All Forum Posts by: Mike Rodack

Does anyone have experience with rentals in White Oak? We may have an chance to get a small 3/1 from the parents of one of our current neighbors that just want to be out of it since they are moving out of state. It looks like almost no appreciation in that area, but possible decent cash flow.

Also, this apparently has asbestos siding, and possible asbestos roofing. Does anyone know contractors that will deal with removing/replacing this assuming it is in poor condition?

My initial gross estimate, just based on walking around the outside a couple weeks ago, was to buy it for 5K or less, and spend 70-80 on it and sell it for 105, listed for 110. I know that is super tight, but I was thinking of it as a learning experience that would hopefully not cost me money, unlike college or some seminar. I may try to come up with an estimate based on my walk-through for practice like you suggest. It will probably be more than 80k...

Not much looks salvageable. Maybe a couple stained glass windows. Possible some fireplace mantles or partials since there are 4 to pick from. The fire was 2 years ago according to a neighbor and it looks like it was vandalized inside at some point too.  The exterior siding was in good shape relatively speaking though.

Thanks for all the feedback. We looked at the inside of this place this morning, and it is pretty bad as expected. The 3rd floor would need to be removed and replaced, all floors including subfloor would need to be replaced, many walls to the studs, a lot of the studs on the side where the fire was.  Plus completely rebuilt kitchen and baths and all the other things I guessed in my first post.

It's one of those cool old places that are just a shame that it probably can't be brought back for any reasonable amount of money. 

The silver lining for me is that based on the comps our realtor used, the median price was just over 100K and the max was 136K, so I feel good about estimating a conservative ARV for the property.

We're considering attempting a flip of a REO with fire damage. Water damage too since the roof is open and has been for sometime. We assume a complete gut of the 2nd floor, the attic/3rd and full roof replacement.

We are going inside tomorrow morning, so I'll have a better idea of the 1st floor damage.

I'm assuming:
-Completely new roof framing and roof
-Replacing some portion of framing on the second floor (TBD after looking at it)
-Replacing some portion of framing on the first floor
-Complete gut rehab of bathroom
-Adding a bathroom since it's a 4/1 and I think a 3/2 would go much quicker
-Gut kitchen rehab
-Replace all windows
-Replace HVAC
-Repair siding. It looks like the siding was not damaged too much, but may be easier to replace
-New front door
-Rewire the house

The only experience we have is basically a very slow flip of our first house. We have redone a bathroom down to the studs and I rewired nearly the whole house, plus lots of plumbing work. I think we would only get this property if we can have it for 5k or less, and I'm not completely terrified by it once I see it in person.

Comps on recent sales in the neighborhood within a couple blocks would put ARV at ~105-110, rent conservatively at ~750-800. We intend to rehab to a level for sale and rent it if needed for a bit.

Our thought is that we don't need to make much on this first one, and this would be a near worst- case flip. Lots of learning experience, and if we can pull this off, then we should be able to do less intensive flips without hesitation.

The question is; Is this a good idea, a bad idea, or a terrible idea?

Hello BP! My wife and I are just getting started in Pittsburgh PA and are just about ready to do our first deal. We have had mild ambitions to do REI in the past, but last fall there was a REO in our neighborhood that we thought we could flip, so we scrambled to try to put things together but were too late. Which was probably a good thing since we would have been impulse-buying a house.

Since then we have been reading everything possible, getting our capital ready and dragging the kids around to open houses and driving for dollars (they do not see this as the adventure it is). We just missed the Feb Pittsburgh REI meeting, but will definitely be there in March to start meeting more people face to face.

Thanks for all the information on the site, the books, and the podcast!