All Forum Posts by: Shane Seeley

@Joshua Haynes the Quad Cities seem to offer pretty good options for real estate investing. Moline & Rock Island are on the Illinois side with Bettendorf and Davenport on the Iowa side. There are also some "connected" and outlying areas that also have good prospects for investing that would include East Moline, Silvia, Colona and Geneseo on the Illinois side. It all depends on where you want to focus your efforts. Good luck!!

@Quentin Mitchell. Your list is a good start but I'd like to elaborate a little from the contractor side. First, attitude is everything!! If the team that you work with has just one person that makes everybody's job more difficult than there will be wasted time and time is money.

Second, although you want to get the best rates from your contractors don't just go with the least expensive. Those are usually the ones that will cost more in the long run. Also make sure that each trade is supplying estimates based on the same things, so you're comparing apples to apples so to speak. To help this, make sure that you have everything you want done listed and give that list to each contractor for that trade. Make sure that they are using the same materials and finishes too. If one is using hardwood trim and the other is using pine trim that will reflect in the estimate and will create a skewed comparison.

Lastly, references are always good but you have to take them with a grain of salt. Trust your gut instincts. If you have a hard time communicating with them then it's probably not a good fit.

Best of luck!!

Thanks for the update Shawn, looking forward to meeting up!

Nate,

Welcome to BP and the Quad Cities!!  Look forward to meeting up with you.

Meghan McCallum, thanks for the insight! I wasn't sure if what I was seeing as "micro-communities" was real or just something off base.  Good advise in regards to the realtor. I've had a couple phone conversations and hope to move in that direction soon.

Alex,

Would definitely be interested. Please keep me posted on the progress. 

@Henri Meli. Thanks for the reply Henri. I have been using Zillow and realtor.com to try to get numbers for comps. I have a couple of friends that are realtors and I will reach out again to see what they think. 

One of the things I'm seeing is that, even within a neighborhood there seem to exist "micro-community" and the comps from one to the other vary greatly. If I'm not careful the data can be misrepresentative from housing block to block. Is this normal?

Hello BP Nation!! I have been running numbers on multiple properties around the Quad Cities area to become more efficient and comfortable with the process, as recommended on podcasts that I have listened to. 

One item that I seem to struggle with is getting a solid ARV to put into the calculations. I am looking for advise on how to come up with a solid ARV for these calculations. Thanks!!

Thanks @Meghan McCallum for the welcome. I'm not currently looking for properties however, I will definitely keep it in mind. I am looking forward to meeting up to discuss your project on Ogden St in Geneseo. Hope to hear from you soon.