All Forum Posts by: Myron Voorhis

How do you estimate rehab costs and time? Do you roughly estimate or get very detailed? Do you leave it up to a contractor or handyman? How about if you do most of the work yourself?Do you add a certain percentage to allow for errors and unforeseen issues?

@Dulce Beltran If you’ve done the numbers and can comfortably afford it, buy it. Tesla’s are awesome cars. If you have solar to charge it you’re making a smart move. If it’s only a few thousand more that the other electric cars you’re considering go for it. The fact that your on here asking means that you’re frugal and reluctant to splurge. If you have a splurge problem I would say don’t do it, but the occasional splurge makes other sacrifices more manageable.

@Renay Reese Also carry a gun with a laser. It will improve accuracy in a stressful situation. Most importantly is that you will not get an opportunity to shoot because as soon as criminals see the laser on their chest they will most likely run or stop being the aggressor and put their hand up.

@Renay Reese Always carry concealed unless you’re hiking out in the woods. Open carry brings too much attention. If you carry a gun be trained to use it above and beyond the standard CCW course. Shoot and train with a gun often. Don’t let people deter you from carrying a gun if that’s what makes you feel safe. You can’t avoid unsafe situations because you never know when you’ll be in one. Pepper spray is a good option, my wife carries it because she more comfortable with that than a gun. I prefer a gun. Do whatever you’re most comfortable with and ignore the naysayers and critics. Land lording can be a very dangerous business, you have to take care of yourself you can’t count on anyone else to do that for you.

@Curtis Curley This is what I would/am doing ( Note: I started off with more cash but it could be done with $10k. I also have a good W2 job and income to debt ratio to get hard money approved). Find a really rough house with a garage apartment and BRRRR it. Get a personal loan or line of credit and pay cash of it $40-60k or less. It will take some work to find the right place maybe even an off market deal. You can also look for properties that have been on the market for a long time and low ball them. If you want to buy for the lowest price find a place that has an issue that would make it hard for the average home buyer to get lending on like zoning, heating, roof etc. Talk to a banker and find out what red flags homes. These properties can be bought or cheap because no one but a cash invested can buy them.

Once you get a place it’s time for you to get to work. Work on it nights and weekends. Do all the work yourself, unless someone with a license is required in your state for things like some gas plumbing and electrical. Only let the licensed people do what they have to, you do the rest. You may not know how to do something, but you will learn how. You can learn anything on YouTube. It won’t be easy, but if it were easy everyone would do it. Get ideas on design and style for the remodel online and from looking up what’s selling on Zillow. Get a big box store credit card to buy supplies at a discount. Don’t go over the top on the remodel, your only goal is to make it appraise high.

After the refinance do it again and again. Reinvest all of your profits from the refinance and don’t pull out so much on the refinance do that it won’t cash flow good.

As far as paying to join another group, I would avoid it. You can learn everything you need to know on BiggerPockets. If you have a question you can always ask the community if you have a question about something. In my opinion any other group will take time away from you working on you remodel. And you won’t find the type of deal I’m talking about from a group. As you get more BRRRRs you’ll be able to afford to pay contractors to do more and more work and won’t have to get hard money loans. Like I said before it will not be easy and you will have to do a lot of work, if it was easy everyone would do it.

You will learn a lot along the way, more that a forum or group can teach you reading from your armchair.

@Megan Greathouse As soon as you finished the next door unit you should have gave them the option to move into that or move out. Now I think your best option is to lay it all out on the table to them, and give them the choice to move out or deal with updates and rent increase. If they wanted to stay in the apartment as is, they could have sacrificed, worked hard and bought the duplex like you did.

@Mark Yesa If it is a good deal and you have the funding you would be a fool to pass it up. The future is always unknown, it could turn bad but it could turn great. Don’t fall victim to analysis paralysis.

@Alfred Litton our old house had that smell. Paint everything and most importantly get rid of all the carpet!

My grandfather did this for a long time. He paid for a lot of property this way. He was healthy and did not have any dependents at that point. He said if anything happened he could always mortgage the property and pay for medical expenses, if nothing happened he would have accumulated wealth. Doctors usually lower their prices for people who pay cash, it costs them money to get money from insurance. As he got older he decided to get health insurance, and it's a good thing because he had a hart attack and triple bypass a few years after getting insurance. I don't think you can legally get away with not having health insurance now. If it were just me I might try this, but I wouldn't with a family. It comes down to being lucky that you never need health insurance.

@Ben Beaudoin Our house had been updated at many different stages, so you never knew what you would run into. The electric panel had doubled lugging because there wasn’t enough room for more breakers in the box. The floors weren’t level. The plaster walls were cracked, patched then wallpapered for 5 layers (it was fun scraping all that off). There was a lot of wood touching dirt under the house, which caused termites to move in (luckily they didn’t do any damage). The biggest problem was the sewer pipes. The old clay pipes had tons of roots.