All Forum Posts by: Michael Miele

We are buyin a house that needs minimal work. We will be in and out in less than 10 days. We plan on re-selling the property once it’s complete. I’m wondering if we will face any issues with buyers financing when we go to sell. Has anyone run into issues with this or does there need to be a certain period of time before we can resell? Usually our flips take 2-3 months and we haven’t had a problem selling them.

We got contacted by a someone who asked if we would be interested in buying her property. We do fix and flips in Massachusetts, and in the past have done new construction. The new construction projects were spec houses and they were 1 at a time. The property the seller has is a farm with lots of acreage. It is located in a hot market where new construction starts at $900K and goes to $1.5M+. We are not in the situation to pay what the property is worth. We would like to try and do a land deal. I think we might be able to maximize the sellers profit while making a little money ourselves. We have never done a land deal and wouldn't even know where to start. I would love to hear about peoples experience with land deals and how you even talked to the seller about doing it. 

Does anyone out there accept rent payments through their website? Heres what I was thinking about doing and I would love feedback and/or advice from BP members.

Im in the process of purchasing a commercial building with over 50 units. I have been investing for years and have always collected rent and done the maintenance myself because my properties have been close to my residence. This new building is 1.5 hours away. I was thinking about creating a website for the tenants to use if they have maintenance requests and also to pay rent by just clicking a button. The problem is I have no experience with online rent pay. Would I have to pay a service fee for this or can it just be direct deposited into my account. I guess I'm trying to figure out if it is less money doing it that way or hiring a management company to do everything. 

@ParShaun Taplin 

We launched our first DM campaign in January 2017. We targeted 2300 houses within 30 minutes from us. Our goal was to send out the same letter to these 2300 homes once a month for 6 months. We got the letters printed in black and white at a local printing company, we found #10 envelopes online for a good price, we also bough a bulk mail stamp from our post office, which cost us approx. $400 but when mailing locally it reduces the cost of the stamp to .19c.  We then stamps and labelled each envelope, folded each letter, then stuffed and sealed them all. It did take us some time but between myself, my wife, our kids and my parents we got them done. If your willing to put in the time it's definitely worth it. I receive an average of 10-15 call each month. Some people calling to have me stop sending them letters, especially after the receive the 5th and 6th letter.  We usually view 3-5 properties a month in results of the letters. We have purchased 2 properties so far this year from the letters and we have referred 5 to local realtors for referrals because the houses were not best suited for us. Our projected profit on the 2 flips we have from these letters definitely pays for the 6 month trial and we have decided to continue with the DM and even expanding our area. 

The best advice I received when I was planning our DM was "be persistent and consistent"  "keep sending letters until the owner calls you to sell your house or tell you stop sending letters"

Good Luck!!!!

I have a lead on a property in Wilbraham MA.  I'm looking for someone in that area to refer the seller to. I'm not looking for any compensation. I don't know anything about the property. All I know is the family wants to sell their parents home and it needs updating. The woman I talked to was nice so I told her I would find someone for her to call from that area. If interested please let me know.

@Michael Brown

In my opinion this house will sell over asking. In the past 36 months there has only been 1 SFR that sold under $100K and it sold for 97,500 and was a 2 bedroom with no off street parking. If I were you I'd put my best offer in and see what happens. Good Luck.

@Michael Brown

At that purchase price it looks like a great deal. $150K seems like a lot for interior reno. I think once you get inside you'll have a better idea of your rehab budget and a more precise analysis of the property, and potentially more profit in the end.

@Michael Brown

I would not use comps more than 6 months old. Maybe stretch it to 9 months but when the bank does an appraisal they're going to want no more than 6 months from the appraiser. Heres a perfect comp for you. This house is at the corner of a four way stop. really busy road. Someone flipped it and it had an offer accepted in 7 days. List price $299K and sold for $300K  Comp

@Michael Brown

Im a Realtor in Marlborough and I flip houses. I know the house your talking about. My target sale price would be $299K if I were doing the numbers. You may get $325K but $299K it would sell quick. I did a quick look on masslandrecords dot com and in 2004 they mortgaged $185K then in 2005 -$53K and in 2006 -$80K. The loans from 2005 and 2006 look to have been paid off this past year so you'd only be dealing with the first mortgage of $185K from 13 years ago. I have listed short sales in the past. In my experience the bank won't even entertain a short sale until there is an offer on the table. Thats why some agents price the house low so they can get the ball rolling with the bank. If you submit a full price offer the bank will then get BPO's done and thats what they will base their value at. So in the end the bank may want $160K for the house and if no one offers that then they will foreclose and sell it on their own. 

Also on the listing it says the buyer has to pay $5,000 towards negotiating fees and that money can't be financed. I hate when agents do this. Things may have changed but when I listed short sales I had the bank pay the sellers attorney fees who was doing the negotiating. 

I would do your numbers and submit an offer at what works for you. 

Hope this helps.

@Andrew Detwiler 

Thanks for the info. I have a letter all drawn up and I think it is pretty good. I have 2,000 homes that I'm targeting in my area. My plan is to send each home a letter every month for 5 months straight. Hopefully we can get calls and convert those calls to deals. I've priced out buying bulk envelopes and I'm having someone print and fold the letters for me. Between my wife and parents, we're going to stuff and label the envelopes. We are buying a bulk mail stamp for a one time fee and each stamp we place will be .25 cents.  I'll make sure I post results when we're done.