All Forum Posts by: James Theron Erwin III

@Ryan Swan thank you! I would probably have started with the city of Tempe because they have been very helpful to me so far with other matters.

I’m looking to flip homes in Tempe, mainly because that’s where I live and I know the market better than other areas of Phoenix. I have networked with wholesalers here and will eventually get into direct mail marketing to find my own properties and potentially wholesale deals I’m not in a position to move on.

My permit question comes because I can do a lot of work myself but want to make sure it’s done legitimately

I’ve been reading a lot of old posts about pulling permits and the general consensus is always pull permits when required by the city/county.

My question is this. Which is it? City or county? Or both? I have found the pages for pulling permits for both the city and county I’m in (Tempe and maricopa). Do I need to file with both? Is one more important than the other? Do they likely share info with each other?

@Scott Scharl I had an idea for an estimate writing service for newer investors or handy sweat equity investor types who need solid numbers to show new investors. However, after a few interactions on several forums, I was basically told nobody would pay for an estimate.

I even considered marketing to wholesalers who could use the detailed repair estimate as a marketing tool when sending out properties to a buyers list.

I was thinking the service could exist as a time saving device for quickly evaluating multiple properties without spending your valuable time on each estimate.

But again, the consensus was that it is a useless service. Back to the drawing board I guess

@Jean Laurin In The book on flipping houses by J Scott says that newer investors can expect to pay up to $75 to have a contractor out to give a scope of work and provide a detailed estimate. Having several out may prove to be time consuming and expensive if you are paying for walkthroughs. My thought was if you could have a trusted source for broken down estimates, if the cost was right, it would be worth paying for an estimate in order to feel better about purchasing an investment. Again, mainly for newbies

@Matthew Paul I used to be a claims adjuster and would use my estimates to negotiate with contractors. My biggest annoyance is contractors who give an estimate that says “fix house, $25k” without any breakdown of what is being performed. I feel there is a place for a service that will give newer investors an extra tool for negotiating

Would anyone be willing to pay for an accurate rehab estimate? I know some general contractors may charge a fee to provide one and I’m wondering if there is a place for an estimate writing service

@Linda Weygant So basically it sounds like I would be over complicating the process by having one business pay the other? Part of my goal is to also pay myself as an employee for doing the work so I have some income as I go. Should this just be done in the form of a draw? Or should I treat myself as a w2 employee or 1099?

I'm looking to do a flip soon and I'm going to do a good amount of the work myself. I have an established handyman business and a separate REI LLC. I would like to account for the labor I will be putting in. So my question is this, is there a way for my LLC to hire and pay my Handyman business? Is this legal? Are there tax benefits to this strategy? My original goal of the handyman business was to supplement my REI projects

I live in the Prescott area and there is talk that they are trying to clamp down on the vacation rentals just like many other areas around the country. I would try to find something more concrete than hearsay before deciding to go with vacation rentals. If the laws change, you may be forced into single family rentals anyway. That may be okay with you, just make sure the numbers work both ways before purchasing

I am very interested in speaking with you. I am recently self employed with 3 properties in Arizona (1 has $1150 cash flow, 1 is paid off and my father lives there, and the other is my current residence with a potential $500 cash flow if I can get into another property and rent it). Coming up with %25 may be difficult but my fiancé and I have good-great credit. We have the knowledge and the motivation. I may have jumped the gun on quitting my W2 job and starting my own handyman business as far as traditional financing goes. I've been thinking that I would need to look at private money and it sounds like we could be a good fit! Please let me know if you have any questions for me. If not me, I may know someone else in AZ who you could help. I am in the prescott area by the way.