Fliperati

I recently stumbled across a really nice service for people who sell stuff (houses, cars, baseball cards, etc) on the internet.  It’s called vFlyer and it’s a very simple (and free!) tool for turning boring online classified ads into very attractive electronic “flyers.”  My favorite application is the ability to use vFlyer to plug in a few simple variables about what you’re selling (price, condition and maybe a few photos) and then generate html code that can be pasted into a craigslist posting to create a really flashy advertisement for your item.  I have never been very savvy with html and my craigslist posts for my first flip (and all the things I sold during the renovation) were pretty hum-drum until I started using vFlyer.

The service also allows you to e-mail your electronic flyer and create PDFs.  It has a tool for tracking the amount of “views” your flyer is getting and, for real estate, it automatically “publishes” your flyer to a number of popular housing search sites (Google Base, PropSmart, Edgeio, etc).  It’s still a beta service and I had some problems getting my flyer published to a couple of their affiliates, but their customer service team was very responsive in getting the problem resolved.

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Remember a while back when I said I wanted to assemble a list of good REI blogs and post all the links here on Fliperati?  Well, I haven’t forgotten about that list but I have decided that it doesn’t make much sense to duplicate the work that several other blogs have already done very well.  On the broadest end of the spectrum, I have to highlight 500 real estate blogs to watch as assembled by Pittsburgh Homes Daily and the comprehensive directory of real estate blogs that resides on Real Estate Blogs (now that’s and idiot-proof site name).  For a more refined selection of tasty real estate nuggets available on the web, check out BiggerPockets.com’s list of the Top 35 Real Estate Blogs.  I must warn you that Fliperati was somehow included on this list, but please don’t let that discourage you from checking out the other blogs highlighted – I promise they’re all quite good and worth a look.  My thanks to BiggerPockets.com for continuing to neglect correction of what was surely a simple editorial oversight when they added Fliperati.

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I was listening to a real estate investing podcast yesterday and was stopped in my tracks when the host remarked that perfectionists ought to avoid flipping houses.  This statement resonated with me because — at that very moment — I was on my hands and knees in the corner of the bathroom scraping a bit of dried grout off the wall behind the toilet (where it will be completely hidden unless the toilet goes kaput and needs to be replaced).  I knew this (tedious!) labor was entirely unnecessary, but I couldn’t stand the idea of rogue grout blemishing my freshly primed drywall.  Spending time on this class of tasks is simply not good business and I’m glad I heard someone verbalize that in the podcast.  I promptly abandoned the grout stains in favor of more important jobs.

That said, I don’t think perfectionism and house flipping are entirely mismatched.  While it would be near impossible to make everything in a rundown house built more than a century ago sparkle like new, attention to detail in the right areas can probably generate a lot of profit.  Quality workmanship in rooms that will be closely scrutinized (kitchen and bathroom) will likely pay off, but you can’t let yourself get carried away.  The trick is knowing when to spend a little extra time on something and when to do the bare minimum.  I’ll definitely do a better job making this distinction in the coming weeks as the open house draws closer and closer.

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Although I didn’t discover many of the sites on my blogroll until after I had gotten started on my first property, I’ve found reading about the experiences of other investors extremely helpful as I make this first foray into the real estate investing universe.  One of the best things about these individual blogs is that they are generally free of the usual REI guru cheese (“buy now and I’ll include the 8^th CD free along with an autographed copy of my patented low-income rental agreement!”).  Plus, they offer candid, personal insights into what other investors are doing and how they integrate investing into the rest of their day-to-day lives. 

I keep stumbling upon more and more of these sites and the standard blogroll format doesn’t do them all justice, so I am planning to add an “REI Blog Directory” page to Fliperati with a more comprehensive list of relevant sites I’m aware of.  I would like to include a summary of the following info for each blog listed:

• Blog Title / URL
• Author
• Location
• Blog Focus (wholesaling, rehabbing, rentals, etc)

If you have a favorite blog that’s not on my current blogroll (or a site of your own), feel free to e-mail me (viridian@fliperati.com) with some or all of the above info and I will add it to the list.  I was also thinking of creating a podcast directory, so please send suggestions for those as well.

Big thanks!

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If you’re like me and you enjoy a bit of audio stimulation while executing mind-numbing tasks (such as sanding, priming and painting an entire kitchen cabinet set), then you may want to scan through the podcast universe for real estate investor shows next time you need to fill the airwaves.  Although I still haven’t grown tired of my college MP3 collection, I thought it might be nice to mix some educational materials into my playlist this week while I was working on some mundane jobs around the property.  The only problem is finding good shows to listen to.  Because it doesn’t take much to generate a podcast (or streaming audio or amateur radio program), the internet is littered with terrible real estate productions that contain little useful information and tons of boring blather (and of course, tons of cheese).

However, once you’ve located a good one, I’ve found it’s a great (free!) way to entertain yourself, motivate yourself, educate yourself and pick up new investing ideas.  There are shows out there that cater to all different real estate investing strategies (rentals, flipping, wholesaling, etc) and even some that focus on specific markets (California, Michigan, southern Florida, etc).  Searching iTunes, Google, Yahoo or any of the other internet portals will likely yield something of interest for everyone. 

One podcast I recently discovered that I’ve grown to like quite a bit is called Get Real REI and it’s hosted by a husband and wife duo in North Carolina.  What really sets them apart from a lot of other shows I’ve listened to is their professionalism and their focus on delivering useful content to their listeners.  While many real estate podcasts painfully wander from topic to topic without any structure (often interlaced with boring banter about the personal lives of the hosts), Get Real REI adheres very closely to a set format and the discussion rarely degenerates into irrelevant topics.  I particularly like the interview portion of each show.  I wish there were an equally good investing program based in the New York / New Jersey area, but I haven’t found one yet.

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In an effort to boost the sad number of “flip tips” available here on Fliperati, I wanted to share the good experiences I’ve had using craigslist over the course of my first flip.  In addition to regularly scanning the real estate section of craigslist for a general sense of rental costs and home prices in my area, I’ve also used the classified section to get rid of some of the stuff that was in the house when I bought it.  So far I’ve unloaded the fridge, the stove, 190 square feet of brick paving stones and about 50 linear feet of chainlink fencing.  It only takes a few minutes to advertise these items on craigslist and, if you’ve priced them right, you can usually sell them in a day or two.  Although I certainly didn’t mind pocketing a couple hundred dollars in sale proceeds, the best part of using craigslist has been getting other people to come to the house and take away stuff that I would otherwise have to load into a dumpster.  The paving stones are a great example of this because it was exhausting to rip them all out of the ground and stack them by the driveway, so I was ecstatic when I found someone who was willing to pay me for the privilege of coming to my house and taking them away.

I of course also plan to advertise the finished property on craigslist when I’m ready to put it on the market, so hopefully my house will sell as quickly as the paving stones did…

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I hosted a small “house wrecking party” this weekend at my flip property and was able to convince five very dear friends to come out and help me with some of the remaining demo work.  There was no compensation beyond the hamburgers we cooked on a small grill in the backyard and the cheap beer in the fridge, but you would have thought I was paying them big $$ based on the quality of the work they did.  The six of us accomplished more in an hour and a half than I could have done in an entire day.  Projects tackled included:

• Removing the wood paneling and trim from the front porch (an area of the house that had not been touched prior to this weekend)
• Tearing out all the tile in the tub/shower area
• Ripping up 85% of the old linoleum and sub-floor in the kitchen
• And, of course, a few more man-hours of staple removal

I took a lot of pictures to document the work of my free-labor crew, but it was a pretty hot day and nobody was looking very pretty after a few swings of the hammer, so I promised I would refrain from posting any images.  That’s the least I can do after everybody worked so hard and did such a great job. 

I highly recommend the house wrecking party as a way to jump-start a project when flipping property.

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While I’m sensitive to the fact that huge, warehouse-style home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Lowes have almost driven the traditional mom-and-pop hardware store into extinction, I can’t help but love the convenience and low-prices that these behemoths offer.  I went straight to the nearest big box home improvement store after the closing on Wednesday to pick up some essentials for the renovation work I hoped to start over the weekend and I could not believe how little money I spent.  Granted, I had done some research and was targeting sale and good-value products, but I filled the back of my (rental) SUV with all the demo supplies (sledgehammer, gloves, masks, ladder) I could possibly need without spending nearly as much as I anticipated.  Then I splurged a little on some power tools because you can get no payment/no interest financing for 12 months if you spend at least $300. 

So, while I’ll keep looking for bargains on tools and materials at all the area retailers, it’s hard for someone in the property flipping business to avoid the one-stop shopping convenience that these big warehouses offer.  Also, with a $7,500 credit limit and the no payment/no interest offer, I could finance nearly a quarter of my projected renovation expenses on a single credit card and not pay a dime until I have finished the project and flipped the house.  It almost seems too good to be true, so I’ll need to do a lot of comparison shopping on big-ticket items like countertops and appliances before giving my entire renovation budget to a single store.

p.s. For more in-depth and philosophical coverage of this question, check out theboxtank.

p.p.s. Big box retailers?  SUVs?  Power tools?  Debt financing?  I promise I don’t actually resemble the modern American cliché I have just described (well, not entirely).

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As a first-time homebuyer/investor, I’m surprised to feel like I’m in a position to be giving tips already, but I haven’t seen this recommendation anywhere else.  The tip is simple: make getting multiple bids from different banks and mortgage brokers easy by preparing all the necessary documentation electronically.  This largely involves getting PDFs of items such as bank statements, pay stubs, tax returns, etc, but I found the brokers accepted image files and Microsoft Word documents as well.  My employer provides our pay stubs electronically (same for my bank and investment account documents) and I do my taxes electronically as well, so it was just a matter of gathering all these files into a single place and e-mailing them off to the brokers.  This saved significant time and hassle with photocopiers and mailing or delivering hard copies of all these materials, making it easy for me to get several mortgage brokers on-board with little effort beyond sending an e-mail.  The broker may not enjoy this method because they will probably have to spend some time printing out all the documents, but they shouldn’t mind too much if they really want your business.

Side note: The cartoon above is from the comic genius behind toothpaste for dinner.  Pay the site a visit to peruse the many hilarious offerings, including cartoons, desktops, t-shirts, bags and a blog.  I am in no way affiliated with this site, but I figure a free shout-out is the least I can do after the years of entertainment and t-shirts toothpaste for dinner has provided me.  Two favorites here and here.

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