One of the most important pieces of information that I like to provide you with is real life case studies from students who have completed our training programs and are now successfully flipping properties. A student of mine, Nick Zalonis, recently purchased his first property that we are working with him through our Freedom Funding program to fund.
The property is 2035 Clarence Dr. in beautiful Lakewood, Ohio. Lakewood is a popular little city right outside downtown Cleveland. Nick was able to buy the property for $65,000 and we are putting roughly $42,000 into the rehab. It was originally built to be a multifamily, but we are going to turn it into a single family. It will end up being a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home. Based on other comps in the area, we are going to list it for around $174,900 when the rehab is complete.
Below are some pictures of Phase 1, we have torn down the extra walls to open up the main floor and really extend the kitchen area. Some of the charm of the homes in Lakewood is the wood flooring and wood built-ins, both of which we are keeping.
We will keep you updated with Phase 2 of Clarence Dr. which will be the finished property and Phase 3 which will be the Property Launch!
Being able to figure out a reasonable list price for your property is really important, and the way to do that is to do a proper market analysis. A proper market analysis should consist of 3 sold comps, 3 pending comps and 3 active comps. You want to look at homes that are the same style, within 10% of the same square footage, within a mile or less and a similar amount of bathrooms and bedrooms.
Let’s take a look at this video I made for 2312 Iota Dr. in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. We bought the home for $53,000 and had a renovation budget of $31,000. I will drive you around the neighborhood to point out some of the comps we have that made us really confident in our list price.
I can tell you we were able to successfully sell Iota Drive for $139,900, so we were right on the mark!
Staying on the topic of comps, in one my most recent podcasts, I covered 15 Resources and Tools for Real Estate Investors. Many of the resources will be able to help you find comps in your area and secure leads for both motivated buyers and sellers.
Download the free audio training “15 Must Use Resources & Tools for Real Estate Investors.”
Make sure to listen to the full recording so you can learn exactly how my team and I use these great resources.
Helpful Websites:
- Houzz.com – A “Pinterest”-like site for real estate. It has house decorating and staging ideas. You can search by room and even look through lighting and décor ideas. The BEST part is, you can shop right from the site and filter by price and style.
- WeGoLook.com – A resource we use when we underwrite and originate loans for SREC students. They will do home inspections and look at a property for us and send pictures or video so we don’t have to go if it’s in a remote location. This is perfect for virtual wholesaling.
- TLO.com – An investigative research and skip tracing software that’s owned by TransUnion. It costs $1 per lead or per search, so it can get expensive if you’re searching 100+ people.
How to Get Comps:
- Local Realtor – You can locate a local realtor to look up comps for you in the MLS database.
- CollateralDNA.com – You can order a full CMA on a property for only $6 and get it sent right to you.
- RedFin.com - Another free resource to get comps in your area and information about the property you are interested in. Data is pulled directly from the MLS database.
- Eppraisal.com - A site where you can get comps and data on properties. You can also receive a market analysis of your area for free.
- Haines.com - The real estate criss-cross directory. The only downside to using this site is that they are only available in about 12-15 states. They pull information from the county auditor’s site.
- RealQuest - A great, more costly resource to do comps and research properties.
- IDX (Internet Data Exchange) - A great place to go for local comps if you don’t have access to the MLS. There are 7 different resource you can use to pull comps.
Phone Answering Services:
- PATLive - We use PatLive and pay $1 per minute. If you’re generating leads from your marketing strategies, you’ll want to subscribe to something like this so your phone lines are covered. PatLive will send us e-mails after they take a phone call with a summary
- Money Phone – A money phone is very important to have. It should be linked to the phone number on all your direct mail pieces so when it rings, you know it’s a motivated seller or buyer.
- Google Voice – This is a free option for you to set up a number that will take your calls and send you e-mail or text transcriptions.
Cell Phone Capture Software:
- Realeflow - You want to have a phone number set up that’s attached to software so when someone receives your direct mail piece and calls, it will automatically forward to the answering service. Through this software, you can capture their cell phone number and answer with a phone call or text message. We use this software for our sellers.
- BuyersonFire – This is the software we use for our buyers to capture leads.
I hope all this information was helpful, these are all great resources that my team and I use on a regular basis. These are also things I teach in my personalized one-on-one coaching program that will teach you in the ins and outs of real estate investing and help you create a blueprint unique to you and your business. Click here to learn more about this powerful coaching program and apply now!
As always, thanks for reading. Leave me a comment below and let me know what tools and resources you are currently using and how you’re finding comps in your area.
Be Daring,
Josh Cantwell
CEO Strategic Real Estate Coach
CEO Freeland Ventures and Freeland Lending
CEO Yellow Jacket Properties
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