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Cheeseman RE Trends: Fix and Flip Investing

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Real Estate Agent with Your Castle Real Estate

Investing in Real Estate 7 - Fix and Flips

This blog will discuss a type of real estate investment, fix and flips, in the Cheeseman Park area in Denver.

 

What this investment is:  Purchasing a home that needs work.  The scope can range from the basic "paint and carpet" to extensive overhauls to scraping a decrepit property and completely starting over.  Usually does not involve tenants, and the objective is to get in and out of the property as quickly as possible.  Great for beginners with the right skill sets or the willingness to learn.

 

Equity needed:  With hard money loans (defined in next paragraph), potentially 0% and they'll finance the construction costs, too.  Expect a LOT of strings to be attached.  A small local lender might give you 75% of the purchase price and the renovation budget, and the terms will be a lot more pleasant than the hard money option.  Or you can do 20% down and get a convention, non-owner occupied loan and pay for the renovation with cash or your Home Depot credit card.

 

Importance of credit:  If you get a hard money loan, your credit will not matter as much.  These are harder to find than they were last year.  If you get a traditional loan, it'll be a non-owner occupant loan, credit score will be very important.  A 720 FICO score would help a lot.  Being able to document your income and your assets will be critical.  A hard money lender will lend you money based on the value of the property you are purchasing.  If the property is worth $200,000 and you are able to purchase it for $150,000, a Hard Money Lender will probably give you a loan regardless of your down payment or credit score.  However, the fees and the interest rate will be much less desirable than more conventional forms of financing.  Hard Money Lenders can usually close very quickly, and from the Sellers' point of view, you are purchasing with Cash.

 

Importance of experience with contractors:  Critical.  If you have never done it before, start with an easier "paint and carpet" project to build your skills.  The more sophisticated the project, the better your contractor management skills must be to make money.  Not surprisingly, the simpler projects have lower profit margins than the complicated projects.  Make sure you can take the time to really focus on the project.  We run classes on how to do this from time to time.  Go to http://www.yourcastle.org/events.cfm to see when the next session is.

 

Important of experience with property managers:  Not important.