@Lee Haskins I was doing deal 1 and 2 at roughly the same time. -bought 3 weeks apart. Same situation with 3 & 4. I offered on deal 4 the day after I closed on deal 3. Deal 5 was a few months later. The funny thing is that after you already have a house under contract, it makes it much easier to put out lower offer prices because there isn't the self-inflicted pressures to find a deal at that point.
@Tiffany S. I used a HELOC on my primary residence to make cash purchases & financed the rehabs.
@Max Shaw My end game is to provide income and build something that I can be proud of. We all play this game called life. I just want to be good at it. I'm a teacher(band director) and I love my job. I'm not necessarily interested in leaving the teaching profession but I am for damn sure not going to sit around and wait for people to vote to give me a raise... I'll give myself that raise :-)
@DJ Cummins Long term plans are tough but I plan on continuing to invest. I would like to enter the multi-family arena when the right opportunity comes along. In the meantime, if I can buy a house every other month and continue to follow a formula that is working in the meantime, that works too.
@Rod Joseph Deal 1- county courtsteps. Deal 2- a lead through direct marketing(bandit signs)
Deal 3-MLS, Deal 4- bought through a local auction company, Deal 5- Probate property brought to me by the realtor who sold me deal #3
@James Masotti
1 & 2 -Answered above
3. Deal 1 took about 10 weeks because of 2 things.
-I had to learn how to get work done efficiently and manage sub contractors.
-I was dead set on not failing so I did lots of work myself because I absolutely HAD to make sure my numbers were awesome in order to convince my wife that I wasn't going to bankrupt us. I'm sure some of you will relate to that one.
Deal 2 took about 10 weeks as well. Numerous problems that I had to work through. When you're new, it seem to take twice as long to trouble shoot problems. Just part of the learning curve I suppose
Deal 3 took 5 weeks from the closing date until I had a lease agreement signed. Little higher on the learning curve.
Deal 4- +- a week but this was our previous residence so there wasn't much that needed to be done. This issue was trying to find a renter in December which I now realize is a tough time to find good tenants.
Deal 5 took 6 weeks from closing day to having a lease signed.
4,5, and 6- We started out doing as much work ourselves as we could which sucks but it taught some good lessons. We use sub contractors for all the skilled work(electrical, plumbing, etc). I have never hired a GC. The further along we went, the less labor we(my wife and I) did ourselves. We didn't do much labor on the last 2 other than some of the make-ready stuff. Hiring sub contractors is tough. I have found some good people through references from other investors that I have met on BP or at the local REIA meetings. I also get references from the contractors themselves. A good plumber is likely to know a good handyman or electrician. You get the idea. I have also hired plenty of bad sub contractors that I will not use again. I now hire out subs to do 1 or 2 small jobs to try them out & see the quality of their work, reliability, etc. before I will give them the opportunity for a big job. I also require my sub contractors to sign a contract that will hold them accountable to a completion date and deduct payment daily if they don't meet the deadlines if it is something that will take more than a day or two.
