All Forum Posts by: Matthew Gallo

Hello Everyone,

I have a contact that reached out to me about a property in the Springfield MO region, and I wanted to connect with someone on BP regarding the area.  I don't know much about Springfield, but from what I can see there seems to be some decent deals there.

Are there any investors here that focus on Springfield MO?  If so, I'd love to connect and chat about a potential opportunity.  Really just need to understand how much things are renting for, ideal area's etc.  This seems like it would be a good college rental.

Thanks!

-Matt

Hi Jesse,

Thanks for your response.  Yeah, I wasn't sure if there was any way around the 25% unfortunately.  

It is rented, and the rents are a little bit lower than what my agent thinks we can get.  I will be writing a clause in the contract (if I win) that states all tenants need to be out prior to closing.  

Neighborhood is class B... It's also extremely close to a college, so I was thinking about getting students in there and having the parents sign leases etc.  But overall its a lower income neighborhood.

Lastly, the parking spaces won't be too big of an issue.  There is plenty of street parking right out front.

What do you think?

-Matt

There will be some minor painting on the inside, which I'll be doing on my own.

Well, the issue is that my lender said that I need 25% down in order to get approved.  Is there an alternative that I can use here in MA?

-Matt

Hey Kyle,

Thank you for getting back to me.  Here are your answers:

I'm putting down 25%

There will be 0 PMI on this

I accounted for 10% vacancy - I'm working on getting a copy of it's rental history

I'd be buying and putting it in a trust.

Let me know if I missed anything...

-Matt

Sorry!  Purchase price is $199,000...

-Matt

Hi All,

I wanted to pick your brains on a potential deal that I'm looking at to see if you think its a good idea or not.  

Here is the breakdown:

- 2 Family House Up/Down

- 2 Bed 1 bath in each unit

- 2,300 SQft Total

- Includes two off street parking spots

My agent told me she can get me $1,300 per unit a month

Expenses:

- Mortgage $754.67

- Insurance $83.33

-Maintenance: $166.67

- Taxes - $483.33

- Management $260

Total Month: $1,748/Month

Net Revenue: $2,600

Net Profit: $852

Also, I'll be managing the property to start.  Once I have a few of these I'll most likely bring in a management company.

Let me know if this makes sense, is there anything that I"m missing in terms of expenses etc?

Thank you!

-Matt

Hey Anthony,

Thanks for the contact... Unfortunately Truro is a little far away from where the house is.  I appreciate it though!

-Matt

Hi All,

Hope someone out there can help me out.

I found a potential seller in Boston's North Shore, and I'm going to look at it this weekend.  It's a 3,000sqft 2 family house.  Based on what I can see, it absolutely needs a ton of work.  

The owner agreed to let me come take a look this Saturday, and I need a contractor that could come and help me price out some repairs before I make an offer.  

Does anyone out there have a good contractor in Northern Massachusetts that they can refer me to?  

Thanks for the help!

-Matt

Hi All,

I've been on this site for quite some time and wanted to announce my first deal.  It was a little more unconventional, as I lived in the house while I worked on it and the flip was over the course of about 8 months.  It's the only way I could do a flip, as I was 26 when I purchased and didn't have the funds to float 2 mortgages.  

I purchased a house in Boston in 2013, it was a single family row house with 2 full bathrooms and 2 bedrooms with a fully finished basement.  

Here are some details:

Purchase:  $456,000 

SqFt: 1250

Bed/Bath: 2/2

Finished Basement

Small outdoor patio

Small galley kitchen

Hardwood floors

No Condo Fee

Prior to me purchasing the house it was actually completely re-done. Whoever whoever did the work did not spend their time or $ properly as the work was pretty bad.  

The bedrooms and bathrooms were fine, but the kitchen was extremely small and not functional.  There was also a wall that took up a lot of space in the dining room and blocked 2 windows from the rest of the house.

I ended up taking the wall down, which was a lot of fun!  I also ripped down the entire ceiling as it was a ugly swirl pattern that did not look very clean.  I put up a flat ceiling with a smooth finish, and sunk 8 new lights in for better lighting.  

There was some strange framing up there too that I ripped down. You can see that whoever framed it out didn't even use 2x4's, they used small 2x3's to save money!  

After ripping out the wall, there was so much more light coming into the house!

From there, we pulled the kitchen around the wall.  We replaced the electric stove with a gas stove and bought top of the line Bosch appliances.  We also installed top of the line cabinets, with soft close doors as well as granite counter tops.  

Here is the finished kitchen.  

We had the entire house professionally painted and all of the floors were completely sanded and re-finished.

Overall I'm extremely happy with how the house turned out and the new owner should be very happy with the quality of the work.  There is plenty more that they can do to the house and other rooms, so there is still a lot of potential there.

Here is where we ended up:

Asking price: $529,000

Purchase: $576,000

Investment (Work, materials etc): $30,000

I used the money to purchase a new home, and I've since started marketing for flips to do on the side.  I've gotten a few leads, but nothing too appealing yet.  My goal this year for 2015 is to try and get 2 houses done!

Thanks,

Matt

@Brie Schmidt - Yeah I agree.  I was thinking I'd look at an equity option if I'm able to build a stable company with this person.  So, maybe after having a few properties under my belt.

So, if you're paying them direct then how would you break it down?  Obviously finding the property, the person is a broker so they would get a commission from the deal.  Rehabbing, what would you pay them?  For example, say I put in $10k, would you say like 10% of the rehab cost?  And for property management/Tenant Management, what would you pay?

-Matt