All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 Bart, you pretty much nailed my flip trepidations, over budget, and taking too much time. I think there is a fairly good chance I will screw up on one or the other or both on my first few flips. I plan on holding a 25% cash reserve fund on all my flips just in case things don't go as planned. Hard money on a flip reminds me of people who use margins to purchase shorts, the return can be spectacular, or you can lose all your principal fairly easily. 

Thanks Bart, they are relatively new in the Chicago market. Still see vehicles in their parking lot with Texas plates on them. I am not sure if hard money lending doubles flip risk or not? I am inclined to flip only using my own cash, seems safer.  

Since my office fees are minimal I can pay a 5% Co-op and be in nearly the same position as someone without a license paying a typical full service agent fee. Even if it were not against MLS rules and illegal, I still would not lower Co-op fee, a deal is a deal. If the buyer broker wants to rebate some of their fee to a buyer, I am fine with it, but would not try to push them into it. As far as going 5.5 or 6% ,on the Co-op, expect there is a point of diminishing returns on commission levels at some point. I also don't want the property bid up so high it won't appraise out, that seems more likely to happen the higher you go over average on the Co-op.

Really enjoyed reading about your experience, most impressive to me was your attitude of owning your mistakes for bad hires and business decisions, regardless where life takes you that is important. I met recently with Net Worth Realty in IL, if I purchase anything through them it will likely be with cash. I think going into flips that need a lot of work highly leveraged is very risky, too much potential for things to go wrong. Even with all my own cash their risky, but at least I won't be paying serious juice to a hard money lender. 

21/2  is 90 plus% of listings, so betting on a much bigger  commission making a difference.

Listing soon with a 5% co-op, property off busy streets, hopefully a bigger commission will help move it. 

I trust commission dollars to motivate agents to sell houses, more than I trust agents ethical claims to represent the best interest of their buyers. I have great faith in parties to act in their own financial interest before their fiduciary duties. At the end of the day FSBO, discount broker or full service broker matters less than Co-op commission motivation. If that commission mmotivationis less than it will hurt the sale price. Serious buyers usually ignore FSBOS, unless an agent with a commission motivation steers them toward it.

If your looking on realtor.com, that is not the MLS, and not set up very well for that type of search. I've been able to locate solds on realtor.com before, just a awkward user interface. redfin, might work better for the task.

One thing I know for certain as a group and combined with their trade associations, people who sell real estate are about the worst people to ask if a crash is coming, they always claim it's a great time to buy, regardless of the market.

I see a correction coming  18-36 months out.  Probably nothing like 2008. However, condos where I like to invest for cashflow likely will get hit harder and sooner than other parts of the market. As far as suburban B neighborhoods, cheap built single famlies not needing 30K plus in updates are selling in days by us. Don't see that changing any time soon, for good suburban locations, the far away stuff just like the condos, will take a harder and faster hit.