All Forum Posts by: Steven Barr

If you can't make a minimum of $45 grand on a deal, it's not worth it!!! I can/could easily make that off a new spec house and more. Unless you are turning in volume 10-15 or more houses a year.  I could turn 15 plus rehabs a year! But i've been struggling for almost a year to get 1 deal! $10-$20 grand on a deal is pathetic and not worth my time! Heck, you gotta pay taxes on it too, and you also run the risk of the unforeseen and problems along the way with a rehab.

Lets see, I paid my fees and got back on MLS last May, and signed up for Privy. Did nothing for 3 months straight but sit at this computer looking at potential on market deals and crunching numbers!

Now I just call or text agents and say hey, I'm a flipper, before I spend time and travel to go look at this listing, how flexible are your sellers? It's not worth the 1/2 hour to hour trip (one way) to go look at a potential deal, then crunching numbers, then spend another hour on all the paperwork required to submit an offer in writing on a MLS deal.

I also used Jerry Nortons "Flipster" last year for the free trial period! What a joke! If you are wanting to take the time and expense to mail people, I'd spend DAYS scrubbing list of people to mail to. If they haven't owned the house for 15-20 years (with a mortgage) then they aren't gonna have enough equity for you to buy it as a flipper. So i couldn't depend on Flipster, and the comps for on market properties or even an off market address I ran through Flipster was WAY-OFF. Nothing beats MLS and training from a broker who'd been in the business 20 years, and partial training from an appraiser, and this was 22 years ago. I had to school a so called wholesaler last week on his comps, lol!

I also tried Property Radar for a trial period in this time as well. Nope.

I stopped doing mailers, cold calls, etc back in 2007 and relied on MLS. I always got my deals and best deals from MLS or wholesalers who used the proven formula of 70% of ARV MINUS REPAIRS MINUS WHOLESALE FEE.

I found out the hard-way my 1st year that 10s of thousands of dollars or all the time out of my life trying to save money and do it myself was not worth it to maybe get 1 deal trying to buy direct from owners.

Best of luck to ya :)

I can tell you from experience that you can only taking flipping so far before it becomes extremely difficult to scale. I've flipped 100 homes a year before in California. Juggling that much hard money and homes becomes inefficient and you are better off taking your profits from flipping and moving into multifamily, commercial or large single-family home developments. Imagine having 100 houses spread out all over an area. Imagine the construction team and project management team you would need to manage that. If it takes you 8 months on a house instead of your planned 4 months, the interest on the hard money took all of the profit from that project. All I'm saying is flipping can easily cascade and you are better off creating a strategy that takes advantage of economies of scale.

@Steven Barr, Georgia is a buyer-beware state. Your case is going to be a tough one to fight which is probably why no one will take it. 

@Steven Barr

My question is have these other litigators given you advice? Why won’t they take the case? Reason I ask is a lot of attorneys will be honest and tell you not to waste the money saying someone if they think the outcome is not going to be successful.

You will probably need multiple attorneys which will include a land use attorney and a litigation attorney

It’s also my understanding Georgia is a buyer beware state. Were these other attorneys thinking you might not be able to prove the seller was fraudulent?

What hasn't been provided yet is some suggestion that the title company missed something material that should have been discovered. That something is the following requirement:  "... if a notice, describing any part of the Land, is recorded in the Public Records setting forth the violation or intention to enforce, but only to the extent of the violation or enforcement referred to in that notice."

Maybe post the plat reference or a link to it, along with the legal description in the deed.

Sure it doesn't hurt to file a title claim but I would be focusing on the seller hiding the issue. A title claim even if covered is not going to reimburse for the $100k reno or pay for any of the items the city is now claiming must be done to approve the subdivision.

@Tom Gimer

I am curious if it would be a claim because typically wouldn’t title confirm it’s a recorded plat with metes and bounds?

If the county says yes but town says no…

Or I guess it’s subdivided but determined not buildable. I know big difference.

@Jay Hinrichs @Chris Seveney The deed was recorded, so the buyer owns the land as agreed. I don't see how a title claim would be successful here unless there was a violation or other notice recorded prior to settlement. I'm sure @Peter Walther will correct me! Notice I didn't use definitive language.

Since GA is a caveat emptor state this would seem to be a buyer due diligence failure. Although it could be considered a material defect (adverse impact on value) leading to seller liability.