Looking For Help In Increasing Returns
To the admin: I am not a guru. I am not trying to be secretive. I am trying to figure out the secret of other investors.
I am attempting to network with other real estate investors in other locations so that a mutually beneficial partnership can be formed.
I would like to know from the other investors on the site what kind of things they did when they were starting out that got them from struggling to success.
Do successful real estate investors make partnerships with younger less experienced, less successful investors for the benefit of both?
Do I need to bring money to the partnership for an equity stake?
Can I bird-dog, run the rehab, etc... and expect to find an experienced investor willing give me an equity stake?
I have done a rehab start to finish, but I am looking to work smarter from here on out rather than harder.
Thanks for any advice.
Thanks for the input Jim. You basically reiterated one of my biggest reservations about attempting to do business in this fashion, especially in regards to doing business with realtives, and being closer to ay problems that may arise.
Understood. Thanks for the input.
Good points monkfish - I will further add, for any experience rehabbers to think about how many times when faced with a problem, because you have a big personal financial interest in the project and because of your experience are you able to employ a work around or a solution that saves you lots of money. Now take the same situation and put somebody in charge with even less experience then you and has no financial interest in the actual profit margin and the first solution that will always come to mind will be the path of least resistance which usually is the most expensive one.
This is weird. There was a woman posting on this thread about some program that her company has that allowed out of state investors to invest in Colorado with a little less legwork than doing everything yourself. I asked her a few questions because it sounded too good to be true, but now her posts have disappeared. Did she leave the site or something? Voluntarily or otherwise?
BigWorm,
I live in CA and did a rehab in Indianapolis a few years ago. I had help in locating a contractor to do the work and had referrals and inspections of his previous work. I was very pleased with the results although it took longer than he said it would. I now have him managing the property. Perhaps I have been lucky, but so far I have had few problems dealing with contractors.
Good luck if you pursue this.
Regards,
Ed
Finally! A success story!
Bigworm,
Advertising a specific service is not allowed (rule 2). I suspect a mod (not me!) deleted the posts because it was considered advertising.
Chris
Ahhh, that would explain it.
I have just started working with an investor who is convinced that the New Orleans/Gulf Coast area is a goldmine of opportunity if you do your homework and are ready to get your hands a little dirty.
He travels over there at least a couple of times a month and there is so much to be done and some very motivated sellers.
[addsig]
As Nelson Rockefeller is supposed to have said, after the stock crash of 1929 (when stockbrokers and investors were jumping out of windows)-
"Buy while the blood is on the street!"
That is where the money is- jump in where everyone else is afraid to go. You have the most to win, and less to lose that way. If I was anywhere near New Orleans, i would have been all over it as soon as the wind died down.
Chris
BigWorm
I recently finished and sold a rehab that was half way across the country. All-in-all it went quite smooth. Granted, I did allow for several trips in my cost budgeting, and a couple of things took a tad longer than normal. But other than that, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I would definitely do it again.
Just my 2¢
Thanks for the feedback fellas.
MCole: How long did it take for you to finish your out of state rehab, from the acceptance of your offer until your exit? How many times did you have to go out there to get the project finished?
Greetings BigWorm,
From the time I closed escrow and started rehab until I had a new buyer physically in the property was right at 3 months.
I made two trips during rehab, which was three days one time and four days the other time. And then I made one more trip when I signed documents with the new buyer – which was in and out the same day.
As I mentioned before, I would do it again without hesitation. You just need to make sure the deal works.
MCole: Did you already have contacts in this city? Whether it was friends and family, or business associates? Or did you have to start completely from scratch and develop relationships with contractors, agents, etc.?
I knew absolutely no one there. So yeah, I started completely from scratch.
I did a lot of research and hunting around. And once I made a few of the right contacts, everything else came together pretty quick. At least it did for me.
And I have no doubt that if I do another property there, it will go down a whole lot faster than this one did.[ Edited by mcole on Date 06/08/2006 ]
Thanks for the info, MCole.
Hi Bigworm, I have successfully done what you started out to learn about in this post. You asked on input from others who have done this. I also live in the L.A. area (Simi Valley, CA) and my first property was a 2 bed townhouse in Denver, CO last year, shortly after that, I bought my own condo in Thousand Oaks, CA and then 4 months ago, grabed a foreclosure which happened to be the second unit next to my first unit (I rehabed it completely from out of state) and now I just entered escrow to sell both units (I own 2 out of a 4 plex building). This week I entered escrow. 1 1/2 years ago I never owned any real estate. I also have only flewn to Denver once (2 months ago.)
I successfully bought, marketed it, rented it out to a section 8 tenent, bought the second unit, rehabbed it (new carpet, windows, paint, floor baseboards and ect.)marketed it for rent, New family moved in 1 month ago and 2 weeks ago, posted an ad online for sale and am in escrow to sell both as a package. I did all this online and by phone. I have no family in Denver, but I do have one friend and a trusted handyman (also I have a Denver phone book I interviewed other service workers by phone). I probably could have saved a little money if I could get to the property, but if you lived 1 block away from your rental, would you like to be bothered around the clock to have something fixed or waste your time looking at the proeprty when you can simply pick up the phone and have it taken care of with 1 or a few calls? It takes practice, but when you master being a online landlord and rehabber, it makes me have a great feeling and I am sure the same for you. I plan to buy more the same way (out of state) and manage it myself online.
BigWorm,
To answer your question, I live in Wrigley and have owned property on Chestnut Avenue also.
I did not mean to directly promote my company I was just trying to point out that is a more profitable to diversify your investments. You do not have all of you money in a savings account. You have a money market, savings, checking and maybe some stocks. I believe real estate is the same way. I was just trying to point out that there are companies that do all of the work for you and you just have to sit at home and collect rent checks
how did you go about locating the contractor? hpw often did you go out there? in your estimation...what was the difference in the net return had that same project been local for you?
Quote:
On 2006-06-06 14:47, edmeyer wrote:
BigWorm,
I live in CA and did a rehab in Indianapolis a few years ago. I had help in locating a contractor to do the work and had referrals and inspections of his previous work. I was very pleased with the results although it took longer than he said it would. I now have him managing the property. Perhaps I have been lucky, but so far I have had few problems dealing with contractors.
Good luck if you pursue this.
Regards,
Ed
Reviewing this thread I think someone should mention that in many (most?) states being an "on-line property manager" is not an option. Every state I have lived in has a law that you must have a property manager living within X distance of your rentals.
Chris
Lauralee,
I googled "Caginet doors online" and got a long list of potential suppliers.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cabinet+doors+online&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1
[addsig]