Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

One of the overwhelming parts of house flipping, for a relative rookie, is finding a property and you are under the gun to come up with a cost to rehab it that ultimately leads to your offer to the seller. That can be the moment of truth; the make or break for the whole deal. Everyone is looking for the magic bean on how to quickly estimate rehab costs, especially for short sales and foreclosures, where time can be critical. This book, unfortunately, is kind of sold as that magic bean, in my opinion, and it will get you no closer to the beanstalk, unfortunately. It surprises me how highly regarded and recommended this book is on a variety of websites. I found it to be frustrating and vague, at best. I am glad I didn't pay much for it, as I literally leafed through it like a brochure. First, if you are a contractor (which I am part-time) or someone who has dabbled in rehab work on a few houses and has a little experience (which I also have), the useful content in this book could be about 20 pages long. The author spends the first few pages of the book talking about making a plan for rehab, which includes a SOW (scope of work). This got me excited, picturing walking around with a clipboard, really getting down and dirty about what needs to be fixed and to what extent; making quick rule-of-thumb estimates. The problem is, he never really discusses exactly how to make the plan, just that you should have one. Duh? The other frustration for anyone with handy know-how is that the majority (100+ pages) of the book describes, sometimes in inaccurate gory detail, each component or job you might encounter. For example, the author claims that the most popular gutters for houses are aluminum, when it is actually seamless steel. He also repeatedly uses terms like "linear" feet for measurements, when it is actually "lineal." The other major frustration here is that for the really big stuff that can derail a rehab project, like concrete and foundation issues, he repeats a phrase several times and in several different contexts that, "there is simply not enough room in this book" to spend time talking about it. I was thinking, if you spent less time explaining, ad nauseam, what things like vinyl siding and asphalt shingles are, you would have enough room to talk about the really important stuff that could turn a deal south in a hurry. This book is much better suited for non-contractor, not-so-handy folks looking to get into real estate investing by doing rehabs. Here's the problem, while these individuals may find the material and job descriptions I found boring and useless to be very helpful, that is only one part of the equation. Why people really buy this book is to determine rehab costs and the book falls short in this category, as well. For example, for almost every rehab item, the author provides a range of pricing that's something like "$500-2000." That is simply not helpful because there is no context applied to the range. Anyone could do this. "How much money would you like to make next year?" "Oh, between $1 million and $1 billion." Seriously? Only a moron doesn't know that labor and materials are going to cost way more in Los Angeles, for example, than in Laramie, Wyoming. With this author's alleged experience, a pricing index in the form of a map of the US divided up into zones or regions would have been much more helpful. Provide the reader with an average cost and then let them use the index to determine markup or markdown for their area. An updated index is something the author could charge for on a website and earn additional revenue. Sadly, this would require actual work and research on the author's part, which is what many of these books lack. Finally, when I read Luke Weber's excellent book, "The Flipping Blueprint" (recommended), he gets into detail on what to fix/rehab and why based on comps, price range, neighborhood, etc. For example, when you walk into an older home and determine that none of the electrical is grounded, when do you choose to rewire the house? Obviously, code plays a role, but the rate of diminishing returns does too. When do you go with granite vs. laminate countertops? I imagined from the hype and description of this book that it would be the holy grail for that type of information, taking Weber's discussions to the next level. There is virtually none of that here. Some people might find this book helpful if they have little to no experience with materials and labor. For the rest, I would save your money.