All Forum Posts by: Steven Mitchell

I did the 'appraisal' on the one I'm going to lock down today on my iphone while drinking beers at Tilted Kilt last night. OK, I did go get my laptop and dork out at the bar checking FMLS solds some when I realized it was a winner from my Redfin, Zillow and Trulia apps, but you get the picture.

This is for everyone, not trying to bash people, its your business, run it how you want, but personally I trust agents over appraisers, they have a better feel for the market. Appraisers tend to be more technical and miss the emotional stuff that people are willing to pay for (or not buy over). Appraisers also work larger areas so dont really know the local market as well. Plus, agents will do the work for free if they know they'll get the listing when you're done. If you need help on the rehab estimate, pay a contractor $50-$100 to write up a hard estimate. Or better yet, buy J Scott's book on estimating and do it yourself.

The only one I had appraised before I bought did more damage than helped. It was my first one over $500k so I thought I was covering my bases. Guy I used was way off. Lesson learned.

Not trying to bash anyone, its your business run it how you want, but paying that kind of money for what is nothing more than a fancy opinion is just silly IMO.

BTW, I'm with everyone else, I watch those shows knowing a lot of times they lost money on the deal they show a 'Potential Profit' on. I had to quit watching them because the cost on repairs was not even remotely close to reality and it would just piss me off.

It doesn't take but doing one flip to realize what the hidden costs are. I don't line item mine out before hand (although I do check taxes beforehand in some areas), if my margins are right it all works out, but generally I'm at 15% in costs on any given rehab so if I buy at what BP preaches (70% less repairs) my profit is around 15% of the ARV when the dust settles. I was buying at 65% or better for a while there, but lately its been hard to find them at 70%. so I've been cheating a little. BTW, that 15% cost includes cost of money at 100% of costs with private lending, I pay a little more for that but can do more deals that way.