All Forum Posts by: Michael Gessner

Also to add, if your capable of doing the demo of the walls and hanging drywall go for it, just find your self a good tapper, taping is a skill. Just keep in mind if you demo the walls and they're original plaster you could be opening up a whole can of worms. Get two reputable drywall contractors in who know drywall and plaster get a feel for what they have to say then go from there

If you have the skill and patience to remove the wall paper go for it, Just a suggestion while the paper is dry, remove the outer layer, then soak the backing. YOU most almost always will need to refinish the drywall by skim coating. Skim coating is a skill. If you decide to remove it, be extremely careful with the scraper, allow the chemical or just water depending on whats on the wall to do its job and soak in. If its in the budget peel the paper and slap 1/4 drywall up, pull the electrical boxes out a bit find a good taper to come in and tape and your ready for paint. Ive done a lot of wall paper removal, which ever way you go is all dependent on time frame knowledge and budget. I just remolded a house in palm beach Florida for a friend, the walls had the original wall paper from the early 90's on every wall including the bathroom ceilings, well let me tell you, I wish I had just slapped 1/4 on the walls, we wound up skim coating the entire house. not fun Best of luck

Rod Drum, thank you for the advice I will be discussing this with her, I will also broden my search area. I think where I am currently the market has become over saturated. 

So im always searching zillow, auction.com and so on, is it just me, or are the banks starting to ask top dollar for foreclosures ? I know Ive had many discussions with the agent ive been working with, and shes been telling me banks are starting to come in and do minor rehabs, throwing the properties up for sale for just bellow market value. If this is the case should I start looking into other possibilities? any recommendations would be great. Thank you

Basit Siddiqi, thank you very much for all the valuable advise, im defiantly going to search this site for a new CPA, I don't think the one Im using currently has all the answers that I need. Im gonna search this thread to see if anyone can make a good recommendation.

brent Coombs, Thank you as well, I could not agree more, Im gonna start with one deal work it under my LLC, as I grow I will make the necessary adjustments to the business as needed. I guess I was looking more at the end result, rather then getting my feet off the ground and building as I grow.

Basit Siddiqi, thank you for your response. I figure the safest way for the buy and hold would be to place them under an LLC, if I understand you correctly your recommending I keep the companies separate ? in terms of the flips. The way I look at it is this, if I keep my construction business separate, pay the business as if I was paying a contractor then I would see that expense as a right off, where as, if I combine the two, have the flipping business acting also as the contractor the I would not reap the deductions, as my only expenses would be materiel and labor where as if I separate the two, my construction side would bid the job as a normal contractor. One big down side to keeping the 2 separate, if I Keep the construction side, now I need to maintain all my general contractors licenses, where as If I own the property then I don't need a GC license in certain areas. I may just be over thinking everything, but I do want this to start off on the right track and not screw myself come April. Thank you again

Hello fellow BP members, id like to  offer up my business plan for review buy seasoned investors, please take the time and comment with any suggestions and remarks. Thanks for looking

To start I personally have ten years in the construction industry, so my initial plan is to do all the rehabbing in house buy purchasing REO and flipping them with my own laborers, now obviously I would need to speak to a CPA to see how I could structure something like this, weather I keep my GC business and pay out my business as a GC or keep it all together under the flipping side of the business.

After I have weathered the battle of flipping several REO and have built substantial working capitol, id like to move into the buy and hold side of the business, continuing to purchase depressed properties and flip to rent. Again having my guys doing the rehab.

Following, building a steady portfolio of flip and sell and buy and hold properties id like to start moving in to the international market, obviously this area will take years to get to but is an end goal of my company.

I do greatly understand by putting myself into the business side of this and throwing myself into the renovation side of it, i do fully understand the work load I will put my self under, however from all I have read and learned from other people in the industry one of their biggest issues is the contractors. So I would really like to minimize the risk of delays and start with me and my guys doing the renovations. Once im seasoned enough and network with other members then I would be open to hiring GC's but may still keep it in house. Thanks again for looking !!!!!!!!!!

Michael Sato thank you for the information, I will certainly check there.

First let me start off with a big hello, and love the forum. I'm 30 years old and currently live in Rockland NY. I have always had a passion for real estate, flipping and holding rentals. I have 10 years in the construction industry as I owned a landscape and construction business for many years. I'm hitting the market hard and have several agents I'm working on to located the good deals. As with everyone who starts off in this industry, my biggest hurdle is finding the working capitol to start purchasing. I had an investor who is a dear friend of mine, the issue is he inherited his wealth and feels real estate is not for him and he rather stick with the stock market instead. So now I'm back to square one, where do I find the investors. How did you guys start off ? thank you all