All Forum Posts by: Nick Tolson

Kevin Smith And it’s obvious you’ve never been to Inglewood! Inglewood actually has a lower crime rate than Los Angeles. I see what you’re saying, but I’m tired of Inglewood getting a bad rep when it doesn’t deserve one.

Originally posted by @Scott Matthew C.:

Nick Tolson perhaps investing out of state? Their dollar may go farther.

Would love to, but my dad is a GC based in LA and we'd save a ton on labor & costs with him running the flip.

Hello everyone,

I've got about 5 weeks to find a deal (For Rehab & Flip) in the Los Angeles area. 

All in, our team can do about $1MM Max with rehab cost included (we'd put 20% down with a hard money lender).

I have been in contact with Wholesalers but nothing has aligned for us yet, therefore I've added D4D to my arsenal of locating a deal.

Right now, these are the steps I'm going through:

1. Go on Zillow to find Pre-Foreclosure properties in areas I like and make sure an auction hasn't been set yet.
2. Drive to the house to check condition of home and surrounding neighborhood.
3. If I like the house, I'll knock on a neighbor's door of the subject house to see what the owner's story is so I can determine if the owner might be motivated.
4. Get in my car, pull out my laptop and run numbers so I have an idea of what I'd like to offer.
5. Knock on owner's door, smile, and pitch.

I've only been doing this since Saturday and have gotten one "I MIGHT BE INTERESTED", but it's not so promising.

I know it really is a numbers game and most flippers suggest sending mailers out, but I want to know if anyone has had success in the past 12-18 months D4D and what your strategy was.

Thank you!

@Maxwell Allen The flip should take us no longer than 4 months from close to construction finish. 

@Chris Seveney I was trying to avoid hard money for the first flip because of the high interest. I'm trying to take advantage of the FHA first time home buyer program. Could I pay 3.5% down with FHA and then get a hard money loan for the repair costs (and whatever the FHA loan doesn't cover)?

Hello all,

I've been in real estate for a few years as a project manager for a developer and Realtor on the side, but have never done my own deal. My dad is an engineer full time, and General Contractor/Mechanical Engineer on the side. He's built/rehabbed (but never participated in his own deal) almost 100 units in the past 25+ years under his license so he has a good handle on construction costs, timelines, and good subs. He, my brother, and myself are looking to rehab and flip our first home in the Los Angeles area.

We've found a few properties that pencil out to this: $700K purchase price, $150K in rehab/repair cost (adding a room in most cases), $1.05MM ARV.

The numbers seem to work out and the above numbers are conservative, but I want to know the best way to parlay our resources and situations so that we can maximize profits on our first deal.

Resources to consider: 

• Brother: $45K in cash, Great Credit & Income, Has never purchased a property
• Dad: ~$1.7M (I think?) between his 401K and Roth IRA, Decent Credit & Good Income
• Parents' Primary Residence: Valued @ ~$650K, $240K Mortgage
• Parents' Income Property: Valued @ ~$550K, $230K Mortgage
• Me: Will be contributing the sweat equity and putting the deal together; also throwing my commissions (2.5% of PP) from buy and sell side into the deal/pot.

Knowing the above, how would you finance this first deal? Is FHA, first time home-buyer a good option? Stay away from Hard Money on this first deal? Do Conventional Loan? HELOC or Refi+CO on one of our owned properties? A combination of the above?

Thank you very much for the advice in advance!!!

Hello all,

I have been looking for a RE community ever since joining the industry back in late 2014 and I'm surprised I have just discovered this wonderful site. 

My journey (keeping it short): I got my CA Salespersons license in October 2014 as a "foot-in" and step to getting into development, and made my first transaction on a little condo in Playa Del Rey in February 2015. Shortly after, in May 2015, I got lucky and was offered a part-time job/apprenticeship with a small team of developers who have done a lot of business in the past 30+ years (built ~7,000 homes). I proved to them that I was hungry and they saw that I was serious about becoming a developer so they offered me a full time position earlier this year and are basically mentoring me to become a developer one day. They have bestowed upon me many responsibilities and trust me with a bit of business even though I am still so green. 

Recently, one of the associates brought up the idea of me finding my own small deal (single family house or 2-4 unit building; I'm assuming they'd be willing to put $1-3mil total in if it pens out favorably)  to take from beginning to end - funded by them -  and taking a good amount of the profit.

As much as I've learned in the past year, I still have minimal knowledge on how to take a project from beginning to end. Additionally, our team is very small, and very busy, (5 person firm) so they don't necessarily hold my hand on a day to day basis but are as available as they can be.

My hope is to gain some insight/knowledge from you all who've either done this before or can point me in the right direction.

My goal is to come out of this deal in 1.5-2.5 years with a beautifully done 1st project that will jump start my personal track record. I realize that there is a TON to learn and go through with even getting a single family home built, so I definitely don't want to bite off more than I can chew, but I am a fast learner and will have support; I know it's all a process.

With that being said, what are your suggestions? Where should I start?

Thanks in advance for the input and help!