Nearly all successful real estate investors have one thing in common. They create systems and processes in their businesses. With systems in place, they can just repeat their success over and over again.
Building those systems can be difficult.
Especially if you are in the business of rehabbing properties. Whether you are looking to turn around and sell the building after rehab or rent it out, there’s a lot of stuff you need to remember to do:
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Evaluate the deal
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Finance the deal
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Close the deal
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Determine what materials are needed
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Find contractors
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Sign documents with the contractor (Statement of work, Independent Contractor agreements, W-9, etc.)
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Ensure the rehab plan is in the correct order (don’t hang the sheetrock before the plumbing is done)
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Take pictures and videos for the sale, rental ads or your records
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Find a way to manage the project with all the other parties along the way
Not only do you have to do all these steps...
To be successful, you need to create a process that puts all these steps in one place, and makes it easy to run them all over and over again.
Lather, rinse, repeat as they say.
Your Flipping System ‘In a Box’
One real estate entrepreneur is in the process of helping to create the system for you. Electronically.
Sharad Mehta has done over 300 real estate deals in the past 5 years, so he has an idea of what is needed to make money.
He has put together some new software called REsimpli. As of the writing of this lesson, REsimpli is in the Beta testing phase, and they welcome other investors to sign up for free.
Free sign ups? What’s the catch?
It’s easy to be suspicious. The catch is that they want feedback. They are limiting the sign ups to experienced investors who can evaluate the software. They want to improve it. Later, they will offer it to everyone for a small subscription fee.
If you would like to try the software, head on over to the REsimpli and click on the register button on the top right of the menu bar.
The website will ask for your email address, and you will need to be approved to use the site. We noticed that the founder responded very quickly and approved us.
After you are registered, you are ready to create your first property. Click on the big square you see on your screen, and a form will pop up for you to put in the details of your potential investment.
Here’s a helpful video that walks you through setting up a property.
You can add as many properties as you’d like to evaluate.
Deal Analysis
Obviously, the first part of doing any deal is analyzing whether the deal is worth it. The Deal Analyzer section allows you to analyze both flips and buy-&-hold rental property deals.
Here’s a video explaining how the Deal Analyzer section works for flipping. And here’s another video to show you how it works for a buy-&-hold rental property.
After you have analyzed the deal and decided it’s a good one, REsimpli moves into the rehab phase.
Let Your Mouse Do the Shopping
As part of your analysis, you probably walked the property and made a list of all the work needed… you estimated how much the repairs would be to put into your budget.
With REsimpli, you can take that list and enter it right into the program, with easy-to-use menus. The menus also act as checklists to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.
Before you start entering your materials, though, REsimpli asks you to put in your zip code. This could be either your home zip code or the zip code of the property. The program will then give you a list of Home Depot stores in the area.
The program is not just trying to help you find the nearest store. It has the ability to email your list of materials to Home Depot, so they will gather them and have them ready for you when you come to pick them up.
Definitely a nice time-saver for investors, or for your contractors whose shopping trips may be ‘on the clock.’
Another nice feature of figuring your materials through REsimpli is that the program will auto-populate any extra pieces when you order a large component. For example, you can pick out the dimension of a kitchen cabinet and it will auto-populate the correct accessories and costs at HD (screws, toe kick, etc.).
Here’s another tutorial video on creating your material list:
Dealing with Contractors
In order to create the materials list, you will probably need to consult with contractors. You will need bids and estimates from them. You will also need them to fill out contracts and forms to protect yourself (and them) should anything go wrong.
To create accurate bids and to run the project smoothly, many investors create a Statement of Work (SOW) to map out what needs to be done for the project. REsimpli allows you to create one quickly and easily.
For the contractor paperwork, REsimpli has the ability to create your contractor agreements, digitize them, and email them to your contractor to collect all signatures through REsimpli’s signature application. Once signed by contractor, the documents will automatically be saved in the documents folder for the property.
Here’s a video showing how it’s done. (Can’t say we never gave ya nothing.)
Other Features
During your rehab, you will have a lot of documents and paperwork to manage…
REsimpli has a cloud-based storage system to keep track of all your documents. Having it cloud-based means you can access them on any device, no matter where you are.
The storage system will also allow you to upload pictures and videos for:
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Risk management (potential insurance claims)
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Explaining to motivated sellers what a dump they have on their hands – and why they should sell to you for less
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Showing investors what you do
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Creating advertising to sell or rent the property
Mobile cloud services come in handy when you are out at a job site or showing potential investors your deal analysis.
What the Future Holds
Sharad is developing additional features for the program that will provide more project management features.
It will allow you to collaborate with your entire team. Your team will be able to leave notes, assign tasks, create to-do list, etc. right from the software and access whatever they need to get their part of the project done.
They are also working on adding artificial intelligence to their Scope of Work and List of Materials features to help save even more time in managing future rehabs by ‘remembering’ the numbers from prior projects.
They are also coming out with the ability for investors to order Yellow Letters to market to motivated sellers directly from the website with a few clicks of a mouse. And their price for the letters should be very competitive.
The first part of the software was released in the first quarter of 2017. A lot of the follow up depends on you…
Are you actively involved in a rehab project?
It might be worth it to you to try out the software and provide feedback. I’m sure the founder would appreciate it.
Share
Tell us about your experience with REsimpli in the comments section below.
Systematize Your Business – Reinventing the wheel every time you do a new deal is costing you money and time. Figure out systems and put them in place.
Get it in Writing – Use your head for creative stuff, not to try to remember all the details. Write down project lists and definitely use contracts to protect yourself.
Avoid Low-Value Activities – Such as shopping for materials. Spend your time on high-value activities like negotiating deals and managing the overall projects.