All Forum Posts by: Sidney S.

@Sidney S.

This site is a great place to start building relationships, and create a team.

@Jay Hinrichs Has some great advice and experience. It seems that fix and flips are a very competitive market and your exit and entry point are going to change, but investors seem to flip all over the country. We have a cheaper market here in Rochester, but the lower price homes, have very small profit margins with homes under 100k. You may want to see if you can find wholesalers and investors in your market and attend some local meet ups and get ideas from other investors in your area. If you are going to look out of state, than you would need a property management company that could oversee everything.

@Wendell De Guzman and his entire team seem very knowledgeable and experienced in their local areas. They do property management and are agents. They have been posting on here for awhile and are able to provide references.

While we invested locally 1st, we started investing out of state as well.  Primarily so we wouldn't be dependent on one market.  We started investing in Chicago while living out of state; then moved to Chicago.  I was raised in Chicago so I did have a little advantage.  Our method for investing out of state:

• Find a hungry or investor savvy realtor w/ access to MLS & off market deals.
• Find an attorney that only does real estate- Nothing else.  Search for one that may be an investor.  They usually have a network that you can leverage.
• Inspectors- For us the key was the independent inspector.  I don't mean the inspections completed when you purchase the property.  I mean the periodic in process renovation inspections.  Whether we paid cash or leveraged we would use the same inspectors as the large HMLs.  The inspectors provided us w/ verification of work complete before we released funds.  We included paying for inspections in our budget. The inspectors also kept the GCs on their toes.  For the good GCs inspectors were not a problem.  The bad ones would complain.  Our red flag on whether to use a GC wasn't necessarily price but whether or not they would comply w/ our process of inspecting work in progress prior to receiving payments.  
• GCs- This is the hardest area.  Good ones are hard to find & sometimes they are good for only so long.  So we networked w/ with other investors & keep a running list of GCs. 
• Travel- We'd pop in periodically, unannounced

Baltimore is closer than Chicago so you may want to try this in Baltimore 1st, then venture out to Chicago, unless of course you can't find deals in Baltimore.

Networking networking and more networking online mostly and offline when possible. If you can visit your target housing markets a few times before purchase it helps (and its tax deductible*) yet not always required. I've done mostly short-term ventures out of state. Yet establishing a 'trusting relationship' for long-term projects must be earned and its going to take time. There's no quick remedy. My coin.

Kudos,

Mary

@Sidney S. You don't mention whether you have any experience doing fix and flips. If not, this will be very difficult and risky. You should plan to spend a considerable amount of time in the market and learning it well. Then choose an area that you know and are comfortable. If you're doing a retail flip, you will want to know everything you can about prices, inventory and days on market in the area you've selected. The biggest challenge you will have is overseeing your contractor. Even good contractors need hands on management. How are you going to ensure that they're actually showing up every day and devoting their time and attention to your job rather than other jobs where they have to be more accountable? How are you going to oversee the quality of the construction?

@Sidney S.  when you say you have been priced out of the fix and flip retail market in your area .. your talking about fixing and selling to homeowners correct ? or are you talking about fixing and flipping to those looking for rentals. ( IE a boutique turn key provider).

there is a huge difference in the mid west or cash flow markets when it comes to fix and flip retail... if your priced out and think your going to move west to find those cheap properties that are usually rentals and then fix and flip them.. that in most instances won't happen.. the amount of properties that sell to homeowners these days below 100k is pretty small.. the vast majority of these are bought by investors for rental purposes.

Of course there is exceptions. but generally what I see and fund are fix and flip retail at the 120 to 200k end price... and much higher  like Texas we focus on buys in the 150 to 200k range and exits at 300 to 500  same with charleston SC and Portland were I am pretty active... 

rehabbing from afar as a civilian  IE someone who is not really versed at it is one of the riskier things you can do.. there is so much that can go wrong. even with the best intentions.   

I have to think within a hour drive you can buy fix and flips in the 100 to 200k range which is really were you need to be anyway if your going to be successful.. 

just another thought to think about.