3 Things NOT to do when Improving Curb Appeal

One of the questions that came in last week was from a rehabber finishing up a job he was going to flip, and was just about to put it on the market. He took a picture of it, and sent to me, asking me to give him a few pointers on what he could do to spruce up the outside of the property, to make it more appealing to buyers. His question spurred me to write it down for this topic.

1. Do NOT let your landscaping grow too long, even for one day.

Nothing says "No one cares about me" like an unkempt lawn. Potential buyers drive by your property every day. If they happen to see a lawn start to grow a bit higher than the other houses on the street, the emotional part of their brain (the one that actually makes their buying decisions) immediately turns off, and so goes the potential sale. After the initial cleanup my landscaper does, I always have the lawns cut at least once every week and a half, if not once a week.

2. Do NOT ignore your gutters & roof.

You have beautiful doors, new siding, new cement steps with beautiful wrought-iron handrails, and an excellent landscaping job. You stand back to admire your work... and realize there are rust stains all over the gutters. I want you to notice how all your attention turns away from the beauty of the house, to the ugliness of even those 4 rust spots on the gutters. Take care of them! The same goes for any fishing of roof shingles. If you notice shingles coming off or loose upon purchasing the house, it's probably a good idea to figure in a whole new roof, in your purchase price.


3. Do NOT overdo it.

It's not always necessary to tear out every tree & shrub surrounding the property, or to replace all the siding, doors & windows to give the house a new, fresh look. You want the buyers to pull up and say, "Wow. This looks better than the others I've seen in this price range."

THAT'S the key... to be the nicest looking house (inside AND out), at the lowest price in that area.

Some tips on what you CAN do:

1. Start by looking at all the other houses on that street. Do they all have vinyl siding? Do they have roofs newer than yours? DO they have white picket fences outlining their front yards, or shrubs, or nothing? The chances are good the buyers will also see your house compared with others on the street, and they will want to see at least similar features... your goal is to be the best & brightest.

2. Repaint the exterior a bright, neutral color (here is where you can look to the other houses in the neighborhood). If it's vinyl sided and is not in need of repair / replacement, power wash it. You'd be amazed how much brighter a house can look once it's been power washed. And - if it has a detached garage - remember the garage door!

3. Add fresh mulch: If there are shrubs or plants around the entryway or the street, a good way to make them stand out is to add fresh mulch around the plants. This also makes your green lawn stand out better, in the high "pride of ownership" areas.

4. Add a new mailbox. Sometimes, it IS that simple a change to make the front of a house look good. If it's a high end house, I like to use the granite columns with black mailboxes. If a lower end house, a nice wood post with a black mailbox will do. If theres no lawn, then it's more important than ever to add a nice "high-end" look to a mailbox you'll bolt to the side of the door.

5. Give it a "Wow" factor. Many times, it's as simple as going with a really nice front door from Home Depot. Make it the next model up from what everyone else on the street has. Sometimes, it's installing a containment wall with nice stone or brick, which makes it so the buyers do not see an ugly dirt hill as they approach your property. Repainting the shutters, or even adding a small hose-powered fountain are other small ideas that will give them a nice feeling as they approach.

Hope these tips were helpful to some of you rehabbers out there (and some of you wholesalers, too)! Keep those deals going, and as always,

Happy Investing!

To Flip, or Not to Flip?

That IS the question. I've had so many people approach me the last few weeks and ask me if this is a flip market, or if this is buy & hold market in real estate. I answer them the same way: YES.

There so many different factors that would determine which strategy to use; your local area & local market, your local ABSORPTION RATE (ask your investor-friendly Realtor about this - and if they don't know, find one that does!), determining what type of buyers are looking for what type of properties where you're looking, rents and rental demand in your area, and more are all things you must think about.

But the #1 thing I push my students to do is to think about their short term (5 years) and long term financial goals. Flipping property is truly one of the bread & butter strategies in real estate, and it has been done for a very long time. This is a way for you to bring in a large lump of cash, and inject it into your business (or your lifestyle!) within 1 to 6 months. Understanding the complexities of analyzing, structuring, and executing the deal are very important, but if you buy right and run your projects well, it's a great tool to come up with some short-term cash. If you read our most recent newsletter, our most recent deal was a foreclosure in a desirable, middle-class town in MA. By understanding our numbers, and running the job the way we wanted it run, we made $60K in 60 days. Congrats to the student who worked to see this through! This is our second student who made over $50K on their first deal!

Flips can be found in ANY market. Some may have more opportunities than others. When you're starting out, I advise people to start interviewing Realtors and other investors in the area. What are they up to? Are 2-bedroom homes selling? In this area of town better or worse to invest in? These people should NOT be considered your competition - we're all in this fantastic game to pay our bills, and have some left over to live an excellent and well-deserved life, as well. You can also figure out, in your own neighborhoods, which areas are more desirable than others. Did you ever drive by that house with the uncut lawn, that seems VERY out of place? Might be worth a drive by the police station, and bringing them some coffee to ask them who owns that place and what they know about it. "If only," you think, "that place was fixed up, I know it would sell for around $xxx." There you go - your starting point.

The only caveat with flipping properties, is unless you set up systems to run your business without you, you're always still involved. The moment you stop hunting for deals, or stop keeping relations with your buyers, investors & contractors, your business dries up. No more cash. This said, most of my students elect to start in wholesaling or flipping, and then move on to buy & holds.

If done appropriately, buying rentals is an excellent way to build long term wealth... passively. Meaning, if you set it up efficiently, you get checks coming in month after month that pay your mortgage for you AND give you some extra to live off of... without you having to do anything (if you have an excellent PROPERTY MANAGER- another member of your power team!). Buy & holds can also be found in any market, at any time. When you analyze your deals, if the cashflow works, then you submit the offer.

This strategy (flipping for short term cash, turning it into longer-term wealth through rentals) is not for everyone. Some people may not want to have real estate be their primary focus, and so maybe they only need to have one or two successful flips per year to add $60K to their lifestyle goals. To answer the question, is now a good time to flip properties, the answer is YES, and deals are everywhere... just make sure you BUY RIGHT, and lean on your team to help you.

Happy Investing!

Nick

3 Biggest Mistakes

It happened again. You wouldn't think it takes much effort to keep up with a blog, but apparently, I am still learning on the whole "Web 2.0" thing.

I thought it may be useful if I shared some of the biggest mistakes I made as a real estate investor, and hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. You hear a lot of gurus say "my blood is all over this material", and I, to a point, can empathize with them.

So hopefully at least some of this can prove helpful to others...

1. When flipping, start with your AFTER-REPAIRED value, FIRST.

Don't just assume you're getting a great deal because you took $30K off the list price in your negotiations. List price DOES NOT MATTER. EVER! One of my first deals in Massachusetts, I was so excited to finally be negotiating for a deal. An owner (motivated seller, of course) was selling her house in a nice section of Haverhill (for those who know MA). She was selling it for $272,000. I had learned from listening to others negotiate, that a great question to ask is "is that the best you can do?" after every counter offer. So, I was able to negotiate the seller down to $241,000, AND I got her to pay 2.6% toward the closing costs (why didn't I go for 3%, or 5%? Well, I TOLD you I had no idea what I was doing).

Sounds like a great deal! Well, I spent weeks marketing this property to my buyers list, which I was just building. I was wondering why no buyers were interested. Then, one of my buyers educated me on "ARV" (after-repaired value):

ARV on the property was around $260K at the time. Contracted for $241K (what a sweet negotiation!), needed maybe $40K in work. OOPS! Thank goodness I never closed on that property. Lesson learned - start with the ARV FIRST, then subtract all your costs from THAT number (INCLUDING your profit requirement).

How do you get an accurate ARV? You must form a relationship with an investor-friendly real estate agent, who should know what the house needs for "flare" and how to accurately price it to sell quickly. Unfortunately, I could not find an agent I could work with, so I became my own agent. Now being surrounded by them, I've found many who would have been good candidates!

2. Family members may NOT be the best partners suited for your business.

Before I continue with this story, I just want to say I have a fantastic relationship with this family member. He and I have an awful lot in common, and he's one of the smartest guys I know. However, for the task we had at hand, he was not our best choice.

We had just finished a condo conversion in Somerville, MA where we had closed on the 3-family property for $749K (this is back in 2005), and the seller wanted to lease it back from us for around $20K. Nice chunk of change to start our rehab! We had all the units rehabbed and completely redone with the stainless steel, square tile, refinished hardwood, the works. We were poised to make a good small fortune upon resale of these three units, which we turned into condominiums. (As you can see from the picture, I still attempted to do most of my own work back then - another horrible idea! My time was MUCH better spent elsewhere...)

So we decided to enlist the help of this family member to list the condos through his office. We did not check credentials or his performance / closing ratio - we just knew he was family, and that he could sell them for us. Well, it was also the top of the market here in Boston - condos sat on the market for one month... a second month... then a third... and no offers.

After three price reductions, and us switching to another agent, we lost quite a bit of money on that deal. However, it taught me the lesson to always qualify EVERYONE on my investment team. You have to know what questions to ask, and you should reciprocate the relationship with your agent (or attorney, inspector, etc) by establishing yourself as a loyal client and performer with them.

Nothing is better than if you have your entire team working for the benefit of everyone else. If you do your homework up front, your transactions go a lot smoother and you spend a lot less time!

I have some power team questions that helps qualify some team members; if you're interested, e-mail me, I'll e-mail you the attachment.

3. Property Management - Tenants LOVE to "test the waters".

My first experience as a property manager was when I closed on my first 4-unit in Haverhill, MA, which I still have today. I took over ownership, and immediately assumed that the tenants would all just continue to pay as was shown to me on the statements before I closed on the property (not really having any clue about due diligence back then, I also didn't really verify any numbers the previous owner showed me, but that's another blunder for another day!).

The tenants were notified through a letter that their management had changed hands. The first month, everyone paid; the SECOND month, one tenant was about $500 short on her rent. "My Mom went into the hospital, and I had to pay her medical bills." Well sure, how could I say anything to that excuse?

"It's OK - we'll work something out. Just do your best for now."

That was probably the WORST answer I ever could have given her.

Next month, I received NONE from her... and worse, the OTHER tenants paid a partial amount, or were 15 days late. Hmmmm... it's almost as if they knew they could get away with it!

Now having been in the business for a few years, I've heard every tenant sob story there is to hear. The truth is, everyone has priorities. Housing (at least, for me) would be a BIG priority, so I would make sure I'd pay that bill as one of my first every month. Now, I tell every tenant up front,

"This is my primary business. I don't want you to leave this community, but I have to tell you, the systems are automated; you are late by one day, and our system sends you an eviction letter."

Do I still have to send eviction letters? ABSOLUTELY. However, I will say that now when a new tenant moves in, and their third month when they are one day late, they receive that letter - and they are never late again.

You should treat your rentals as a BUSINESS, since that's just what it is. You're in the business of providing clean, affordable housing to your tenants. In return, they pay you for that service.

Of course, there have been a hundred other lessons I've learned (and continue to learn) through my investment efforts. I find that those are the best ways to learn; but, if you can avoid one or two by hearing someone else's sob story, why not?

Happy Investing!

Nick A.