I saw a few potential rehab houses today. Most of them needed only simple repairs. Some patched drywall, a fan here and there, some baseboards. Nothing major. No new a/c, no new roofs.
Is that really all there is to it? I was expecting to have to do much more. Even most of the cabinets were in good condition.
You don’t have bandit signs down yet. Luke’s flipped a half-dozen deals from his bandit signs, while you’re farting around looking at rehab projects with agents …off the MLS no less.
Until you’ve got bandit signs down, you’re not ready to learn how to rehab houses. What professional rehabber do you know that scours the MLS for rehab projects? You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, much less why the MLS is not where you find real deals.
Just find the fixers and flip them to rehabbers using bandit signs. Leave the shiny object polishing to those who’ve already moved up the food chain using bandit signs successfully; understand how to bid repairs; assess value; and know why the MLS is reserved for amateurs and dreamers.
And the answer to your headline question is “No.”
So then how are the profits going to be made by the people that are just about to rehab those properties?
All there is to do is that drywall stuff.
There are no profits to be made. These are not houses anyone buys to flip. Keep and rent? Possibly. You’ve already pointed out how uninterested you are in being a landlord.
So, in your opinion, for a house to be potentially profitable as a rehab…
What must be wrong with it? Must it need a new roof? Total demo?
Really? You’re asking these kinds of questions AFTER all we’ve talked about for a YEAR!!! And before you’ve got your bandit sign act together?
Go back and read the posts about evaluating a deal, and establishing your maximum allowable offer. Once you’ve done that, and actually have some calls on bandit signs, then we can talk about your calls from bandit signs and figure out what to offer. Otherwise, short of your actual, successful bandit sign marketing being launched and maintained, this is just so much mental masturbation.
I’m not convinced that bandit signs are the only way to do things.
If I’m rehabbing, I could even use Craigslist to find what wholesalers are putting on there.
I’ll do the bandit signs, too. I’ll order the normal ones instead of my personal artwork.
Nobody said Bandit signs were the ONLY way to do things. It’s just that you won’t do what works …at all.
In fact, you’ll do anything, but what’s been suggested. Worse, you argue with those who are having real-time success at what they’re suggesting.
I mean if anyone suggested the best way to drink water, was to open your mouth, put a glass to your lips, and swallow, you would insist that’s not the only way to drink water.
Sure. You could suck water in through your sinuses using a Neti pot, too, and clear out your nasal passages at the same time. Why not?
Meantime, I prefer to drink water out of a glass, thank you, and just blow my nose on occasion using a Kleenex. And not swallow my boogers.
I have new bandit signs coming in the mail. My first attempt got taken down.
If I’m putting these 9’ in the air so that they can’t be taken down easily, do I HAVE to put them up on Friday and take them down Monday? Couldn’t I just leave them up permanently?
I have so many things going on, I don’t have time for that.
What is the website you know of with the cheapest bandit signs?
I have found that some locations with take down your signs right away so I actually make a map of every location and will periodically take them down and move somewhere else. If i find an area where they get ripped down all the time I dont tend to go back. I do however use different phone numbers for different areas so I can keep track of where calls are coming from. I think I have like 10 numbers or something like that. Best of luck on the signs… i googled cheap bandit signs and found several cheap companies.
Don’t confuse the two different posting strategies. Long term vs. weekend.
I’m talking about weekend, Friday-to-Monday, Bandit sign placements. Any other sign placement is up to whatever you can get away with doing. Meantime, the sign Nazis don’t work weekends. That’s what you’re taking advantage of.
Either you make time for weekend placements, or you pay someone for their time. And for long-term placement, you make them inconvenient to remove. However, that’s not your primary bandit sign strategy. You want a LOT of people to see a LOT of your signs at a LOT of stop signs and signals …on the weekends. The rest just backs up your weekend advertising.
In other words, I have to spend my Friday nights climbing on a stepladder to put signs on posts.
Then, wake up Monday morning to take them down.
That doesn’t sound fun.
I’ve called a few people with signs. I asked one to send me their listings. They sent nothing. The other one sounded so surprised that someone called him that it might as well have been his birthday.
I’ve never said this to anyone else, but evidently real estate investing isn’t for you. Pounding Bandit signs in the ground at intersections is just too complicated (and exhausting) for you.
Don’t lose hope. A guy with Downs Syndrome just retired from working the line at McDonald’s for 32 years. If he can do it, so can you. You basically have to learn to smile and ask, “Want fries with that?” and you’re done. Go for it! I’m pulling for you.
I’m out.
You can find deals on the MLS, otherwise people wouldn’t be snatching them up within 5 days of when they’re listed. I don’t want to spend my Friday night in the ghetto with bandit signs. That’s not much of a life.
I have about 1,000,000 other things going on. It’s really a matter of what I have time to do.
Maybe I’ll get on those bandit signs some time in the future, but for now, that’s not what I want to do.
I got zero results the first time, just like I got zero results with all the Craigslist ads that I continue to post. Not a single call from over 100 ads.
Pretty sure I have a job as a property manager.
Like I said, you always know a better way than what anyone tells you, and yet you have yet to produce one result …at all …after a year.
It’s doubtful that you’ll ever get on those bandit signs, because it isn’t fun and exciting, as you’ve said. And you have a million other things to do on a Friday night. Sure.
And BTW, you’ll never be fast enough to get the deals offered on the MLS. Those deals are pre-solds, and are posted to comply with the law, not because they’re actually looking for buyers. The MLS represents the end of a sale, not the marketing of it.
I’ve already told you how to find the pre-MLS deals on craigslist and elsewhere, but you wanted to do bandit signs instead. Then it was flyers. Then it was driving for dollars. Then it’s back to the MLS. And then it’s bandit signs are a waste of my time.
You are so unserious and not committed to any of this, that I’m gonna start referring to you as “Redhand,” for obvious reasons.
Hey guys - really enjoyed this thread. It’s the most fun I’ve had on this site in a while.
Seriously though - I think this stuff is too regional to offer advice like to stay away from the MLS for real deals. I think it depends on location and what you are looking for. Most of my purchases have been on the MLS. I’m in a small town where the bandit signs would be a detriment to my reputation. I find deals on there as often as I want them. Maybe if I were trying to buy more than a few per year I would need another strategy, but it’s working for me at my stage in life in my area.
I’m a buy and hold investor though. I’m sure that makes a difference, but I could sell most of my properties for twice the cost basis in them. As a matter of fact, I’m selling two right now, closed on one a few weeks ago and the other in a few weeks.