April proved to be full of progress for us at iCandy Homes, and we’ve got a lot to share with you.
Let’s switch things up and start with events first shall we?
Funding Hacks 2.0
At the beginning of April we hosted an online presentation with Home Bridge lenders Greg Stech and Juan Loya to discuss the Fannie Mae Home Style Renovation Loan. It’s a bank lending opportunity for investors to fund their flips that doesn’t have the same home-owner occupancy requirements as the more widely known 203k renovation loan. It was a very informational short webinar and the audience added to it with some great questions.
If you’d like to know if this loan might work for you, you can listen to/watch the replay here.
Fix and Flip Million Dollar Property Tour
As a result of consistent networking we were invited by CREKhomes to co-host a property tour featuring our Million Dollar Flip in Wilmette and CREKhomes’ new project that will be very similar to ours when finished. It was a lot of fun for us to be a part of, both to help teach, and to network with other investors on a gorgeous Saturday.
Key Take-Away: Everyone has something to offer. Find out how you can create value in every connection, even if they seem like direct competition.
Rehabbing Expert REIA
Our very own Dustin Hatfield was the speaker at the Chicagoland Real Estate Connections Club at the April Meeting. His topic was How to Become an Expert Rehabber. He shared some really helpful insight as to how he became so knowledgeable when it comes to estimating and managing rehabs in just a few short years with no previous real estate/construction background and only ONE real estate seminar under his belt. It was a high-energy group and we stayed late networking that evening. If you’re interested in joining us for our May Meetup register here. We’d love to see you there!
Join the community on instagram or join the facebook group.
On the Flip Side:
We’re Back in Action!
Our project in Evanston has finally gotten to a point of movement! We have been held up due to issues with the neighboring houses foundation that was disturbed due to the digging of our foundation. This had led to a long, drawn out process of coming to an agreement on how to fix the problem which would allow us to proceed. The village was unwilling to allow us to move forward until this problem was resolved. In the final week of this month, we were able to come to an agreement with the neighbor, which means we can finally start making progress on our first new construction again!
We’ll be doing a facebook live series at this project on the iCandy Homes LLC page. Hit the like and follow button to learn about this deal in real time.
Design in Downer’s Grove.
We got to more exciting things on our project in Downers Grove this month, as we met to finalize our choices for tile and for our light fixtures! Typically this is done at the start of a project, not after renovation has begun. However, on this particular job we had created the scope of work nearly a year ago, so we felt it was necessary to meet and update the scope again. It was a detailed process with our contractor (who was previously a production home builder) and the specialists we chose. But it was a fun time and we’re sure we’ve picked the best possible finishes and patterns thanks to our expert help.
Key Take-Away: Involve experts. They’ll help you make the most of your finishes not just pick expensive materials to drive value.
Chicago Renovation.. almost, but no go.
We had a property come very close to working for us in Chicago this month. We did a pre-analysis of the property which included briefly scanning the comps in the area and doing a quick estimate from the pictures. Those two items seemed to check out initially. We then visited the property in person to verify the renovation number which seemed to be good as well. The final step was for us to finalize the ARV so that we could propose this to a lender as a deal. Upon further investigation of the comps provided by the wholesalers agent, we found that they weren’t comps at all! The ARV that was used by that agent’s comps was strictly based on price per square foot which does not work in our market! It was a very good reminder for us for how important it is to do your own due diligence as we were nearly $50k off on the ARV!
If we had believed the first realtors ARV we would have gotten ourselves into a low or even no-profit renovation.
When your numbers are already tight be sure that they are as accurate as possible. This aggressive market demands that you are not overly optimistic nor too conservative. and accuracy in your numbers will improve with each property you analyze.
Key Take-Away: Importance of a knowledgeable power team and, when numbers are tight, a second opinion.
Contractor Bidding
The final thing on the renovation side of this month’s’ review had to deal with contractor bidding. We have a rental property that we are looking to have some work done to so that we can get all of the units back in shape and perfoming. So, we sent out a request to 12 contractors asking if they were interested in the job. Some were new, some were old, and some were people who we had not yet had a chance to work with. Of the 12 that were asked, only 4 responded, 2 of which declined the offer, and 1 of the remaining 2 did not show to the bid meeting they agreed to. This definitely stresses the importance of developing relationships with your contractors as well as continuing to search for better people to work with.
Key take-Away: Always be networking.
Growing As a Team
We all have challenged ourselves to more growth this year and some of that is being realized. After lots and lots of study hours (and coffee) team member Tressa is in the final stages of getting her real estate license. This will be a major advantage for our team’s ability to improve deal aquisitions here in Chicago.
There are more developments coming but we won’t share them too soon.
We hope you got something valuable from this month’s review.
As always, we love your feedback! Leave your comments below and let us know if there is anything in particular you’d like to know more about in our business.
Cheers,
The iCandy Homes Team