What you missed March 2007 Meeting
by Robert Davis

           
           
            Robyn Thompson has been called the Queen of Rehab because she has been so successful with hundreds of rehab houses.  Robyn throughout the evening gave away some of her course materials as well as giving some good information. She has worked the ugly house business for over ten years and has learned how to do it the hard way.  She did 6 houses her first year while still holding down a full time job. Her second year she did 17 houses and quit her regular job.  The two things most people do not do are to get knowledge and take action.  Her 4 steps to getting a check are: find a deal, fund it, fix it, and sell it.
            One of the things we must do first is to find deals. Some key questions to ask are: What is the ARV, or after repaired value?    What does the seller want? How much will the repair costs be? We can find deals in many ways.  There are wholesalers and other sellers at SREIA and other real estate clubs. We can look in the MLS for brand new listings each day. Key words are: Handyman special; Cash only; $5,000 proof of funds; Probate – estate sales; condemned; fire damage; Mold! Robyn said most mold is non-toxic.  If a property has non-toxic mold it can be remedied fairly easy.  Signs on a car or truck are also effective.  The most money may be made via REO’s. Wealth is built on chaos.
            There are various ways to fund a deal.  We can partner using the elephant-mouse technique. Here the elephant furnishes all the money and we do all the leg work. We split the profit when the property is sold.  We can borrow from a hard money lender, pay a high interest rate, but we keep all the profit when we sell.  A third way is to solicit money from private funds like doctors or anyone who has a large sum of money to invest.
            For contractors, we need to build a ‘dream team’.  This would be a group of contractors who are mature grownup adults.  These are ones who do what they say and show up when they are supposed to. They should have their own tools and get paid when their job is done. Try not to find the cheapest contractor. The work done may reflect how cheap they are.
            Finally, Robyn talked about selling a house in a down market.  Our house must beat everything else on the market.  It must be drop dead gorgeous.  Most of the Wow’s we put in are for the woman. These will be concentrated on the kitchen and the bathrooms.  For the man, the garage area is important; maybe some room for a pool table, etc. When we advertise, stress the payments and down payment, not the selling price.  Robyn gave us an entertaining and informative evening.
            Robyn Thompson does seminars several times a year and may be contacted at phone number 407-774-4013.