All Forum Posts by: Tim Porsche

Based on the numbers you've given, and not knowing what's an average return for your particular area, I'd say it looks like a solid deal as long as...

1. It's in a decent area, C+ location or better.

2. You can find a way to submeter the utilities or else use RUBS to charge back to the tenants. Try to keep utilities you pay to a bare minimum or eliminate entirely if possible. 

I try to keep a minimum of 5 months PITI payments for each property in a low yield money market account. Right now it's earning 2.10% so I figure at least it will (almost) keep up with inflation sitting there, and I have instant penalty-free access to it whenever I need it.

@Michael Quarles Nice to meet you too! Thanks so much for the tips. By the way I just listened to one of your BP podcasts last week on the way to work, very good stuff. 

I have just a few follow up questions for you though. 

1. I'm just curious about sending to out of state absentees first, then 50% owner occupieds and 50% absentee, what is the reasoning behind this? Should the 50% absentee on the second round be out of state too, in state, or both?

2. Is dropping the 40% equity to 30% and 10 year ownership to 5 mainly just to cast a wider net? 

3. In your opinion will the yellow paper and red ink vs white paper and black ink make a major difference in response rates or do you think I could still get a good response rate from white paper and black ink? Not a big deal either way, just would need to find a color laserjet to use if I do red ink.

Again thanks for your help :)

Hi All,

I'm looking to venture out into the wonderful world of direct mail to try and find motivated sellers shortly. I've never done direct mail before and am looking for my first flip project...I have three rentals but all were bought off the MLS with a realtor. For those of you with experience doing direct mail, any helpful tips or critiques you could give me on my letter below would be GREATLY appreciated :). I'm planning on sending 700 of these out to a list of absentee owners with 40% + equity who have owned the houses at least 10 years. For the second mailing I was planning to send a similar letter, but with yellow paper and red ink. I will photocopy these and just fill in the names and addresses manually. Thanks in advance for any tips or advice.

@Account Closed thanks for the reply! So you would recommend basically getting to know as many good quality investor friendly contractors as possible before purchasing a property to rehab, and then basically seeing who is available to do the work when I do have a project? 

Hi All,

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but for those of you who do fix and flip projects, at what point in the process do you generally start looking around for a good contractor? Is it before you start looking for a project, after you start looking, when you have identified a property you are considering putting under contract, or after you already have a property under contract and are in your due diligence period? 

Most of the good contractors around here are very busy on projects, so I'm just curious how to go about making sure I have someone lined up. My concern is if I line someone up too early, they could end up becoming too busy with other projects by the time I would actually find and acquire a project. Any advice\insight would be greatly appreciated :). Thanks in advance. 

Before repainting everything and replacing carpeting I'd recommend picking up a good ozone generator machine at Home Depot or Lowes and running it in the apartment. Generally you'll run it in one room and close the door for a few hours, then repeat for the next room. It's important that no one is in the apartment when it is running as it is unsafe. I've had luck before getting rid of smoke smell with this method.

Worst case scenario, if it doesn't work, you can clean the walls, ceilings, doors, replace carpet like Max suggested and then repaint. Good luck 

@Account Closed Interesting! I had not heard of that study before. Do you happen to know if that was 12 hours of cold calling random home owners, or cold calling a more narrowed down list of possible leads...owners of distressed properties, absent owners, etc.

Hi All, I am going to start looking for my first fix and flip deal within the next month. I have purchased and manage three rental properties, but have never done a fix and flip before. It seems like the most crucial element to have success with it is to first find a great deal. 

So my question is, for those of you who have done and are actively doing fix and flip projects, what are your top three favorite methods to find great deals? Where would you recommend a newbie flipper spend the most time trying to find a deal? 

Thanks in advance for any advice :)

@Dave Toelkes Thanks for your help! I think I have it figured out now. The issue was with the amount of days I initially listed the property as in service vs personal use days. I listed 240 days for the property being in use, and initially I also listed about 100 days for the property being used for personal use...upon reading the instructions in Turbotax more clearly, it said that you need to put personal use days to 0 if it was used as a rental property (even if I'm living in one half. Changing personal use days to 0 allowed me to deduct the correct amount of expenses for the property then.