OfflineVacant two story home and a seller who MAY be ready to sell.
I have not approached her, because I know her house needs a lot of work and I do not know how to come up with a sensible total for repairs, which means I need a Contractor.
If I bring a Contractor over and he thinks it is a good buy, he could make an offer to the seller and undermine my interests if I do not have a right to buy the house. The Contractor will have more knowledge of Repair Costs than I will.
Without knowing how much to fix this house, I will not be able to make a sensible offer. I could be way out there.
How do I protect my interests in this type if situation?
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But for now, you can do a walkthrough with the owner of the property and take visual notes of things that may stand out. Ask the owner if there are any problems with the house that may need immediate attention; also ask if they have fixed anything in the last couple of years- homeowners like to brag about repairs they've done to their homes.
Put the house under contract with a clause that will give you time to do a thorough inspection. With the things that you observed and were told, you can get a rough idea of the cost of repairs, especially major repairs, like roof, foundation, electrical (is there a fuse box in garage?, flooring, kitchen and/or bath remodeling, painting...
Call and interview a few contractors until you find one that you would like to work with; tell him that you buy several properties every year that need to be fixed, and that you would like to give the jobs to him. Ultimately you will need to have someone you can trust.
You can then ask the contractor to go with you to the property to give you an estimate; since it's under contract, he will not be able to make an offer, because you will have it under contract.
Wishing you success,
Valerie
Valerie
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in addition to what Valerie said
Go see the property, tell the owner you'll be bringing back a contractor to do the estimates.
When you bring the contractor, just tell him to do his estimates while you're speaking with owner, that way to give him the notion you know each other very well and trying to speak behind your back won't go over.
Look at the progress he's doing here and there, but stay in convo with owner to establish your rapport with them. Also let her know to let you know if anyone ever comes by and tries to go behind your back.
Hope it helps
Go see the property, tell the owner you'll be bringing back a contractor to do the estimates.
When you bring the contractor, just tell him to do his estimates while you're speaking with owner, that way to give him the notion you know each other very well and trying to speak behind your back won't go over.
Look at the progress he's doing here and there, but stay in convo with owner to establish your rapport with them. Also let her know to let you know if anyone ever comes by and tries to go behind your back.
Hope it helps
Shouldn't by the time we bring the contractor to do estimates, shouldn't we have already gotten the end-buyer to close in with the down payment? Or should we wait till after the estimates to close in with the end-buyer?
http://craftsman-book.com/products/index.php?main_page=cbc_product_book_...
It will help you estimate repairs to present a sensible offer. It will give you an idea if a contractor is providing a reasonable bid. Put "Subject to contractor's confirmation of proposed repair costs." in your offer. You can get the e-book for about $45.
Go see the property, tell the owner you'll be bringing back a contractor to do the estimates.
When you bring the contractor, just tell him to do his estimates while you're speaking with owner, that way to give him the notion you know each other very well and trying to speak behind your back won't go over.
Look at the progress he's doing here and there, but stay in convo with owner to establish your rapport with them. Also let her know to let you know if anyone ever comes by and tries to go behind your back.
Hope it helps
Shouldn't by the time we bring the contractor to do estimates, shouldn't we have already gotten the end-buyer to close in with the down payment? Or should we wait till after the estimates to close in with the end-buyer?
Well first I would be looking at finding the ARV of the house that seems to be the first trick to any deal. My first deal last week wasn't so nice in that as the age of the houses made mine pretty difficult; one block to the left was 1 decade older and one block to the right was 3 decades newer and only 12 houses on the single block with only 2 sales in the past 7 months. I've always been told you need 3 houses to estimate the AVR and no one seems to say anything about the age of the houses not sure why...
Anyways by that point you need to get a number for repairs and this is where the contractor comes in. You need to do this before you tie up the property as your offer might not work afterwards if repairs for rehabbing the property are vastly more than you would guess with the lack of experience that a general contractor would have. Honestly, I've never been worried about a general contractor taking my houses as they don't normally want to be in the business to buy and sell houses or they would not be general contractors. I on the other hand if thought my G.contractor was interested I'd just do my math fast and give my offer after I have my estimates and it is locked up, I would go to the title company show my papers and have them cloud the title. I would only do this if it was a really good deal because I have it under contract so they seller legally shouldn't be taking any other offers, but if I can't afford a lawyer to enforce my rights or am worried in any way that is what I'd do once it is locked up.
At the point you have it locked up however you do it with verbal offer, option to purchase offer, a state-approved standard broker purchase agreement with your offer as the purchase price, or even a purchase agreement with your offer in purchase price that was drawn up by your lawyer you would then pitch it to your end buyers list and assign it over and take your cash at closing. badda-boom you have your standard wholesaling...only easy once you figure out the first two steps and can enforce them every time. Personally I have the hardest time with repair estimates like every other person and you can't have G.contractors jumping at your whim so you need to learn to do this yourself and get a general idea or so I've gathered. Good luck. I'll share what I can while/when I learn it.
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Go see the property, tell the owner you'll be bringing back a contractor to do the estimates.
When you bring the contractor, just tell him to do his estimates while you're speaking with owner, that way to give him the notion you know each other very well and trying to speak behind your back won't go over.
Look at the progress he's doing here and there, but stay in convo with owner to establish your rapport with them. Also let her know to let you know if anyone ever comes by and tries to go behind your back.
Hope it helps
Shouldn't by the time we bring the contractor to do estimates, shouldn't we have already gotten the end-buyer to close in with the down payment? Or should we wait till after the estimates to close in with the end-buyer?
until after you've gotten a estimate that makes sense, but at the very least be in a position with the seller to where if the # comes in where it benefits you, it won't take much to finish the transaction.
Based on my experience, most sellers/investors don't look too kindly on offer do-overs. I've had to tell my buyers or the buyers agents in so many words to "go ^%$# themselves" when they wanted to adjust their offers because they were off on their estimates.
make money when they have property to work on, so don't assume they won't either try to contact the owner or speak with an investor or lawyer they deal to contact them about the property.
Thats why I said to speak with owner to give impression that they'd be wasting their time.
Never assume something cannot happen.