines to pay back the losses on his other project. It seems that things spiraled out of control to the point that he can't hire any labor and he can't continue any projects.

He seems willing to repay me the amount over time - just not right now. Does anyone have an suggestions on how this type of payment arrangement should be setup? What kind of contract (if any) should I be using? Or should I just let the lawsuit take care of the repayments?

@Adam P , @Guy Gimenez I definitely learned a very hard lesson with this one. This is the last time I will make such a mistake again and plan to keep moving forward. I will continue to fight this one on the side but that is not my main focus right now. I feel ashamed that I made this kind of mistake but I'm hoping that it makes me a smarter investor going forward. 

I'm in the process now of finding a replacement contractor and will be filing a case against my contractor this week. I've also just come to learn that there are 2 additional investors that he walked out on, however, they may have lost less given that they are more seasoned. In any case, I will not let this incident discourage me from my investment path!

@Darnell Kramer I had a feeling that there was no way to recover the funds and that's very unfortunate. I definitely did not take enough precautions and will learn from this mistake. I'm not sure the contractor would have accepted no money up front - but I wouldn't know that because I didn't try asking him.

@Phil Bottfeld Thanks for the advice on handling contractor payment structuring. There's nothing I can do about it now but I'll use your technique going forward.

@Manolo D. I plan to file a complaint against this guy soon but my priority right now is to get my rehab back on track with another contractor. What is BPs policy for posting this awful contractor's info here to make sure he never works with any BP member again.

@Mark Brogan The lien waiver is something I never took into consideration. Thanks for pointing that out.

@Nate Hawkins I made the mistake of using someone's recommended contractor without checking the contractor's background (big fail on my behalf). Lesson learned here. I've been trying to follow up with people that know the contractor but every one I've contacted tells me they don't know the guy (obviously).

Thanks to everyone who is providing input on this thread. I'm running behind schedule now so I'll just have to eat the loss at the moment and continue moving forward. Very hard lesson to learn here and soured my first REI experience.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently rehabbing a property for rental and my contractor is now MIA. I've tried calling, texting, and emailing but I'm not able to reach him at all. This has gone on for a week now and he has left a lot of work unfinished. What I'm perplexed about is that this guy was supposed to be a reputable contractor but he has disappeared on me all of a sudden. I don't have any more time to wait around and hope that he returns my attempts to reach out so, in all likelihood, I would need to find another contractor to finish off the job. Is there anything that I can do legally? I've already paid him a good amount of money for the work and he's basically only done half of what he's already cashed. Also for the HVAC system, I paid him the 50% to start the job already but he hasn't done any work at all. What are your thoughts on the next course of action? Here are the items still to be finished:

- flooring

- countertops

- bathrooms - faucets, showerheads, accessories, etc

- any other associated plumbing, electrical, or clean up work

I'd greatly appreciate any advice! If anyone knows of a fairly priced contractor for this type of work in the Houston area, then please let me know!

Can you send more details to [email protected] including the expense breakdown? Thanks! 

Thank for all the response everyone. Based on your advice, I've come to realize that, as a rental, this one is too risky without much gain to even make it worth it. Flipping isn't my goal right now so I think it makes sense to pass on this one.

Hello everyone, I'm currently looking at a SFH property that I am considering and I've run the numbers multiple times. I don't quite know what to make of it - the ROI is a little below what I want (my target is 10% minimum) but there is some decent initial equity. As a result, I'm on the fence with this one.

Asking Price - $82,000

Repairs: $25,000

ARV: $135,000

Loan amount: $94,500 (70% * $135,000)

Total Cash needed: $15,000

Expected Rent - $1300 a month

Taxes - $271 a month

Insurance - $67 a month

Vacancy (5%) - $65 a month

Repairs (5%) - $65 a month

CapEx (5%) - $65 a month

PM (10%) - $130

Initial equity: $40,500

TOTAL EXPENSES: $692

NOI = $7,292

CASHFLOW = $115 A MONTH

ROI = 9.18%

Deal or no deal? Also, at what point would you budge on the ROI based on the equity? Thanks!

@Brandon Turner After working out the numbers and before you place an offer, do you recommend visiting the property first? It's very difficult (and near impossible) for investors that have a full time job to be able to visit multiple properties per day just so they can make multiple offers per day. I know some people are adamant that you absolutely have to go to a showing but if I had to do that, then that means I would be offering on a whole lot less properties which in turn reduces the chances that I would be able to get a good deal off the MLS.

@Ed Neuhaus That looks awesome, congrats!