All Forum Posts by: Ember Meadows

Sounds like a great deal to me!  I would do it!  

Yes it is costing me.  But on the other hand, I didnt buy this initially to fix and flip. It came with a portfolio of properties, the other properties I have made rentals.  After looking at this property more, I was originally going to fix and make a rental. But the market is doing well in that area according to comps and my realtor, so decided to fix it up a lot more and try to flip it.  While there is many things that are costing me money, the good news is I got this house for dirt cheap.  The first estimates I got were from my first partner, who also lowballs everything and does get work done for amazingly cheap, of course its not always quality.  Of course things we didnt know at the time was electrical issue.  Also the basement flooded since I've had the property, which ruined the furnace, another unexpected expense.  So initially I did think it was more cosmetic things, like paint, revamping the flooring, upgrading some of the kitchen.  The electrical, furnace and roof have been additional things I didnt realize at the beginning I was going to have to take on.  

I have since talked to my current contractor/partner we have put some more stuff in writing, he has agreed to have the house done by the end of December.  We shall see. If it is not I probably will hire a professional contracting company and work out something with him, which he has pretty much agreed to if its not done in a month.  I am also going to be trying to pay the laborers myself mostly with business checks.  If I do any cash, it will be with receipts.  I double checked that with my accountant.  

Derreck Wells-hes not doing all the work. Really I dont think he's done any of the work at all. He is acting like a GC and hiring out the work.  Now some of the small jobs he has had 2 guys do that work for him-like power washing the house, some cosmetic things inside.  However the roofing crew, the furnace guy, the electrician, they are all people or crews he is hiring out and just double checking the work. He never goes there at night.  He usually stops there in the day maybe once every few weeks or once a week, because he is busy with his other stuff and doesnt spend much time there.  Also before he partnered with me, I had already put about 8k into the property and had a lot of the interior projects done, so overall he will be putting less money into it and working on overseeing some of the bigger projects.  At this point I dont think I will fire him for the project.  We are too far along in it...but I am looking for tips on setting better guidelines for work to be completed and ways to double check what he's actually paying roofing crews and other guys that will supposedly only take cash...so that I know we are really splitting expenses.  

Matthew Paul, when I called about the furnace, I called and and asked the owner. Your right, it is a possibility that he the 200 dollar difference is just a mistake or a close estimate.  The problem is with the other crews he wants to use for the roof and painting, he is dealing with and they dont speak English, so I dont know how to control the situation...  

My original partner does not have any funds to put into fixing a property right now, and because this project is costing way more then originally thought, I really need to partner with someone who can put some money into it.  This isnt my first property, I have a couple rentals. But this is the first property to fix and flip and that needs this much work.  I would say the work is more then halfway done, its just going at turtle speeds...

So guys I need your opinion.  I have been in real estate for a couple years and for a long time had a partner that dealt with the construction side of having real estate.  In the last year i have been dealing with a property I have alone.  It is a older house (1800s)  in the need of some major work.  I had hired several contractors and also had several people I know work on the property.  It is a never ending project and everything seems to cost more, take longer and need 1000 more things done then I thought.  This is my first property I am trying to do a fix and flip.  And I will admit, my lack of knowledge of projects and what they should cost and managing contractors  is hurting me. I decided to partner with a guy who has a construction company and can manage all the contractors.  He is someone I have known for a few years.  We decided to split all expenses 50/50 and also profits.  It has been a few months and I have had a couple issues with him. First of all my house is coming along very slowly, it seems that my house is his least priority.  We have talked about this several times, and while it has gotten somewhat better, I don't know how to hold him accountable better as far as timelines.  Secondly we are doing some major projects like new furnace, roof, painting exterior of house, etc.  He has told me that the hispanic crew that is doing the roof he always pays in cash.  The problem is if he tells me the roof is going to cost 3k, and we both pay half of that, how do I know he's not really paying them less-saying 2500?  Because of this I recently double checked him with the guy who we were hiring to to get and install a new furnace.  When I asked him the price it was 200 dollars less then my partner contractor had told me it was.  He also was trying to negotiate cheaper prices on his other properties because of getting the furnace at mine.  I have not yet confronted my contractor/partner about finding this out.  I don't know what to  put in place as far as checks and balances to be sure he isn't making me pay more of the expenses? Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!  

So I am in need of some opinions. I had a wholesale deal I was working and I am at a dead end. I dont like to give up easy, I have been trying to think of some other creative strategies to make this deal work. I hate walking away.

So basically I had a house under contract for 8,000 dollars. I had a cash buyer lined up for 12, 000. Everything is great right! Except that once the title company starts doing research on the title, it appears that the last 3 people who owned the house have never used a title company, done a title search or gotten title insurance. Basically back in the 70's theres a hole in the title. So we dont know for a certain period of time who owned the house. If anyone had purchased title insurance, it would fix this, but since none of the previous owners did, the only thing the title company is saying to do is have a attorney file a Quiet Title Action to fix it. What an attorney basically would have to do is send certified mail to the 4 owners of the house and they have 30 days from when they were served to say if they have any legal interest in the house. After the 30 days, the attorney goes to court, files the title action and the title is good. The issue is because some of the owners are going to be hard to find because they owned it 30 years ago, 5 attorneys have quoted us a price of 4-6k to get this fixed. I checked to see if there is any way I can do this without a attorney, unfortunately you have to have a attorney file this in Ohio. The seller and my end buyer are aware of the situation. I asked my seller if they would cover 2k of it, and I was going to split rest of it with my end buyer. However my seller wont fork out any money to get this fixed. They live out of town and are telling me they will give me money to just rent it out for them, instead of selling it.

The only other thing I can think of is to do a quick claim deed and disclose to a seller that the title isnt clear. But I'm not sure anyone will even go for that...Any ideas or thoughts?

Joe-I didnt have to fund the deal. In the contract, I had my name as the buyer and put a clause in there that says "and or assigns." I assigned the contract to my cash buyer. I made 3k on the deal. My buyer paid all closing costs, this was something I wrote in the contract. There was no realtors involved. I found this online, and it was not listed on the MLS. No I didnt try to market it to anyone else but my buyer. My original thought was to have it as a rental for myself. But at the end of the day I didnt mind making a quick 3k. The title companies concern was that many of them have never heard of "assigning a contract." Through a fellow local investor I found one that was familiar with them. I had a written contract with my seller. I would recommend paperwork with your buyer too. This ended up being a deal that we closed on super quickly I didnt end up ever getting with him to sign the contract. I started wholesaling about 10 to 11 months ago. I have done other things in real estate in that time period, but including getting some lower end rental properties. So I have done deals before this, but this is my first wholesale deal.

Chris K- The closing was super smooth as far as the title company. The only hiccup I had was I told my seller verbally we would close by Friday and they were adamant that I close by then. My buyer pushed the closing back from 3:00 to 4:00 and then then ended up getting there at 4:58, and the title company said if he wasn't there by 5:00, they couldn't do it. So he barely got there in time. Once I negotiated with the seller this all went down in about a 2 week period.

Congrats Jon! Always enjoy your feedback!

Hey Guys, Just wanted to let you know I just finished my first wholesale deal last week. I started out trying to wholesale, and got more into rentals. So about the deal: I found it on craiglist. The guy had a property listed for 25k. It was not in the best of neighborhoods. It intrigued me because the house was split into two and at one point was rented out on both sides. It also had a commercial building behind it that was part of the package that used to be a gun store. He used to rent out both sides of the house for 300 a month per unit and the gun store used to rent out for 400.

I talked to the seller and tried to find out what he wanted. His situation was he was sick of being a landlord. The current tenant had been in the house for years, and had been saying for years, he would buy the house. He was sick of waiting, he owned the house free and clear and just wanted to cash out. I offered him 10k. After some time of negotiating, we agreed on 13k.

I told him I wanted to see the house. He lives out of state in Florida, and had 1 tenant in the house. However he was going to be in Ohio soon, so we arranged a time for me to look at the house. In the meantime I called a guy I know in the construction industry. I told him about the deal and asked if he would be interested in partnering with me. We agreed that we would split the cost of the house and he would do all the work. We would try to flip it first, but if we got no interest in it, we would rent out all 3 parts. 1,000 dollars a month of rental income, the house would be paid off in a few years.

So we went to look at the house, needed some work maybe 5-10k. The guy I was going to partner with surprised me and asked if he could pay me 1,000 dollars to just walk away from the deal. I told him no. He said he wanted to fix it up and put some of his family there and use the building for some of his construction stuff. He knew I had negotiated the seller down to 13k, so he said he would pay 15k for the property. I agreed.

I went back to the seller and told him the most I would pay was 12k. He reluctantly agreed to take it. A easy 3k for me. I had no idea how to do the paperwork for a wholesale deal. I started calling title companies; they didn’t seem to be familiar with what I was doing. I also found out that to do a double close, I would have to fund the deal first. So after reaching out to a few people, and also posting something on BP for help, @Jerry Puckett called me and offered some timely advice. He sent me his contracts over, and helped me with some of the wording. I also called him with several questions that the title company had. He helped walk me through some of the legalities. Thank you Jerry. Yes going to BP Conferences, and making some great contacts has really helped.

I just want to encourage anyone out there, who has tried and real estate, it does work. No it’s not easy, and for most its not overnight success. But don’t ever, ever give up. You can do it. Don’t quit. Keep marketing for deals, keep networking, and keep calling people back. If you keep doing the behaviors, deals will come to you. Now I have another wholesale deal in the works, should be closing in a week or so. This is from someone I sent a yellow letter to 9 months ago, and just kept following up. Once you hit a deal, things start to snowball. More things start to fall in place. Your confidence, enthusiasm, and energy will attract more deals. It may take a year to really get going. It may take 3 years to be super successful. But if you stay focused, and don’t give up for something else that looks easier, you can succeed.

Hey Guys, I need your guys input. I have been in real estate investing for almost a year. In that time frame I have gotten 5 rental properties, and also done 1 wholesale deal, and in the process of a second. I made a connection recently that used to be in portfolio lending. He just reached out to me and said he is wanting to get into real estate investing, he is interested in notes, single family and mutil family. He has several connections he has recently talked to and they have lots of money and are extremely liquid and and ready to invest in real estate. He approached me about how we can partner up. He wants to have a meeting with me possibly tonight. I am trying to think of creative approaches of how we can do stuff together. I have not done much marketing for wholesale deals in awhile. He is ready to look at deals right now. I dont have any killer deals off the top of my head, and not sure if I should approach this as I can wholesale him deals or something where we can partner and do some rehab and flips. I was just getting ready to meet with a hard money lender this week about getting funding to do a flip. Any ideas welcome.