Hello all, I am fairly new to the real estate investment world but I am very passionate about it. I just turned 22 a little while ago and am on track to graduate in 5 weeks and am looking to continue my real estate career.
This is my situation currently. I bought my first property last year at approx 50-60% FMV. I have a $89k mortage and took out a 15k student loan for renovations( I am living in the flip so it is legal as it is considered student housing). So I have 104k invested. I suspect the house would now list for 160-165k and sell fairly quick. I WAYYYY overbuilt (travertine, marble, hardwoods, stainless, home audio, you name it), but I did all the work myself and got EVERYTHING on sale, so I did not overspend :biggrin
I would like to continue flipping and work up to larger more high end properties while still holding my current job.
Where I would like to end up…
I have a passion for high end luxury real estate. I would love to consistently ( 1 or 2 per year) flip properties in the 2-5mill range, investing 100- 500k or so and profiting a mill or so on each(netting a couple hundred k on each after taxes and fees). I realize there are very few area that this can be done with success. But Hawaii is one of those areas. I lived there for a while about a year ago and the market there is almost always raging! A decent three bed 2 bath in a nice neighborhood catches 700k to 1.5mill easy. Luxury starts at 2mill and sky’s the limit after that. There is no shortage of these properties either.
How realistic is this? It works in my mind but I need the advise of someone with experience. Any tips on what to do next to move toward this final goal would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks everyone!!!
BDB0808,
It sounds like you are on the right path already. But you can’t go from your 1 rehab to multi-millions in Hawaii just yet!
How about selling that house and buying 2-4 units, owner-occupied? Can you convert your residence to income property and then do a 1031 Exchange and move that equity into units? You will need your CPA to check out the numbers before doing anything.
If you are still in a college town, why not special in student housing? There are some students and professors who can afford to pay more for marble and classy upgrades.
Your description of what you have done was very interesting to me. How did you get things so cheaply? How did you develop the expertise to do it all yourself? Do you have some figures on some of the projects?
I would love to hear from you on how you hit upon this first project, how you financed it, and how you did it all while in school full-time. Please share this with other newbies and oldies.
Furnishedowner
Haha, ya I realize it’ll be a while before I reach that point but that is where I would like to end up.
I was thinking about getting a couple rentals but im just not that interested in them, but financially I do see the benefit. I am not worried about capital gains tax since come October I will have had the property in my name for two years so I am exempt from the tax. (correct me if Im wrong)
I am in a pretty big college town and I do know many students looking for housing so thats always a great option too, thanks.
I refuse to pay full price for anything. I found most of my supplies at my local Home Depot on clearance. For example I found my travertine on closeout for $2 per 18x18 vs 14$ /sq ft at the local tile store. I also just youtubed everything and how to install it and found out that I am very good at it. My contractor was blown away at some of the projects I completed.
I basically took interest in this property when I came upon it on my local tax records when I found it was a pre-forclosure, so I offered the lady her current mortgage payoff and she accepted.
For future reference I would not recommend living in you flip or flipping while holding a full time job and full time school as it can be extremely stressful. Although I wouldn’t have done everything differently, this isnt the path for everyone.
I plan on listing the house this fall/coming spring and moving back to Oahu and begin by renovating a few condos until I have enough money to begin in the SFH market.
Does anyone on the forum have any experience in High end real estate flipping/development?
BDB,
AS far as I know, you do not have to pay capital gains on the sale of your personal residence IF YOU PURCHASE ANOTHER PERSONAL RESIDENCE AT THE SAME OR GREATER PRICE WITHIN TWO YEARS.
Confirm the above with your tax person, as that tax will definitely get levied if you don’t comply exactly with the current tax law. I know someone who got an IRS demand letter for $45,000 for stupidly forgetting about capital gains!
Your excitement at doing high-end flips and rehabs points a clear career path out to you. Just keep doing it and you become the expert. You can even mesh that with high-end real estate sales, especially in a market like Hawaii.
I just read about a woman who recognized the need for high-end home rental concierge services in Hawaii and built a lucrative business from fulfilling that need. Now Paris Hilton and Kevin Costner, et al, know whom to call when they want a Hawaiian vacation.
I recommend a book “Flip” as having great basic info. on various price and quality levels of rehab.
Another tip for luxury materials…I went to our local high-end tile and carpet store just to browse. I happened to ask the owner “Do you have any tile that got returned or stuff you can’t sell?”
He took me to their shed out back which was stuffed with pallets of beautiful tiles. I bought a whole lot of it really cheaply, just offered him a price to empty out a lot of the shed. The tile was all beiges-whites-browns. We laid it out on the floor of our rehab unit and pieced together a gorgeous tiled shower that looks like it was planned that way. And we helped the tile store owner with his storage problem.
Good luck on your Hawaii venture. The best advice I can give is to get great tax/accounting advice and to do it early on in your career.
Furnishedowner