All Forum Posts by: Michael Bross

I'm a 19 year old driven, coachable Real Estate Investor in the making. At 19 I know entry level plumbing, entry level residential HVAC very well, I've learned a little electrical, how to mud and tape drywall, how to paint, and of course like every other money motivated preteen, how to a yard shine. In my opinion, if I were a 40-Something Investor with a couple flip houses this is just the guy I would want. 

I would be more than happy to do grunt work, demo, and the countless Home Depot trips that are needed very inexpensively with an addition of some hands on training along the way. I've learned so much about the numbers that go into a flip (Much more than I ever would have assumed) but I feel like I'll never fully understand the diversity of numbers from house to house until I experience the inevitable problems every investor runs into eventually. I COULD go get a loan right now from a hard money lender, go buy a house that I HOPE will sell, fix it up with some elbow grease and the use of contractors, and sell it.

ORRRRRRRRR

I could be smart (Trust me, I want to just do option A) and I could be the pupil of a seasoned flipper, learn the language, meet contacts, and absorb every bit of information they give me inexpensively with the exception of valueable information.

It might not be making me money right now, and I may still be an average 19 year old while learning how to play the amazing game of real estate. But if I lay low now and learn the game, 4 or 5 years down the road I'll probably have several projects sold and profited off of, maybe even a rental or two. 

  Age is nothing but a number, and I know that if I show up and bust my butt harder than  anyone in the room, listen carefully and absorb every bit of information I get thrown my way then plan B will be the most rewarding.

But, there's only one problem with this scenario.

I've tried social media, emailing, and this forum looking for a local Mentor. I have found a coupled but I'm not happy with them, I don't know if it would be the wisest to invest my time into people who are less into their own project that I am. So, BiggerPockets Community, how did you meet your first mentor and/or how did you gain the knowledge needed?

Hypothetically speaking, I know if I were to go get a small $15K house I could do a large amount of the work (financial and labor) I may not be able to fix every problem, but thankfully I've been raised around service men of all kinds and if I run into a problem or two I'm sure I know someone who knows the solution.

So, in a nutshell: In your opinion, is it better to go under a mentor and learn the ropes or buy a cheap auctioned forclosure and learn by trial and error? 

Thanks in advance!

All great tips Jesse, I actually think I found a mentor and am going to meet up with them later in the week to see if we'd be a good fit.

Step one complete, wish me luck! 

Does anyone know of a home flipper who needs a drivenm young apprentice?

Hello, my name is Michael, this is my first post and i'm a rookie so bear with me here. I've read a couple of posts on here and it seem like i'm in the right place. I'm 19 year old and several factors of me growing up have made home flipping the perfect business to start. I'm not going to go into detail on this post put you can read my story in my profile and see why I know this is the right path for me. I've been doing tons of research on properties, types of start-up capitol, what exactly goes into flipping a home and I've read tons of stories on people success and failure in this market. My questions below are for all home flippers on this forum, whether you're a seasoned pro, or just started a month ago. Feel free to answer all or even just one. Every bit of advice will be great help, feel free to even add something off topic of my questions if you feel it a useful tip!

1. What are that main problems that you ran into early on in your house flipping career?

2. How did you get your initial investment money for the property, materials, labor, etc?

3. Is it more common for flippers to sell their own homes or use an agent? I know that question is kind of difficult because everyone is different, but what do you do to sell your homes? 

4. I know the time frame varys greatly depending on house size, condition, and all kinds of reasons. On a good steady flip of a $10,000 +/- home, where it's having work put in daily, what is YOUR average time frame from initial purchase, to completion of rehab, to sale of home. 

5. What is one thing you wish someone told you before you bought your first flip house?

6. In your opinion, what is a good price range to start out with for home price and based on that initial investment how much would YOU budget yourself on putting into rehabilitation?

I want to thank you for your answers in advance, I would appreciate any good blog links, book titles, or other forms of knowledge that are going to help me critique my business. 

I'm sure you'll see plenty of posts from me, I always have questions!