All Forum Posts by: Patrick Burch

So I bought a fixer upper single family house that was previously split into a duplex with the intentions of getting it rent ready and putting a mortgage on it to do a BRRRR strategy. The numbers look good for that as I bought it for $27k, it needs about $20k in rehab and it should appraise for at least $80k. My bank doesn't require me to wait so I can put a mortgage on for 80% appraised value right away (estimated $64k) which puts me in the house with between $10k - $15k in the bank and a good cashflow on the duplex (about 15% return after expenses).

This is where it gets tricky...

If I rehab this to top market I could probably sell it for $120k.  For a top market rehab I am all in around $70k.  That's not a bad return on a flip by any means.  The issue is I can't fund that much rehab money, nor do I need to for the original plan.  This is where a new investor comes in to the picture offering to fund and run the rehab entirely taking 50% of the profit when it sells.  As partners we are looking at about $40k total profit or $20k each.

If I were to partner with the guy, how would you structure that agreement?  We are both extremely motivated by profit at that point so I feel like we have a common incentive to maximize that margin.  How could I get screwed here?  I might not even take this route but it is tempting because I am newer in this journey and I could use the cash up front to help push my real estate career forward.

I did some searching on BiggerPockets regarding dohardmoney.com. I saw some pretty negative reviews from several years back. But I also see them on the featured lenders list for Ohio. Does anyone have any experience using them recently? They want $3000 as a deposit right now regardless of if I have a deal or not. All but 650 of that will be returned to me after my first successfully completed project, that $650 being an appraisal fee for that property. I get a little nervous handing $3000 over to a company like this but their rates are decent and it seems like bigger pockets is putting their name on them. Any experiences dealing with them would be much appreciated!

Hey everyone! I am looking for some feedback on finding flip deals in the greater Akron and Canton areas of Ohio. Are you working with wholesalers, buying bank owned properties, MLS, doing the marketing yourselves, etc? I would love to find a good local wholesaler to work with. I have the money just looking to find some deals! Target communities are going to be anywhere in the Akron and Canton areas of Ohio as well as the surrounding communities outside of those cities.

Welcome Chris! I am newer around here as well. I would recommend getting out there and networking. There is a Cleveland area BP meetup every month by Cleveland Hopkins airport that I went to in April and it was pretty solid. I haven't seen one closer to us in the Akron area but there were a lot of experienced people there willing to talk and offer input on many things. 

This will be my first meet up so I'm excited to get out there and meet everyone!

I am forming an LLC with one other partner to start a small rental portfolio. The one thing I want to get feedback on prior to sitting down with our CPA is how do other people in similar situations organize the dissolution up front? When one of us wants to get out I would assume it would be a tax nightmare to just sell everything off and split the money, not that this is my preferred route by any means but that it the most simplistic way of doing it in my mind. How do you creatively minimize taxes while also ending this type of company?

Again thanks for the insight everyone.  I know a lot of times it just comes down to networking locally and getting your foot in the door with someone.  Very good advice!  I am planning on doing at least one of these local meet up events within the next month.  It sounds like the Cleveland area one off BP is the better of the choices.

Thanks for the replies!

I like the idea of having a couple of people to choose from to handle different situations as well as just to provide options.  I have heard these stories about using really good professionals but when it comes down to it they just aren't knowledgable enough in real estate specifically and it ends up costing us investors lots of money in correcting mistakes.  I am more of a meet in person, shake your hand type person so I wouldn't be comfortable with some of these out of state or virtual only options.  My partner and I will be starting to make some phone calls and scheduling meetings this week!

I didn't want to start a post just asking for CPA or attorney recommendations but rather what are some red flags or bad experiences you might have had with these professionals along the way that I should look out for as I am vetting candidates?  Also, good experiences that you might have gone through after finding the right team members.  I have a list of some local CPAs as well as attorneys that have real estate listed as a specialty, along with every other industry on the drop down menu of their website.  My situation is this...  My friend and I have been establishing our list of contractors and private money lenders, reading every bigger pockets book, listening to podcasts, talking to other investors in our area and now finally after several months of preparation we are ready to sit down with some professionals to put our plan into place.  We are investing in the Wadsworth, Medina, Akron, areas of Ohio to start out because that is right in our backyard and they are good flip markets.  We also have some great rental markets right next door in Akron, Barberton, Rittman, etc...  We will be focusing on rehabs primarily first with the goal of building cash reserves and then funneling that cash into a residential rental portfolio.

I didn't want to start a post just asking for CPA or attorney recommendations but rather what are some red flags or bad experiences you might have had with these professionals along the way that I should look out for as I am vetting candidates?  Also, good experiences that you might have gone through after finding the right team members.  I have a list of some local CPAs as well as attorneys that have real estate listed as a specialty, along with every other industry on the drop down menu of their website. 

My situation is this...  My friend and I have been establishing our list of contractors and private money lenders, reading every bigger pockets book, listening to podcasts, talking to other investors in our area and now finally after several months of preparation we are ready to sit down with some professionals to put our plan into place.  We are investing in the Wadsworth, Medina, Akron, areas of Ohio to start out because that is right in our backyard and they are good flip markets.  We also have some great rental markets right next door in Akron, Barberton, Rittman, etc...  We will be focusing on rehabs primarily first with the goal of building cash reserves and then funneling that cash into a residential rental portfolio.