All Forum Posts by: Mike Jury

To all of you in San Antonio wanting to get started in RE, there are a couple of very accomplished wholesalers in San Antonio.  One was on a podcast Podcast 144, go listen to that.  Then call several of the wholesalers in the area and offer your services to them in exchange for learning the business, be an apprentice.  Now all the wholesalers in San Antonio will hate me!

Save up some cash or partner with someone, who has cash, again as an apprentice, to get started.   

 Thanks, I appreciate the kind comments.

OK that was the first deal, what has happened since then.  

And I mean that in a positive way?

John

The color is "Quiet on the set" from Home Depot

Yes the cabinets are grey, they look really rich to me, but I do not have the best reputation for picking colors.

And we have batted the staging question around a bit. We are getting a 50/50 response.  We've had a couple of staging companies in, one said this house doesn't need staging, the just gave us a price.  The realtors are about 50/50.  Most have said the staging is necessary for a house that people can't imagine how the furniture would fit, other say it makes it feel more like a home.  We are still on the fence. If we don;t get more interest in the next month or so we may stage.

Greg

First thing is get and read J Scotts Book on Estimating Rehab Costs Book on Estimating Rehab Costs then adjust it to your market and to the price point of the properties you are rehabbing.  Trading labor for know how is a great start.  I would put up a post and advertize you willingness to do just that in you market area and then interview folks that respond.  The next best option is to find contractors in the area that specifically work for folks flipping houses and make the same offer.  

Part of why we ended up as GC on this project is the original contractor we used is more of a new home builder.  Great guy and we kept him as an advisor, but new home building is a different business model than flipping.  We used some of his resources but many we found cheaper of equivellent quality.  As a builder, they are used to having a foreman for each trade manage the work.  As a flipper you kinda need to be a master of projects and not be trade specific.  

Thanks for the compliment. And uh, be careful what you wish for.

 Thanks, it was an interesting project.  Where in the Metromess are you located?

 Thanks, we started September 1st and finished late January.  Since this was our first GC job we learned a lot, and probably could have cut a month out of the project with better scheduling of subs.  We learned a whole lot about the process, and wouldn't trade the experience for any other kind of learning.

 We were the general contractors, this is the first one we GC'd. I was ready to fire myself on several occasions, not for the quality of work but for the speed at getting things done.  We used a lot of subs, we had a consulting arrangement with a home builder and used a few of his subs, most were great.  We only fired one sub, more talk than performance.  

 Started the September 1st and went on the market end of January. Thanks for the comments on the barn door, it was one of my projects.