All Forum Posts by: Rick Pozos

I think you had the almost one in a million situation. I have sold mobiles with land and never had a problem. BUT I make lots of things clear from the beginning. 'You can not move it, you can not destroy it, if you move out, let me know.' I talk quite a bit with my buyers. Most people are NOT going to demolish a perfectly good mobile home.

Keep your current hard money lender, but get another one or 2 or 5 hard money lenders.

You did 4 per year. Now do 4 with that lender this year and do 4 with a few other lenders. Do you have to do 30? Do 10 or 12 this year. If you are making money flipping, your own project managers, brokerage, etc. you should be able to self fund a few per year also.

Hey @William Weston ALL llc and even C-Corp loans that I have done REQUIRE personal guarantee. While they may not show up on your credit, they will ding you for credit checks.

I operated for about 15 years before I set up a C-corp. Lots more hassle, paperwork and $$. But if you are getting bigger, it is a necessity. Not needed at the beginning.

Network, Network, Network.

Meet others at meetings. It will help build some knowledge and you will see more deals happening and how they do them. ALSO it might get you more work too!! Offer advice to those who need it. I find people are grateful and they pass my information on to others. It helps me get jobs for my mini-excavator jobs that I do. Love to dig those sewer lines!!

If I find a seller who is looking to sell their property, I am going to get them under contract.

YOU have to do some marketing to find the owners of properties. Send them a letter or become a member of the Texas Apartment Association or some other trade groups. THAT is how you are going to meet owners of apartment complexes. No one is going to give you this, sorry.

@Eric Huntermark There are two big issues to be a real estate investor. Find the money and find the deals. They both are not solved overnight. It took me 5 or 6 years to find my first private lender. Then all of a sudden I have several. I gave out about 2000 business cards in the first few years. I wrote a letter to all my family and friends to let them know what I was doing. I have taken at least 100 people out to coffee, breakfast, lunch or dinner to let them know what I do. And a few of them are now my lenders. When I started there was no Facebook, but now I have a personal page, business page on Facebook, website, linked In, and they all say that I help people with their real estate issues. Go ahead and look me up. My name and personal cell come up easily.

Finding deals: I send letters to people behind on mortgage. I try to help people with their issues even if that means I dont buy the house. But guess what, sometimes I do. Right now I dont buy any MLS properties, nor have I since 2012 or 2013.

Buy a house cheap, rehab it, and keep it for a rental for a few years. THEN 1031 it into another rehab that costs more than what you are selling the old one for. Put a little more money into that one and keep it for a while. Rinse and repeat. 

ALSO, You can buy your personal home that is a rehab, fix it up then live there for 2 years. Sell it, put profit into the next rehab that you are going to live in. Single you get 250k exclusion of taxes, married 500k exclusion of taxes on profits.

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc701 

Hey @Chris Magistrado dont take that stuff so litterally. Yes, the more deals you do, that are profitable, the more money you make. 

The numbers sound about right. BUT we can make up any numbers that we want. 

I can tell you: Go buy newer Mercedes cars that ARV for 100k and get them for 60k. Put new tires, clean them up with 10k then sell them for 100k. 40+% on your money. Just do 10 of those per year and you will make 300k per year. Do 100 and you will make 3mil per year. Easy Peasy. The problem is that it is not that easy to find properties that are priced right.

I did not see taxes taken out for profits. I did not see marketing costs, nights that you need to spend at networking meetings paying for dinners or memberships. CAN YOU make 35% on a rehab?? From out of the country with a house that you did not see?? Probably not. And then 10 of them?? Less likely.

You have to have a host of skills and knowledge and $$ to get to make 10 successful rehabs happen in 1 year. Marketing to find what is a deal, $$ to fund that many deals along with utilities, mortgage payments, taxes, cost overruns, etc. Marketing to sell the properties.

Sorry, I am a realist. Someone with limited ability to manage 2 or 3 SETS of contractors is not going to have successful rehabs. And even worse from out of city or state.

My advice, do 1. See what happens. Look back and evaluate good moves, bad moves. Try again. You might be able to look for #2 and #3 and do 2 at the same time. Again, when the process is almost over, look back and evaluate. The better that you get at something, the more successful you are going to become. Oh and the economy, interest rates and buying sentiment matter too!!

And all of the rehabbers said, "Amen"

Wholesale the deal. Make 3k, 5k, 10k whatever. You dont have to do the deal to make money. Have one of your buddies buy the deal. Make sure you get paid something. 

Financing. Get to some local meetings. After talking with some folks, you will find someone out there will have a bunch of cash. They will lend you their IRA money.

My friends and family lend me 100% of the purchase price AND rehab money. I usually only have about 2k for closing costs out of pocket. Then I have monthly interest payments until sold. The thing to remember also is that I buy super duper priced houses. If I ever got foreclosed on, my lender would make a bunch of money finishing the house. They would not be upside down.

The key is finding VERY discounted houses.