All Forum Posts by: John Reynolds

Hello everyone. I'm moving to the Denver area (Superior) next week. I've been investing for a while now, but first things first. We are closing on a house next month and I need to finish the basement ASAP.  I plan to do a lot of the work myself, but I will be hiring out the plumbing, electrical, hvac and drywall.  Anyone in the area have any recommendations?  Once I get settled, I'd love to get together with other investors to get the lay of the land.  Thanks.

@Tonya Rooney, I am.  Ask away.

@Andrew Earle, I did join and it has worked out well. It's a great program and I've received enough advice to more than pay the annual fee. The private facebook group has been a tremendous help. The monthly coaching calls are very informative and give you an opportunity to converse with the pros. With all of this being said, it's a little more advanced than brand new flipper (myself). I'm still fumbling through my first couple of deals and have been able to manage by finding deals on the MLS and through wholesalers. In fact, when I first asked the group for paid marketing advice, one of the seven figure members told me I should exhaust the MLS and wholesalers first. It was great advice and landed me a couple of deals. I couldn't have dealt with starting a marketing campaign while feeling my way through the renovation process. The focus of the course is paid marketing. Even though I'm not to the point of tapping into the group's marketing knowledge, it has definitely been a worthwhile experience. If you're ready to build a marketing campaign, this should be the first money that you spend.

If it’s a deal, why not wholesale it?  That way you learn about the transactional part of the flipping process.  The buying and selling is what matters anyway.  Rehabbing is rehabbing.  Find a flipped house in the area and copy it while dealing with contractor issues and surprises along the way.  If you want to wholesale it, take a flipper into the house and have him make you an offer.  You write a contract for $115 with the aunt and sell it to the flipper for the difference.  You probably could get the flipper to walk you through the rehab process so you get experience.

You could also partner with a flipper.  You might be able to find one who would even fund it if it’s a deal.  Just have them include you in the process.

I’m in Milwaukee.  If you need some help let me know.  

@Abhay Sachar, I agree with @Marcus Auerbach.  I would spend some time in the city, particularly the crime areas, before buying something in those areas.  I went to an event at that church at night a couple of years ago and didn't feel that bad.  Of course, I only walked two blocks.  I wouldn't want to be there all of the time, though.  This is a rough city.  There are some areas that I don't like driving through during the day and I've spent a lot of time working in the projects in other cities.  In fact, I live in the nicest part of the city and I won't park my car outside.  Cars are stolen almost daily and people are occasionally mugged in broad daylight at gunpoint.  Amazon packages are regularly stolen off of porches.  I also occasionally have random people come to my house trying to intimidate me into paying them to do odd jobs.  Again, I'm in the nice area where homes range in the $400k-$600k range.  I hate to think what's going on in the $30k neighborhoods.  We're in a tough spot currently.  We have an understaffed, underfunded and possibly undertrained police force.  We also have a political climate that is anti police, especially in the neighborhoods where they need the most police involvement.  This is one of the poorest cities in the country with an absolutely horrible public school system and high inner city unemployment.  We have a failing infrastructure and no money to fix it.  I see the bad areas getting worse before they ever get better.

I hope this doesn't sound like a political rant because I don't mean for it to be.  I'm just trying to give you my picture of the city.  I want to make you aware that when you decide to buy cheap properties in the worst parts of town, you are getting the worst of the worst of a struggling city.

Before Marcus kills me, I also want to say this is a great place to live (if you can deal with the weather).  My wife can be in her office downtown in less than ten minutes, I can get a reservation at the best restaurant in town the same day, and I can go from my couch to my seat at a Brewers game during rush hour in 25 minutes.  Private schools are cheap and are very good, for the most part.  We also have very good public universities.  Summer is one big beer fueled festival.  It's a cool, easy city.  Heck, even if you live in the suburbs, you are less than a 40 minute's drive from downtown.  You can be in downtown Chicago in 90 minutes by train.

Oh, and make extra sure your capex and maintenance numbers are solid.  I haven't seen a cheap property yet that was well maintained.  Someone sent me a wholesale "deal" last week on a $30k house that they would have had to pay me to take once I figured in basic renovations.  They also tend to be really old and full of lead.  Foundation issues are widespread due to faulty drainage and the cold winters.  Good contractors here aren't cheap and are hard to find.  Bad contractors aren't cheap and are slightly easier to come by.

Full disclosure.  I do not own investment property here, but I'm actively looking.  I also have only lived here for three years.

@Garrett Pearson, I put a reminder on my calendar to give you an update next week once I had more time in the program, but here goes.  In short, if you want to either get started right or expand your business you need to do this.  In two weeks, I’ve received advice that could save me $5000 in marketing this year or at least force me to create systems to analyze deals far more efficiently, thus allowing me to look at more properties.  What sets the video lessons apart from every other book, blog or podcast that I’ve encountered is Justin tells you how he does it.  For instance, everyone tells you to get an investor friendly realtor and leaves it at that.  Justin has a 1.5 hour dialogue with his realtor where they go over everything that the realtor does for him, including viewing and making offers on the property.  I never would have thought of this but it’s a great system.  I have my realtor visiting three properties to estimate and write up offers tomorrow.  As great as the course material is, the Facebook page is better.  You are getting your questions answered by the most successful people in the business.  If you want to join now let me know and I will contact the person that I worked with to see if he can get you in.

I'm just starting out looking for houses to fix and flip.  My marketing budget for the year is $6000.  My plan is to send out 1000 postcards every five weeks and get a website.  Also, I plan to take any money I make from deals and put it back into marketing.  What would you do in my situation.  I'm looking for suggestions.

@Garret Pearson, I also should add that the experienced investors are pretty active on the Facebook page.  It looks like you can get answers to your questions from people who actually have experience quickly.  This is probably where most of the value is for both experienced investors and people just starting out.  An answer to one question could help you land one extra deal, easily covering the $2000.  

I just reread my last post and I don't think I did the course content justice.  It looks like there are some videos where they walk through houses to help you figure out what and how to rehab.  Also, Andy MacFarlane, I think does a video of him going through the entire deal process, including negotiating with the seller.  There's other stuff too.  Thus, I think it's more than just the basics, it's the basics in action.

Again, I'll let you know how it goes.

@Garret Pearson, I also should add that the experienced investors are pretty active on the Facebook page.  It looks like you can get answers to your questions from people who actually have experience quickly.  This is probably where most of the value is for both experienced investors and people just starting out.  An answer to one question could help you land one extra deal, easily covering the $2000.  

I just reread my last post and I don't think I did the course content justice.  It looks like there are some videos where they walk through houses to help you figure out what and how to rehab.  Also, Andy MacFarlane, I think does a video of him going through the entire deal process, including negotiating with the seller.  There's other stuff too.  Thus, I think it's more than just the basics, it's the basics in action.

Again, I'll let you know how it goes.

I just signed up yesterday .  I’m guessing that I was allowed in because I started the process a few weeks ago.    Heck, I thought that the enrollment window was a marketing gimmick!  They have great marketing.

Again, I just joined.  I’ve gone through a few of the lessons and most of it was stuff I already knew.  I picked up a few nuggets.  Most of it is basic.  With that being said, it’s laid out well and the information covered took me probably a year and a half to learn on my own.  If you’re  brand new that’s worth $2000.  I think it might be just to have it all in one place for reference. Some of the lessons look more advanced.  The Facebook group looks like it might be gold.  I posted an introduction and receive different numerous replies.  On here, I received three replies and two were trying to sell me something.  I posted a marketing question about an hour ago and received one answer so far. Give me a few weeks and I’ll have a Better feel for it.