All Forum Posts by: Mike Lynch

Thanks Everyone!

Well, this home was an incredible amount of Sweat and back breaking work for my wife and I. It had be vandalized really bad. Nobody wanted to touch it. Realtors called it the disaster house, so I am told. We put every ounce of energy that we had into it for over a year. I will never, ever take on such a giant project again. Standing on a 40 foot ladder, in the wind, with my wife holding the base of the ladder, while I scraped and painted. Due to a big steep hill, we couldn't get a bucket truck or machine around the back of the property. What a nightmare that was! We literally almost killed ourselves. 

Lessons learned: Never, ever, ever, buy a home that I can't drive a bucket machine / vehicle completely around to work on it. 40 foot ladders are out of the question in my future. I thought I was going to die every week, not to mention they weigh a ton.

Never buy another home with a failed sewer system. Dealing with the city environmental health was a nightmare. Trying to please them is almost impossible, but that's one reason that the home was so cheap to begin with, as it was condemned by them, due to the failed septic / sewer. No other investors wanted to deal with them, and now I know why! I lost sleep over those crazy people.

My next homes will be smaller, much lower to the ground, and much more contractor friendly. Like I said, if you can't drive completely around the home with a bucket machine, run for your life. These machines have a computer that will not let them operate on a hill. Even the owner of the machine could never get it to operate, after trying everything for hours, so he took it back to the rental place. That's when I knew that we were in some serious crap! I'm just glad it's over! :)

Thanks Everyone!

I just got the numbers from our appraiser this morning, Here's where we are now 3 /10 / 17.

Price we paid for the home: -- closing, HOA, attorney, taxes, insurance, everything of purchase, and all holding costs to date: ... $130,255.99

House rehab, contractors, and material expenses ( Does not include our sweat labor, my wife and I ) ... $83,129.93

Total $213,385.92

Home was appraised at $380,000 yesterday.

Potential profit of: $166,614.08 ( minus realtors and capitol gains )

So, I guess the 6% commission would be $22,800 or ( $11,400 for the listing agent and same for the buyers agent )

So, what should I do? ..... What would you do now that you know these numbers?

Thanks!

Mike

Thanks Guys! .... I will do some research.

Thanks!

It would be great to get some more feedback. Please let me know what you all think!

Hi,

If I am selling a home for around $350,000, the standard commission around here is 6%. Do you bite the bullet all pay that or do you maybe negotiate and give the listing agent less. I am not trying to be greedy, but I would love to hear what you all do or what I should do. I realize that you get what you pay for sometimes, but not always. I just want to find out as much as I can before taking action in the next couple of weeks and keep as much sweat equity as I can, of course.

Thanks!

Thanks Everyone!

We tried not to spend more than we needed, in order to get the home back into shape. The previous owner didn't do a thing to the home since 2001. They must have been really lazy or just slack. We bought nice fixtures, paints, and appliances, etc., but not top of the line, of course. Due to it being a nice property, we couldn't put mobile home items in it.

Hi,

My wife and I are almost ready to call to Appraiser for our first home flip. The home was built in 2001. He or She will come out and take measurements, photos, etc. 

Question:   Since we did a considerable amount of sweat labor ourselves and spent quite a bit on appliances, paint, flooring, plumbing, electrical, materials, and contractor labor and materials, do I need to write up an itemized list of the labor and materials and give it to them, or just write a list of the things that has been done? ... It seems like it would make more sense if they knew exactly how much labor, time, and material costs that we have invested before they just start pulling comps. ... I'm sure that some of the comps that they pull will have old 16 year original materials, fixtures, flooring, paint, plumbing, lighting, etc. Many of our items are brand new, so you can't compare old things to new things. We tried really hard not to overbuild and over buy, but we had to replace and rehab the things that needed it.

How do you all let the the appraiser know all of the details of your rehab, and how far into detail do you go with them?

Thanks,

Mike

Thanks for the great advice! ... Wow, lots of good things to consider!

Whew!!!!!!!!!!

I just called 3 accounting companies. We do not need to 1099 anyone at all since we are not in the business of house flipping. Now, if we do it again and again, we will need to 1099 the contractors, since we will be looked at by the IRS as an actual business........Regular home owners who hire contractors to work at their home, doing home improvements, do not need to 1099 them at all in North Carolina where we live.

Thanks!