All Forum Posts by: Miles Goodwin

I have several rental properties that I along with a very small team manage but have been running around the idea of starting a PM company and managing other people's rentals along with my own. Long term I want to be a more hands-off investor and would like to build a system for myself along with others to help make investing a little easy. 

What are some ideas you have for this system?

What do you look for In a PM?

Who should I include in my team/staff?

What are some things you have been able to autopilot?

Any other tips or information you may find helpful? 

Thanks!

I have never liked the Idea of house flipping even though it has become a trendy buzzword when talking about real estate. I personally prefer the buy-and-hold method, specifically the BRRRR process. I believe the buy and hold, has a lot more benefits and fits my goals a lot more than flipping. I own a construction company and work full-time in the business while investing on the side. To me, flipping becomes another full-time business, which I wanted to avoid. Buy and hold requires a lot of time and energy when in the renovation process or filling a vacancy. Flipping seems very hands-on, being involved in the renovations and waiting for the listing to sell on the market. The idea of capital gains tax also has deterred me from flipping, but against my desire to avoid it, I ran into a deal that just made too much sense not to flip.

I purchased a house from a family remember back in September of 2022 for a below-market amount due to some work needing to be done. My plan was to complete a simple renovation, rent the house and refinance when I need to pull money out for the next house. I bought the house for 40k and only about 10k all in closing and renovations.  The house was located in a pretty rural area so I was unsure how easy it was going to fill with a tenant. After spending some time at the house renovating the property, I met a neighbor who I found out owned a lot of the houses locally and rented them all. After some talks, he showed interest in buying the house from me. I told him to make me an offer, fully expecting the offer to come in well under what I was willing to accept. He came back to me with an offer of 93k as is, I only owned the house for just over a month.  Being a numbers-oriented and bigger-picture kind of person, I knew the potential this property had long-term. But, 43k profit in about a month, I have never made that much money that easy. 

I am not saying I will now be a full-time house flipper but this deal has definitely opened my eyes to the potential. I honestly was very deterred by the thought of paying capital gains tax on something just for selling it for more than I bought it. After considering the offer I did end up selling it, it only made sense. I could walk away from the project with money to buy another deal closer to my other properties in an area I was more familiar with.  I knew the property finished would be worth the 110k area but would only be renting for around 800 a month. Not as high of a rent as I would have liked for the value of the home but not terrible in the same breath. The property was also located about 30 minutes from my house, I considered the drive any time there was an issue. After talking it over with my accountant and discussing the impacts of capital gains tax, I did sell the property. Officially being my very ever house flip, Likely not my last. 

The point of this post is to potentially info someone else who was closed-minded about house flipping like I was. I now see that it has its place in an investor's toolbox. It holds great value for certain deals and just wanted to provide an example of how it can be a great option in the right situation. 

 Hello! So my all-in-cost with purchase and closing is $27,465 according to my speed sheet. I kept pretty good track of my expenses but I am sure there are small things here and there I missed. I also did about 90% of the work myself. The only things I hired someone to do were HVAC, electrical and exterior painting. Thanks for the kind words!!

This will be my first post on bigger pockets. I have been a member and follower for quite some time, learning as much as possible to feel more comfortable in the investment world. After lots of reading and youtube watching, I finally pulled the trigger on a property and started my BRRRR process I will write a separate post dedicated to that project in a different forum. I wanted to use my post to give a back story on me and my process of getting into real estate.

       About me. I am 25 years old married and grew up with two parents who both were very traditional when it came to finances, jobs, wealth, and going to college. I was an average student throughout high school and decided to go the traditional route of college eventually obtaining a bachelor's degree in business management. I would credit college to my pivotal moment when I didn't want to be a slave to a 9-5 or the traditional route. in my abundance of free time at college I discovered bigger pockets and real estate. I started reading and soaking up as much information about it as I could. It was my sophomore year when I decided I didn't have to be the traditional broke college kid. I found a way to schedule all my classes in just two days a week. With the extra free time and my partially earned business degree, I started a business doing little home projects for people in the area.  The jobs started out with a family member that lived near the college and quickly grew to their friends and neighbors.  I was making good money and saving a lot to continue to grow my business even more. 

         The summer going into junior year I realized my biggest expense of college was my living off campus and associated costs. I decided to transfer schools and move back into my parents. With my now improved grades, I was able to obtain more scholarships and finish my bachelor's degree at no cost to me. When I moved back to my hometown was when things took off. I was doing mostly construction and home renovation projects, which I knew would later help with rental properties once I was ready to jump into that arena. Senior year (2020) my business grew astronomically, this was when covid-19 was fastly spreading and large companies were struggling to maintain large crews, migrant employees, and guidelines put on them. I was able to pick up a large number of commercial maintenance contracts that I was barely able to handle by myself and one other employee. This growth and the people I met along with way are one of the biggest contributing factors that pushed me into real estate. I had basically become a building manager for a large industrial park, where I slowly picked up every building in the park.  

        With a business producing a healthy profit I started looking for properties to buy. I knew I wanted a fixer-upper so that I could gain a lot of sweat equity when I finished. I didn't think the opportunity would be staring at me every time I was sitting on the porch of my house. During this time period, I recently bought a house in a decent area of the town. Across the street was a house with a poorly maintained lawn and broken windows. It happened one day when I was cutting my front lawn. A car rolls up, It was a lady who owned the house at the end of the street. She stopped to introduce herself and small talk. I eventually asked her what she knew about the house and she let me know who the owner was and that they bought it to fix it up but had health problems so they couldn't. I said well if they wanna sell it let me know I might be interested. This house was the ugliest one on the block. I thought it was perfect, with new windows, fresh paint, flooring, and some landscaping it will be great. 

I soon met the owner, He showed me the property and wow it was rough. He informed me that he had someone break in and squat in it. They were doing drugs, busting walls for fun, and living there for quite some time before anyone noticed. At first glance inside I thought to myself no, no way. this house just needs to be torn down or burned. After looking over everything I quickly said thanks, ill let you know, knowing well I would not buy this place. That night I talked to my wife about it and that's when we dubbed it the new name, "The crack house". I didn't know how popular or catchy the name would be. Fast forward a year we still refer to it today as the crack house. After long considerations, a dozen spreadsheets, and touring it a handful more times, I decided I would buy it if the price was right. Talking with the owner we discussed and negotiated. He started out at 15k but I was about to get him to settle for 3k. It was a 2 bed 1 bath, 1,000sqft with a full unfinished basement for 3k! The ARV of the property was hovering around the 80k mark but I knew there would be a lot of work to be done.

I always thought I would never be able to find an off-market deal like this. Yes, it would require a lot of sweat equity and renovations but I knew if I properly BRRRR this property it would open up opportunities when finished. like I said I will save the numbers and details of the crack house BRRRR for a separate post but I wanted to give an example of how with some sweat blood and tears anyone can start investing in real estate. It seemed very intimidating at first (just like writing my first post on here) but I had to trust the analysis I ran and my numbers/projections. Having experts and others who have traveled the road before you also helps boost your confidence greatly. My recommendation for people looking to invest in real estate is first to read as many books as you can about it but also do not hesitate to talk to people. I found so many helpful contacts just because I brought up real estate to people. If you talk about it and are knowledgeable about it, you almost naturally attract other like-minded people. This is how I found rental property #2, story on that to come!

Thanks for reading!