All Forum Posts by: John P Becker

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $190,000
Cash invested: $82,000

This was an estate sale. The executors reached out to us because we had flipped the house across the street. There was a good amount of debt on the property so the negotiation took a long time. We struggled paying 190k because we had bought the house across the street for much less but the market was crazy hot. Up until this point we mostly did flips but we decided we could make this one work as a buy and hold. We were able to get a mortgage on the property and secure a great rate. The house is now probably worth over 300k and rents are growing.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

It was an off market deal

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We had met the executors while we were flipping the house across the street.

How did you finance this deal?

We got a mortgage for the purchase and paid cash for the rehab.

How did you add value to the deal?

This is a rather small house with no basement so it was hard to add value. We just added value by rehabbing the whole house. One thing we did was basically delete the small back yard and just created a large gravel parking area. Parking is hard to come by in this section of town so having ample parking is a plus.

What was the outcome?

We were able to rent it rather quickly and the value and rents continue to appreciate. We are currently looking at pulling some of the equity out by using a HELOC. We have a good rate so we don't want to do a cash out refi or sell it.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

At times it looked like the deal wouldn't go through because they had the house appraised and what we were offering was less the appraised value and our offer wouldn't cover the debt on the house. Eventually they found a little bit of money and we were able to close the deal.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $270,000
Cash invested: $99,000
Sale price: $525,000

This was during the height of covid and we ended up getting 100k over our asking price which was crazy. Another crazy thing is we found this house on Facebook Marketplace. We looked at it and filled out an agreement of sale on the spot. This ended up being one of our most successful flips.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Deals were hard to come by during this time due to Covid and the market was just going wild. This house was not listed with a Realtor so we were able to deal directly with the seller.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We found it on Facebook marketplace. I went and saw it with my partner and I said we should bring a blank agreement of sale with us just in case. He was skeptical because they were asking for 330k but I said let's just offer them what we think its worth and go from there. I think we offered 260 or 265k and came up to 270k.

How did you finance this deal?

We paid cash

How did you add value to the deal?

We reconfigured the kitchen to make it more functional and we finished off an attic space.

What was the outcome?

Probably our best flip ever

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We didn't run into too many challenges on this one other than probably going over budget a little bit.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $280,000
Cash invested: $214,000
Sale price: $535,000

This may not look like a good flip based on the numbers but we bought this house because it had an oversized lot for the area and we were able to subdivide the lot. This inflated the rehab costs but we were basically able to walk away from the deal with a little bit of profit and a free lot. We are building a house on the lot and when it is done we expect this deal to be one of our best yet. Now we have the experience and knowledge to do it again which we are doing. We bought a duplex around the corner and we are in the process of subdividing that lot. This time we are going to keep the duplex as a rental.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This was an off market property that someone brought us and at first we weren't super interested because it was a little outside our investing area. It was in a good school district though and like in the description we realized we could subdivide the lot which was something we had never done before so we decided to give it a shot. Deals were very hard to find during this period.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

An estate attorney who we did a deal with before brought this property to us. We negotiated for a little bit and came to a standstill. They eventually came down and we came up a little and we got the deal done.

How did you finance this deal?

We used a conventional non owner occupied mortgage with 20% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added value by recognizing that the lot could be subdivided which I don't think most people would have realized. I actually didn't realize it my partner did.

What was the outcome?

We had a successful flip and walked away with a free building lot.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We went over budget like most people do.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

My partner and I are both investors and Realtors.