Idea about investors purchasing homes remotely

General Real Estate Investing
1

FEEDBACK PLEASE - An Idea for investors wishing to Purchasing properties remotely …

I have an idea that might make it easier to generate cash flow… I am a work at home relatively new Fort Worth based real estate investor. I

am currently buying into homes as rental properties. The problem with this is they do not produce a lot of cash flow; therefore I am

searching for ideas for generating this cash flow. One of my ideas was to offer a service to anyone wanting to invest in the glut of bread

and butter properties available in my area, these are the easy to rent and sell properties selling in DFW for around $100,000 to 250,000.

There are many thousands of these homes available here in the DFW area, Fort Worth, Arlington and Grand Prairie Texas, many of these are only

three or four years old and some are even brand new two story 1800 - 3000 plus sq feet homes. Just have your realtor check the listings for

properties in 750xx and 760xx zip codes for Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, and Irving Texas.

My idea would be to perform a pre-inspection on the property, photograph the property inside and out and send these photos to the investor,

supervise the rehab if the property needs any fix up, and do a final inspection when it is ready. My fee would be a percentage of the cost of

the property based on its purchase price, something like $2,000 or so per property for a $100,000 property. This will allow remote investors

to invest and know they are investing in a good property in a good area.

This is only an idea and I am very interested in what you seasoned and new investors think of this, do I have anything here. I’m interested

in any feedback both negative and positive.

If you would like to contact me offline my contact info is available.

2

Yes, that is a good idea and there are a lot of people doing just that. Offer to do “turnkey” deals for California newbies. There is a continuous flow of people from California with more money than brains who will buy properties at retail, lose a bunch of money, and then sell them. If you are really shrewd, you can buy these properties back from the “investors” after they lose a bunch of money and sell them again. It has happened here in Ohio and many other places.

Good Luck,

Mike

3

If you are able to manage the logistics it is a great idea. People are always looking for turnkey solutions either because they don’t know how to find them themselves or they don’t want to do the leg work.

4

Sounds like a real good idea…keep us posted! :biggrin

5

Mike,

Great response, got a chuckle out of it. Do you ever just get fed up with these guys coming in and bidding up the market? I like to follow up on my lost offers to see just how much was paid. Almost every time, it is somebody from the north east or west coast who paid twice what I offered. These are mostly low income rentals in sketchy areas, and 6-12 months later, I see the NOD in the paper or a “motivated seller” MLS listing. And the supply of these fools never ends here.

To be honest, I’ve given up here in Raleigh finding real deals, I would have to move to the boonies to find 50GRM deals, too much speculation here. Thank god for mobile homes. I’ve bought 3 this month, paid between 300-6500 dollars for them. Move them to a park nearby and rent them quickly to hispanics. Bummer on the lost appreciation, but that is just specualtion again right? [s][/s]

6

jb_bak,

Fortunately, most of the California “investors” and other newbies have already been washed out of the business here in my little corner of Ohio. There were quite a few of them a couple of years ago, but they didn’t last long. It was never possible here to buy properties at retail and receive a positive cash flow. However, that was exactly what these “investors” were doing. It was insane then and it is insane now.

Properties are no longer being bid up here and I believe that soon many properties will be auctioned without a single bidder. I have a friend that has been the ONLY bidder at a couple of properties. I have been to auctions where I and one other person were the only bidders.

Mike

7

If I can get the word out and get this going, I would probably just write some software to manage it. That all depends on how much work I get. I will only need the software if I get a lot of work.

8

If anyone sent me an off line email message my SBCGLOBAL email account is no longer working, please resend those messages.

9

I think it’s a terrific idea, and at 2% of the purchase price, not a bad deal for the investors if you’re really qualified and can produce valid results…

However, for somebody who would want to use your services, they should ask themselves:

  1. If you’re licensed for what you’re doing (is a license necessary?..I don’t know the answer)

  2. Are you qualified to supervise contractors?..Have you done it before?..Do you know the order in which jobs need to be done so that you can schedule everybody to come to the site in the right order? (i.e., electricians/plumbers first, drywallers, painters, etc. later)…

  3. Do you know the area well enough to be able to give a rating system for quality/safety of neighborhood, etc.?..This is something I’d definitely want to know…

  4. Do you have logistics in place for determining the true value of the property, the history of appreciation, expected appreciation, etc.?..You should be able to put together a standard report for the investor…Once you get a format down, the others will simply be “fill in the blanks”…

  5. Do you plan to recommend contractors to the investor?..I’m assuming this would be part of the deal since they’re remote…

  6. Do you plan to become a registered property manager?..A certified home inspector?..I’m sure most investors would feel more comfortable using your services if you can give them some titles/certificates/licenses that you have…

It’s definitely a valuable service if you’re qualified…

John