All Forum Posts by: Scott Lepore

GREAT info from all.  Thank you!  Mentor definitely is mandatory sounds like.  I thought it was going to be as simple as going to home depot for some 2x4's and nails and we could get started next week.  Yes, I figured zoning and the city might be a big hurdle.  When I told my mechanic there is a lot involved and a lot of risk he said "well, it shouldn't be that hard and don't see where the risk would be".  Funny.

My mechanic is interested in scraping his shop and building an apartment complex.  It is an 18,000 sf lot and already has sewer, water, gas, electric.  Lets just assume for the case of this discussion that I know what I'm talking about when I say it is a no-brainer location.  The owners of the land are auto mechanics and want to be in on the deal.  They don't want to sell land.  They want to scrape and build apartments.  I have 6 years experience with fix and flips and 2 years with C class apartment complex investing.  Zero experience with new builds.  I feel it would be best to hire a consultant since I know that things always go wrong and are probably magnified 10 fold versus fix and flips.  I guess my question is how to go about dividing up the pie and who gets what and does what.  And how do the owners get paid when it is their land to start with and should they use the equity in the land as construction loan.  This is a prime location in a quaint suburb of Denver that is ideally located close to shopping and light rail and bike paths and there are nice B class apartments across the street.  As you know Denver is insane right now as far as rental demand and new construction.  I'm just kind of at a loss as to how to go about getting the ball rolling.  I know I need to get it approved by the city first and find money.  But beyond that I'm still brainstorming on all the roles involved and how to make sure everyone gets a fair split and who takes on what risk and is paid accordingly, blah, blah, blah.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  If anyone on here is interested in participation in the deal in some fashion, we can discuss that too.  This email is not a solicitation for funding and should not be viewed as such.   

Lots of good points on this thread.  Enjoyable read.  The problem with bubble predicting is getting the timing right.  It's easy to spot, just not so easy to time.   I remember right before oil collapsed in 2008 you could easily be hired as  a Landman making $500/day with absolutely zero experience.  Now that was a bubble clue for sure.  Bubbles are fascinating. 

Brand new.  Returned by customer.  $719 plus tax at Home Depot.  Yours for $500 and sans the tax.  Does not include faucet.

I just shake my head when I see most wholesale "deals"  But I actually bought a house from a wholesaler and sold it to a neighbor for a 30k profit 2 days later (I had no intention of doing this but he knocked on the door and offered me 30k more than I paid!).   Then he rehabbed it and made a 60k profit.  Of course this is rare.  So of course the wholesaler was clueless about what he had.  So was I because I could have made 90k if I rehabbed it but nonetheless my hourly pay was better than the rehabber!  So I always look at wholesale deals.  95% of the time they stretch the numbers but once in a great while they "shrink" the numbers because they don't know the real numbers and it works to your advantage.  I have a condo right now that is going to cost only 10k to rehab to nice flip condition and the wholesaler based his asking price on a 25k rehab.  He didn't even see the property but instead has an assistant do it.  So maybe the assistant was distracted that day and plugged in bad rehab numbers.  So just like they try to take advantage of investors, once in a while I can take advantage of their lack of expertise and thus always look at what comes to my inbox. 

My partners and I have a large (216 unit) apartment complex u/c and I was wondering if anyone on here is familiar with the southern Wichita market.  The area is just west of the air force base and west of I-35.  maybe you can provide a glimpse into what kind of area this is in your opinion.  I have done all the online research but wanting some personal opinions.  It is a C class property.  Thanks

If a worker I'm interviewing keeps going on about how honest he is and what a hard worker he is and how he wont let me down, then I now know that he is probably dis-honest, a slow worker, and will walk off the job at some point.  The goods ones have a quite, assured confidence about them. 

Thanks for all the input everyone.  Mindy, that was indeed an entertaining and informative post by Brian Burke. 

I cant get rid of the smell in one of my flips.  It was full of dog feces and urine, mouse feces and urine, and fly feces .  There are little brown spots of fly poop on everything from the walls to light fixtures to window frames and everything in between.  There is mouse crap in the walls and several of the baseboards were soaked in dog urine (can you say animal abuse).  I took off the bathroom ceiling fan vent and it was full of mouse crap and soaked with urine so they were living in the ceilings too.  It looks like it was a breeding house for flies since that crap is everywhere and there had to be hundreds of mice.  Anyhoo, I have kilzed the entire house twice (with shellac based B-I-N primer and run an ozone generator for a few days (although it is not a big one),  removed baseboard and some drywall, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, used a commercial product that is used for crime scenes, and the smell is as bad as ever.  Getting worried.  I really don't want to tear out sub floor and the downstairs is concrete anyway.  The smell just seems to be saturating the air and is not eminating from any one specific place.  Help!

easy cosmetic flip in Green Valley Ranch. ARV 280k. Fix 25K Purchase 225K

Needs flooring, interior paint (ceiling already painted) kitchen cabinets, counters, appliances (already has a nice s/s fridge), landscaping, some front siding repair from hail damage. Bathrooms just need to be put back together after tiling. I have two new vanities and the original pedestal vanity for downstairs bathroom. Needs baseboard installed ( I already have 90 linear feet I will leave with house). I also have 7 gallons of paint. I comes with a nice front load washer and dryer set. All doors are fine. Just need to be painted and put back on. Drywall is perfect and already primed. Recent new build (2006) so no hidden headaches! No permit issues! fix it in 4 weeks and be on your way. Asking $225000. If you are using for rental you can put the original oak cabinets and laminate counter tops and appliances back in. They just need cleaned up but otherwise or fine for a rental. You could get away with only spending 10-15k for a rental. Cash or hard money only. Must close within 10 days.