All Forum Posts by: Joshua Pavao

@Steven Kopstein

I literally referenced J. Scott's book in my original post lol

He recommends bringing a GC in before making an offer, to get a good idea for needed repairs (for beginners, of course). My reason for asking how others do it, is because if I were to find out once the GC checked it out, that it needs more work than I may have originally thought, now I'll be paying $100-$200 every time for a property that I don't even end up putting an offer through.

Honestly, I think I may be overthinking the entire thing, as I have a detailed excel spreadsheet of J. Scott's SOW and can just use that to examine the majority  of the home on my own. I was really just looking to hear what other people in the industry do and how they approach it.

@Gregory Emmer Thanks for your input, I'll look into some referrals for local handy-men as I haven't done any business with any here just yet.

@Brett Youngster

After a contract is accepted, you would think that 2-3 weeks is ample time to talk to all contractors and get accurate estimates?

Are you saying that the initial walk through, before placing an offer, you'd walk through on your own, place an offer, get under contract and then have an inspector come through, hoping that what you found is similar to what they find?

I understand including the contingencies and supposed I could just go off of that in case I am way off.

@Jeff B.

I'm referring to a GC as someone who just does a home inspection. You can pay one to come through a house with you before you purchase one and he can give you a general idea of what will need to be done. Not as thorough as an inspector but good for someone who may not know exactly what is considered a code violation or "outdated" 

mami dade south florida flip flipping houses rehab investing

(just throwing some keywords out there)

So I'll try to be brief on this, I'm going to tackle my first flip within the next 2-3 months and just trying to figure out my game plan in my head before attempting. I've read all J. Scott's books and plan to re-read them I the following week or two.

I'm curious as to when you'd bring in an inspector during a rehab estimation. Would it be before or after the property is under contract?

I'm asking because, like I said, trying to figure out my game plan. So I'd picture it like this:

I find a property that seems worthy of rehab after finding out the ARV. So now I want to actually see what this will cost me, I plan to use subcontractors and manage them myself, but J. Scott's book recommends that I bring in a GC first to tell me a ballpark of what will need to be replaced or repaired (I am clueless for code-violations).

So after I do that, I'd make an educated (hopefully) offer and once under contract, I'd then pay for an inspector to be more detailed? I'm thinking as cost-effectively as possible as GC's here seem to be about 100-250 and spending that every time I want to look at a property more closely may get pricey if I'm not getting any offers accepted left and right. Obviously I plan to get to the point where I know exactly what to look for in my rehabs but this will be a first and I want to do it right.

Any input on how you guys/gals go about this process? I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for any info!

Joshua Pavao

@Jessica Smith you really should try navigating this website a bit before posting this kind of question. It's been asked and answered hundreds of times! ;)

Best thing I think I've done so far was purchase the book on flipping by J. Scott and the Estimating Rehab costs also by J. Scott.

Follow webinars on this site, and just read any forum or blog post that you can relate too. The amount of information on this site is beyond huge.

Good Luck!

@Bill S. I love reading these more than anything. Not saying I enjoy that you lost money, but I follow a quote by Warren Buffett where he says:

"Everyone learns from mistakes, but there is no rule in life saying that those mistakes have to be your own."

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but as someone who plans to begin rehab flips early 2016, I originally planned to do the majority of the rehab myself other than things that need licenses and the more I read, the more I keep realizing that contracting the work by professionals may really be the way to go and will help relieve some spare time for more important investment strategies.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, I could read "failed" attempts all day because those are by far my favorite learning strategy.

Good luck on your future endevours!

just did some researching, a VA refinance has to be a VA loan to a refi. VA loan so that wouldn't work. Is a down payment usually required when refinancing through a regular lender?

@Jon Wanberg just trying to see what angle you're coming from here with your suggestion..

After I do some flips (which I intend to start VERY soon!) and I have, say 30-50k of profits or savings that I can now invest into a multi-family. You're recommending I use a hard money lender, rehab it (if need be), at the very least update the entire thing, refinance with a 30yr mortgage?

So basically do a BRRR strategy? I actually like that idea because it would keep me from having to invest all of my profits (subtracting whatever I need to pay for fees with the HM lender) into the multi-family and can even continue with flipping.

Really could be a good strategy but I also don't know enough information about refinancing with a VA loan, so something I'll have to do some due diligence on. I've have a lot of bad experience the past 6 years with the so-called "benefits" I was supposedly eligible for from my military service.

Thanks for adding in some tips, for some reason I never even considered a BRRR on a multi, but if I can get financing through a VA to go smoothly than that would be great.

@Jon Wanberg thanks for the tips, when looking at a multi-family I'll be looking in the range more like 150-250, I really wouldn't want to get a multi-family in a low income area and have to live in it and manage those tenants everyday so I'll aim for a nicer one for sure.

For the flips, considering it's my first and I'll probably only have 30-40k (more like 30) of my own cash to invest so I'll definitely be on the more conservative side in terms of what kind of work is needed, what you listed for work is exactly how I'd like to start, thanks for the tips!