Boston Real Estate Investing

Diary of a Newbie Real Estate Investor 7/1/2014

July 2, 2014 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

So…after about 4 months of mentoring….listening to me (Bernadette) drone on about the website, Bernadette Trafton, Chief Connector marketing, branding and social media and listening to Peg (JEM Property Group) on deal structuring, writing contracts and more…I just got this blog post! I can’t tell you how proud of Mike and Jacqui I am for actually listening to us, taking it in and then, above all, taking action! This is WAY BEYOND COOL!

The Deal & Advice for Our Fellow Newbies

We finally have some exciting news! We have an offer accepted for our first rehab deal and will be closing by the end of the month. I have to say, we were starting to get discouraged. We had been marketing with door hangers, direct mail, driving for dollars and attending as many networking meetings as our free time would allow. But so far, no deal. Weeks turned in to months and we just felt like nothing was going to happen. Then one day we suddenly had a house and we are overwhelmed (in a good way) with the amount of work to do.

How did we get the deal? Mike and I spent a lot of time working on our website with the help of Thrivehive and wanted to make sure that if someone did come across our webpage it would be easy to navigate and easy to get in touch with us. We have received leads through our website about potential deals before but this is the first lead where we were like “Wow! We NEED this.” (*note from Bernadette, the tracking that Thrivehive provides is awesome, and they build the website using your ideas, so glad they listened on this one and their website – www.FitzProperty.com looks awesome!)

A seller was calling local investors to quickly sell his home. When we returned the call the seller stated he had accepted another offer with a national rehabbing company. Mike asked “Did you sign anything??” (He didn’t!) We told him we would view the property that night and get him an offer by 8am the next morning. So we grabbed our flashlight and ladder and snuck around in the dark peeking through every window and door. We were able to see the heating system, water and electricity through the basement windows. The upstairs was UGLY which is perfect for us. We went to bed confident and excited that we could get this house. This was exactly what we were looking for.

The next morning at 7:30am Mike gets a call from the seller who says he is sorry but he is only accepting the first offer. WHAT!? Even though we hadn’t even been inside the property we decided to take action. We made an offer during that phone call…. rejected. We made an offer over text message…. rejected. We tried to call again… ignored. Finally Mike decided he was going to email the seller an official offer with a copy of our check to purchase. A few hours later we received a call from the seller’s attorney. After a conversation between our attorney and the seller’s attorney we had a signed and accepted offer. Talk about a roller coaster of highs and lows. Peg was very helpful giving tips on how to pursue this deal and then walking us through the financing process. We may not have been able to seal this deal without her!

Now that we have an accepted offer how are we going to pay for this? They say the money will come when you have a great deal. True and false. The money comes with a price.

What we learned so far:

1. The quote “It takes money to make money.” is true. With this deal we had no issues with finding lenders, the problem is they can come with a big cost. We are looking at putting out a minimum of $35k with the private money and bank options we have considered so far. Do your research and be prepared to go all in, if you don’t believe in your investment who will?

2. Set up your business legally. The week we got the deal under contract we had to scramble to get our LLC registered. We had no idea that the majority of lenders only loan when you have a business.

3. Get all your ducks in a row. Be prepared and have your key group of people readily available. Lawyers, contractors, plumbers, electricians, real estate brokers, lenders. Mike and I needed some help here. Thank you to our mentor, Peg, of JEM Property Group for being available 24/7!

4. Be prepared to make a very detailed list of what you plan on doing with the property. Exit strategy, marketing plans, comps, rehab plans. You will need to present this to potential lenders and investors. It is also just good to have a business plan for your own reference.

We plan on having 2 open houses (one during construction and one at completion) for Boston AREIA members and Fitz Property followers. We look forward to seeing everyone and answering questions and hearing your advice. In the meantime we are continuing to market and look for future rehab deals. Keep reading the blog in to hear about our progress.

Also please check out www.fitzproperty.com where we will be posting pictures of our recent major remodel of an apartment in one of our rental properties.

Mike & Jacqui
www.facebook.com/FitzProperty
www.fitzproperty.com

Attention Boston Flippers – Deals are flowing

June 25, 2014 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

Attention Boston Flippers, Real Estate Investors and Rehabbers in Boston, Buy and Hold investors and more!!!

Deals are flowing in and around Boston! The last few weeks have been incredibly exciting! Nothing pleases me more than when my new and seasoned Boston Real Estate Investors email and call me telling me about their deals!!! If you were at Boston Area REIA last week, you would have heard our Mentee Mike Fitzpatrick talk about his first deal! The exciting part is that Peg Graveline of JEM Property Group and I have been having almost weekly sessions with Mike and his partner Jacqui Pietrzak. We’ve been hitting hard on finding deals, contract negotiation and more. I know that Mike and Jacqui were probably sick and tired of hearing me push marketing and getting their website set up and more. But, in the end that paid off!!! Last week, a lead came in through their website that was created by our friends at Thrivehive! Yes, I will personally connect you with them, if you’d like me to! After the website being up for 2 months and actually live for only a month, a lead came through. Mike and Jacqui will tell the whole story in their blog “Diary of a Newbie Real Estate Investor”, but, they got Peg on the phone and after following her guidance, put the property under contract and are working through the deal right now!

Right before the meeting, I got another email, from one of my newest investors saying that he had a property under contract in Mattapan! He wants to wholesale this folks, so, if you are interested, contact me. This may be an awesome opportunity for those looking to buy and hold and could be great for those Boston contractors out there who are looking to get in the game and will do the rehab themselves.

I got another phone call right before the meeting from an investor who had a deal under contract and they were looking for hard money lenders. I saw them at the meeting and they let me know they were working with a lender and the deal was in progress!

Then I got an email from another Boston Real Estate Investor, letting me know that he had a deal. We are still vetting everything so, I won’t get into the where’s and the what’s of it all.

I’m getting so excited about all the activity, that I’m setting up a member specific email list to send the wholesale, buy and hold and other deals that are flowing through the group! Become a member today, to be the first to receive news of these deals! If you need another reason to become a member, be sure to check out all of the member benefits that can save members hundreds and thousands year. I’ve always said that it costs more NOT to be a member of BostonAREIA! My brother, who is a contractor saved 70% on paint through the Sherwin Williams paint discount alone! It was definitely more than the $175 it costs to be an individual member! Oh, and if you were at our last meeting and you didn’t become a member, expect an email from me with a coupon thanking you for being a visitor in June!

My life has been crazy the last few months. My mother has been ill and in and out of the hospital, I’ve been having tenant issues, family craziness and more. We all have this type of stuff going on in our lives. So, do me a favor and before you let anything get to you, stop, breathe and know, as my friend Bruce Decker says, “Remember that crap is just fertilizer for future growth!”

Happy investing!

DESIRE, COMMIT, SUCCEED!

Bernadette Trafton, Boston AREIA Chief Connector

Is Flip (Flipping) a 4 letter word that starts with F?

May 20, 2014 by bostonareia 2 Comments

So, I was talking to my friend, business partner and seasoned investor Ken Olson the other day. He said that he had a bone to pick with me. He noticed that I use the words “flip” and “flipping” when talking about rehabbing and reselling properties in our adventures in real estate investing.

He said, “Give me a minute to explain, I know “flip” or “flipping” is nomenclature and widely accepted, but, trust me, any seasoned seller (Banker, REO Broker, Auctioneer) won’t listen to someone using that language and will not take them serious – it is too cavalier and wreaks of inexperience – if you want your investors that you are teaching to separate themselves, they will figure out a way to take “flip” or “flipping” out of their vocabulary.”

OK, point taken…, “But, Ken, Do you know that FLIP and FLIPPING are among the HIGHEST ranking words on google for real estate investing? More people search the term fix and flip or flipping real estate than invest in properties. Since the “flip this house” phenomenon, it’s much more accepted…and does amazing things for my SEO and google rankings…. :-)”

To which Ken replied, “Flip and flipping is a widely accepted nomenclature and so is “doing it” – both have cavalier attachments and in “my opinion” are unprofessional and wreak of inexperience.”

“Ok, Ken, we are NOT going to present using the word “FLIP” or “FLIPPING” to any banks. However, you and I can have this conversation 30 times and I will still market using the words FLIP or FLIPPING because new investors and folks looking for places to network type in “flipping houses” “flip houses in Boston”, etc…about 20 plus times more than they look for rehabbing and reselling.

It is what it is and the use of the word means different things dependent on the application. In marketing it is a golden word that can help rank a webpage high in SEO. It will, however, be a great lesson to the group – DON’T use the words FLIP or FLIPPING when talking to banks, brokers and others because it’s pretty much a “dirty” word and shows inexperience. However, when it comes to SEO please continue to use it in marketing. :-)”

See you at our upcoming meeting on Thursday 6/19/2014

DESIRE. COMMIT. SUCCEED!

Bernadette Trafton, Boston AREIA Chief Connector