House #5 – Side-by-Side

House #5 has a story behind it, like every property does.  When we first started making offers, we had no farm area.  We looked anywhere and everywhere. Well one afternoon, we looked at two houses side-by-side.  Our crazy optimistic side dreamed that we’d be able to buy both...
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House #2 – The Quick Flip

After putting House #2 under contract we decided that it might make sense to try to sell it to another investor.  It was older construction (built in 1920′s) and had many illegal additions.  We where not really sure how we want to fix it, the neighborhood was pretty mediocure...
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Zillow.com one of my favorite sites…

I am sure most SFH investors in the US have heard of Zillow.com.  It basically uses an algorythem to determine the value of all homes based on other sales, sq footage, bed and bathrooms.  Most of the time the Zillow estimated value is not even close.  Does the mean the tool is...
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The Fire House!

I figured the Fire House we have in escrow will be a good case study as it will be about a 6 month project and will take a lot of work a long the way. We put it into escrow about a week ago.  This one was a first day listing with a new agent.  When we saw it come up, we chased it...
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How nice is too nice? Lipstick on a pig?

It seems every house flipper has their philosphy.  Some fix properties really nice.  Some hardly fix anything (often called, “putting some lipstick on a pig”).  After purchasing a property we often debate whether fixing certain items is worth it or not (new windows?...
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House #1

The acceptance of the offer for House #1 represented many months of hard work.  We made offers from the start May 2008 to the end of August 2008 without getting anything accepted.  Three to four days a week we would look at least 10 houses, and we got NOTHING accepted for over 4...
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Why you should pick a housing farm

When we first got started, we shopped for deals anywhere and everywhere.  Three of four days a week we would spend the morning or late at night looking at about ten houses.  After a day of searching, we’d get back and write 4-5 offers. Every distressed property we saw, we’d...
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Happy New Years!

Happy New Years! For a long time I have wanted to get this blog off of the ground.  Finally with a bit of spare time before a New Years vacation I have tinkered with everything and can make the first post. We are rather new Real Estate Investors from the Inland Empire of Southern...
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