Whatever happened to ol' Redstar?

Gotta admit, I was rooting for him.

You can root for me lol :beer

Hi,

Last thing I heard was Redstar was rehabbing a house in Orlando!


       GR

Serious? I hope he comes back here and boasts about a fat check he made.

He was all over this place!!!

Hey!

Well here’s what happened. I don’t remember when the last day I made a post on this forum was, but I moved over to BiggerPockets about one day after whenever that was. I hope it’s not against forum rules to mention another forum. But there are way more experienced rehabbers on that site than here. But honestly, I haven’t even posted on that forum in probably 2 months. I think I have all the information that I need to go forward.

I joined the 2 local Real Estate Investment clubs in Orlando and after talking to one of the wholesalers, I realized that rehabbing was what I wanted to do, rather than wholesaling. He said inventory was real low right now for wholesalers and I noticed that many of the wholesalers were marketing the same properties. I think rehabbing appeals more to my style because it is tangible.

So I have many listings being emailed to me every day from wholesalers in this area and I am getting ready to do my first rehab.

At first, I was going to try to wholesale a few houses to save up a down payment for a hard money loan to rehab my first, but then I decided I would just wait until I finished paying my dad off for my house (which at the time, I thought would be January 2018) so I could use my HELOC for either the entire project, or just the down payment (or maybe split it up as down payments on many projects at once).

But then my dad said he got some sort of major distribution from his company and he gave some out to his kids (yea I know, I’m lucky), so now I will have finished paying him off for the house on 9/1/17 (16 days from now).

Not only that, he said he would loan me the money for my first rehab at 0%. So I don’t have to worry about any lender fees, any bank taking my house through a HELOC or any hard money lender foreclosing on my rehab project and setting my real estate career back 10 years.

I have handymen that are GOOD (I have tested them out at the RV park that I manage) and that will work for pennies on the dollar compared to a contractor. Prices like…

$25 per plumbing fixture (toilet, sink, etc.)
$25 per electrical fixture (interior light, exterior light, vanity light, fan, etc.)
$35 per cabinet unit
$1/square foot for hardwood or tile installation
$0.50/square foot for carpet installation
$60/room for interior painting
exterior painting for less than half the price that a contractor would charge.

To quantify this, I went and looked at a house recently and the rehab budget I came up with was 62% of what the wholesalers listed the rehab budget at. I know this may seem risky, but it will work. I am risking it by not having them insured on the first one, but after that, I will probably hire them as W2 employees and take out a Worker’s Comp policy. These handymen are very happy just to have consistent work and they are looking forward to rehabbing houses for me.

My dad said that $150,000 is the limit for the entire rehab budget on the first house. And he said that he would loan this to me time and time again. (After I pay him back when the first house is sold, he will immediately loan to me again).

I hope that he will agree to eventually split the $150,000 into down payments on HML’s so I can be rehabbing 3-4 houses at once. Also, I could use my HELOC to rehab another 1-4 houses at a time. Also, I could eventually try to attract other investors (although I have no idea how I would find them other than Craigslist. I even checked on the local Real Estate Investor membership directories and there is no category for private lender). I would try to offer them something like 12% and if I don’t pay them back, they would get the house. The only problem is that I can’t use their loan as a down payment on a HML because then 2 different parties (my private lender and the HML) would be wanting deed to the house if I don’t pay and that wouldn’t work.

Since I’ve been on this forum last, I’ve spent A LOT of time at Home Depot/Lowe’s pricing things. Walking the aisles with a notebook and pen and writing down the price of everything I might need while rehabbing a house. I have MS Excel spreadsheets now where I can input the specifics of the work that needs to be done on the house and it tells me the rehab budget right away.

Other than that, just doing other things… nothing special… took a trip to Mexico City in March… here’s some pics…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtov3mj5i9ffoi1/IMG_20170327_133721092.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/epr0rdl7s1uecss/IMG_20170327_144116043_TOP.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5a26cghdg4163q1/IMG_20170327_155311656_HDR.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8svh7g6hrfzgt0u/IMG_20170327_162300985_HDR.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/goxubfuy2ain8bv/IMG_20170327_165113305_HDR.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dnr3og7su1fgmym/IMG_20170327_172753528.jpg?dl=0

Well Redstar, did you do this rehab? If so how much did you make?

Are you still out there Redstar?

I suspect that Redstar like most people have short attention spans and are off onto the next shiny object or money making opportunity.
Imagine if they cud focus and stay motivated on just one idea or plan, it’s human nature to scatter our thoughts and direction. Who has the time and energy to train the mind for success? I’m thinking it’s a very low percentage of the population.
I’m trying to stay positive here, maybe Redstar be back and show us how it’s done.