One real estate investing mistake cost house flipper James Dainard $380,000. This mistake was so bad that, in the long run, it may have cost him up to three-quarters of a million dollars. So what was the grave mistake a multi-decade veteran house flipper made that would bankrupt the average real estate investor? Stick around to find out unless you want your house to literally start falling off a cliff (like James’ did).
James has been doing real estate deals in Seattle for two decades. He’s flipped hundreds of houses, but even the experts get it wrong sometimes. Piggybacking from our last episode, James will walk through one of the worst house flips he’s EVER done, the mistakes he could have easily avoided, and why you never, EVER close on a flip until you have permits in place.
David:
Welcome to the BiggerPockets Real Estate podcast. Today is the second of two episodes about deals gone wrong, shows where you hear from real estate pros about mistakes they made so that you don’t have to, especially important in a challenging market like this one, where it’s very hard to make those numbers work.
Rob:
Today, we’re going to be diving right into a deal with our good friend, James Dainard, an expert investor and host of the BiggerPockets On The Market podcast. James calls this deal Humpty Dumpty because the property itself had a great fall, and it’s also a deal where he happened to lose $380,000.
David:
And I’ll say it again, being a strong real estate investor isn’t about never losing money, because that’s going to happen. It’s about being prepared so that when you do lose money, you bounce back, have strong fundamentals, know how to react, and have a plan to get yourself back in the game. Let’s get into it.
Rob:
So James, when did this deal happen and how experienced were you at the time?
James:
I would say I was very experienced. This deal happened in the last 24 months. I’ve been investing since 2005. One thing I can tell you is if you invest…