All Forum Posts by: Meryl McElwain

@Breanna Monique

Can you DM me with specifics?

@Tony Borman

I always admire people who try to take this on. Wholesaling is a weird animal for me. If you want to make this your profession why not just become a broker? (Besides affordability) If you have another job and you dont want to do this for a living but for whatever reason you have access to properties and information that makes it is easy to contract off market then by all means wholesale away.

An example would be a mailman. We know some excellent mailmen who are excellent wholesalers. They have no aspirations of becoming a broker. But they're in a very unique situation. This might sound a little shady but they see your house everyday. They're on foot so they know the neighborhood. But in addition they handle the mail. The certified letters youre getting, the notices of foreclosure, the tax liens. They see them. They are excellent wholesalers.

I once had a business partner that had a payroll for the mailmen he paid.

Is there value in someone who has access to unique opportunities? Absolutely.

Its getting late so I'm going to have to postpone this to a part 2 but I'll be back.

600K and that's going to be basic. Nothing fancy.

If you're talking about work for basic rentals you can learn them all, master none, and you'll be fine. Drywall has the cheapest tools. You need a trowel, maybe a router and a drill.  Drywall is heavy as hell so if it's just you and you'll be doing this over and over again get a one man lift. 

Tile is tough. Tile is usually going hand in hand with pouring shower bases and hanging durock. If you dont know how to line a shower base and pour concrete at a pitch have someone teach you. Or make your life easy and just buy the shower pan. Too many you tube videos get it wrong.  If you mess up a shower liner you'll most likely lose the ceiling below when the water from the improperly lined shower leaks all over the place and everything will have to get jacked out only to start again. The visual of tile is also a craft. If it's just rentals I feel like you can use the rentals to get good at the aesthetic of tile but it's a lot of work. You need a wet saw. Theres a lot of room for error. Its also an expensive fix. If you mess up paint, you just repaint. Mess up tile and you're jacking it out. It's a huge mess. The material is trash. 

Flooring . Hardwood, laminate, prefinish can be a DIY and it saves a ton. You will never achieve what  professional will but you can get an air compressor and a side nailer for 200 bucks. Watch a few you tube videos on lacing floors and you'll be ok. Is the finish going to last a lifetime? Not a chance.  Will it win you an HGTV award? Nope. But that's not the goal. The goal is to cut your teeth and save some money.

Paint you can DIY. On your first try spend 600 bucks on a Graco battery powered sprayer with the disposable cup. Amazon sells a spray shield you can attach to the gun and you will feel like a superstar. Watch videos on how to use it. You'll never roll paint again. It's so fast. 

What I'm telling you is really only for rentals. 

If you're doing a flip you should hire pros unless you seriously know what you're doing. I still have things I DIY 12 years later but its because I know what Im doing and I genuinely really like it. There is no substitute for professionally done floors and paint. They can change the whole look and feel of a house. Professional paint jobs can be the thing that sells a house. A lot of painters, tile guys, flooring guys are truly artists. They're amazing at their craft and they can make a project shine. If you can afford to, hire pros. If you cant, youtube and try to learn floors and paint first.

So insurance is something near and dear to my heart. One of the things that bothers me the most in this world is when good people who try to do the responsible thing have their entire world rocked because while they thought they had the appropriate insurance coverage and they dont.

Before I go down the rabbit hole with insurance. If I ask you what kind of insurance a contractor needs- do you know?

That's actually a really good idea. 

 Come on! 

 When you're signing a contract. Ask about it verbally pre contract. When you sign an agreement ask for a copy of the applicable license and the accord.  Get the accord from the insurance company yourself. If you take it from them make sure to call and verify it's authenticity.

 I have not forgotten about this.  I called the Georgia board because the whole thing they have going on strikes me as a racket.  The cost of the books is prohibitive.  The net worth requirements are prohibitive.  It feels like they've tried to monetize it, but excessively so.  I'm going to see what the exact details of it are.  When I find out what you can do I'll post back here.