All Forum Posts by: Owen Dashner

Nice project! Love Branson - just bought a hotel there to convert to multifamily.  You are probably getting booked out starting this month, I'd assume?

Hi Caroline, I am a full time investor in Omaha. Feel free to reach out!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $75,000
Cash invested: $5,000
Sale price: $142,250

We got this Bellevue, NE property from another investor who had too much on his plate to take on another deal. He put us in touch with the owner of the property, who was handling the estate of his brother and just didn't want to deal with the property anymore. This was a semi-hoarder house with tons of personal items remaining after 5 years of being vacant.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We buy a lot of hoarding and estate sale situation homes.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Another investor referred us to this owner (we gave the investor a nice bonus). The owner was really wanting to never have to come back to the house again. He had no idea on what the house was worth, and just wanted us to throw him an offer, so we offered a pretty low number due to the condition of the house, and he jumped at the opportunity.

How did you finance this deal?

Line of credit from our local lender.

How did you add value to the deal?

Big cleanout on this one, about $4K. We also did an extensive deep cleaning. There had been several squirrels that must have found their way inside the house, as there were several skeletons found during the cleanout. They had sadly met their demise while partying in the refuse-filled home.

What was the outcome?

Over $50K profit on this wholetail. These are my favorite kind of deals - big cleanouts, list as-is, big profits!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Squirrels can cause quite a bit of damage when left unattended inside of a vacant property.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $237,500
Cash invested: $1,500
Sale price: $275,000

A great neighborhood in Omaha and a cosmetically distressed house in an estate came together to make this an easy wholetail. This property was purchased directly from the family member who was handling the estate and wanted to sell quickly, as-is. We did a small cleanout and gave it a good cleaning and threw it on the MLS. It sold quickly with a net profit of a little over $25K.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We buy a lot of properties in estate sale situations. They typically make good wholetail opportunities.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This lead came in through our website via PPC. We gave a cash, as-is offer with a quick close. Even though it was below market, the owner decided to accept our offer for the ease and speed of the transaction.

How did you finance this deal?

We used our LOC at our local bank.

How did you add value to the deal?

Just a little cleanout and a good cleaning was all we did.

What was the outcome?

We netted around $25K profit on this deal.

Couple thoughts. So you are putting $70K down and putting $70K into the property? Are you going to leave all $140K into the property, or are you going to refinance to get your money back out? If you are leaving that much money into the deal, it is a terrible COC return. If you are doing a refi, you didn't list any debt service payments or refinancing costs.

Vacancy, lawn care, snow removal, property management fees, principal, interest - these are expense items I did not see listed in your post.

What is the "other" income item for $300 that you listed?  

Get clear on your criteria. What exactly are you looking for (be very specific)? 

Take stock of your skillsets, what your personal collateral is (are you handy, do you have money but no time, time but no money, lack of knowledge on how to analyze deals, etc), who the people are in your network that are knowledgeable about what you need, knowledge gaps you have, tech/tools that will help you reach your goals, etc.  Write all of this stuff down in bullet points, then start putting action items around it.

Need connections to lenders/contractors/investors? Join your local REIA and meetup groups and attend them.

Need financing? Start asking other investors who they use for your specific type of project/property. Work on putting together your personal financial statement and tax returns into an electronic file that you can easily share with lenders when they need it.

Need experience looking at properties? Go physically walk through 100 properties that fit your criteria. Don't skip this step.  Call listing agents on the properties you want to look at so that you don't burn out a buyer's agent driving all over town looking for you.

Need more knowledge on certain types of investing?  Read more books and articles and listen to podcasts that are relevant.

Can't stay focused? Time block your calendar to work on your specific knowledge gaps.

Just remember, we all start from somewhere.  It is a process, not an event to be a successful real estate investor.

Good luck to you!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $193,500
Cash invested: $1,500
Sale price: $262,500

The house was cosmetically dated, but in a great area in Omaha with very little inventory. This was the perfect opportunity for a wholetail. All we did was a small cleanout and a good cleaning. We weren't 100% sure what we should go to market with for a list price, so we put it out there at $250K when the ARV was around $280K. We received multiple offers on it over asking price. We went with a cash offer and no inspection contingencies.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Cosmetically distressed property in a great school district with no available inventory, and a motivated seller. The perfect opportunity for a wholetail.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This was a referral from a trusted contractor who will be getting a nice "marketing" fee from us.

How did you finance this deal?

We used our LOC at our favorite small bank.

How did you add value to the deal?

Just a cleanout and a good cleaning.

What was the outcome?

Tons of showings, multiple offers and a profit of almost $60K.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Wholetailing still works. We made more money on this property selling it as is than we would have if we put the work into it.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Angie Thiel was our agent, as always. We used 5 Points Bank for the purchase.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $193,500
Cash invested: $1,500
Sale price: $262,500

This was an off-market deal from a referral (roofing contractor we work with). The seller of the property did not want to deal with the process of listing and selling the property to a retail buyer, so we were the fortunate ones to make an acceptable offer.

The house was cosmetically dated, but in a great area in Omaha with very little inventory. This was the perfect opportunity for a wholetail. All we did was a small cleanout and a good cleaning. We weren't 100% sure what we should go to market with for a list price, so we put it out there at $250K when the ARV was around $280K. We were pleasantly surprised to get multiple offers on it over asking price. We went with a cash offer and no inspection contingencies.

We will end up netting about $58K on this wholetail deal - an awesome start to the year. I wish we had 10 more of these deals lined up.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Cosmetically distressed property in a great school district with no available inventory, and a motivated seller. The perfect opportunity for a wholetail.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This was a referral from a trusted contractor who will be getting a nice "marketing" fee from us.

How did you finance this deal?

We used our LOC at our favorite small bank.

How did you add value to the deal?

Just a cleanout and a good cleaning.

What was the outcome?

Tons of showings, multiple offers and a profit of almost $60K profit.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Angie Thiel was our agent, as always. We used 5 Points Bank for the purchase.

Well, that escalated quickly!

Save yourself some time by creating a detailed bullet point list of all of the criteria you look for in a deal - and be specific. Save this list so that you can email it to people who ask about your "buy box". This way, you don't have to start from scratch every time.

If you want to get on buyer lists, Google "we buy houses" and "cash home buyers" plus your city name.  Almost all of the businesses that pop up are either wholesalers or investors. Start systematically reaching out to these businesses to let them know you are a buyer and give them your criteria.  

There are lots of investing and REIA groups on Facebook out there - most every city has at least one. Join those groups and post your criteria there. Also pay attention to who the people are that seem to be acquiring lots of deals. Those are the ones you should reach out to and build relationships with.

Do these things and you won't have to wait around for people to contact you.