All Forum Posts by: Larry Turowski

@Jeremy Heaman I just finished one and am working on 3 more flips/brrrs right now. The biggest problem is getting reliable crews. The less you’ve worked with people the more you need to keep close tabs on them. And even with a good crew it seems there are always delays and unforeseen (but hopefully not unplanned for) expenses. It’s not really that hard to scale to 2, 3, 4, at a time, it just magnifies your risks. What if things go wrong on multiple projects at once. You don’t want to spread yourself so thin you can’t handle it financially or managerially. 

@JaBrie Lindsey great post. Having a good paying job and saving as much as you can is generally the best  first step to growing wealth in real estate.

It seems like every broke wanna-be investor eyes wholesaling as their road to riches, hyped up by marketing gurus selling dreams. Can you elaborate on how it was a rookie mistake for you?

I love this answer.  That is the phrase I've been looking for, "screening tool."  Calling it a rule is a misnomer.

@Shilpa Matlock as Jeff said, every property is going to look different in your pro-forma.  For instance, in a new build you capex and maintenance would be much lower. 

@Faustin Hoover Price per sqft, though it does give you some information, isn't the way to run comps (and anyway I think you mean 191, not 91). You need to look at similar houses, similar size, as cookie cutter close to your house as possible, as nearby as possible, ideally in the same neighborhood, and look at their selling prices. If you determine the the ARV is indeed around $210k, then your numbers are about right.

You are wasting far more time and gas than you are saving by removing a few addresses.  Also, if you can drive your list at all it is too small.

When someone responds to a mailing I first ask qualifying questions during a conversation with them to make sure they are motivated, namely, what they would like to get for the house.  Most sellers are going to want full market value.  And many even want a premium.  Fair enough.  But I don't want to go look at those houses I'm not going to buy.  I want to go to houses where the seller is motivated.  I explain to sellers that I send out a lot of mail.  I did not know they were interested in selling so I haven't done my research on the house.  I only do that once I know someone wants to sell and has an idea of what they want to get.

I've always done both, flipping and holding rentals, but I am skewing a little toward holds right now because I've been taking tighter deals on my flips in the hot market that has now softened a little bit.  All good.

@Samuel Hailai those “rules” are really filters. And as you can see they are currently filtering out everything.  There was a time when there were so many deals, too many to analyze, that investors would filter using these rules to narrow down which properties they’d look at more closely.  You can still use variations on this, say apply a 1.3% rule. If you find there are still not enough to fill your funnel then broaden the scope. Heck you could just look at every single property. Ultimately, you want to find the best deals that you can and that work for you. For some investors nothing works for them right now. Me?  I’m still buying. 

@Diane Caballa you'll generally be able to get a better deal when you offer all cash but you'll also likely be doing some rehab. The idea is to buy (for cash), rehab, rent, and then refinance, and repeat (BRRR or BRRRR). The refi part is where you ideally get back all your starting funds because you've improved the value so much, or most of your funds so that you can build back up to 112k quickly.

But rehabbing is not for the feint of heart, especially remotely, so consider your goals and ability to execute.