Property Rehab Tours
Hit Southern California
C
hristian and Ruth are real es-
tate investors who are also
known as the “Property Flip
Pros.” They regularly take a
bus load of investors
around Southern California to show
them their own projects and to teach
them how to rehab properties. They
personally are taking full advantage
of the current foreclosure market.
One of the best ways to learn is
through experiencing things first
hand, the same holds true for rehab-
bing properties. The best way for po-
tential flippers to learn how to rehab
properties is to learn from the pros in
person. This is exactly why Christian
Yepez and Ruth Ortiz decided to start
providing investors with property tours.
The experienced rehab duos have been flip-
ping for 15 years. “Many investors want to
do what we do, but they don’t know how,”
Ruth says and adds: “We take them through
the process and we tell them what we do to
add value and make the property sell faster
and for more money.”
The tour I attended was frequented by
a group of about 30 investors. All were
eager to learn some real estate secrets and
shortcuts. Many of the people on the tour
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were already investors, most of them were
looking for the type of surge in cash that
only real estate can provide in today’s great
foreclosure market.
New investors find this property flip tour
very educational, there is a lot to learn, this
is the Real World of the property flipping
business.
Ruth and Christian provide one of the
few property bus tours in Southern Cali-
fornia. When asked what areas they like
to focus on, Christian replies: “We will go
anywhere the numbers are good.”
Like most experienced rehabbers, Chris-
tian and Ruth rely on a combination of pri-
vate and hard money to acquire, renovate
PAGE 30 • 2011
and carry the property until it’s sold to a
retail buyer. They rely on good business
relationships with REO brokers and real
estate agents who bring them deals often.
They also utilize well trained virtual assis-
tants to scout different multiple listing ser-
vices for deals and also to help them submit
low ball offers.
Many offers need to be made before one
sticks.
“Sometimes we’ll land a deal that we
forgot we made an offer on,” chuckles
Ruth. In addition to scouring the MLS,
Christian and Ruth buy properties at auc-
tion and pick up discounted REOs and
shortsales, they also on occasion work with
distressed owners and negotiate short sales.
Being bilingual (English/Spanish) gives
the team a competitive edge in bargaining
directly with contractors for the best rehab
estimates.
“Cost is a big factor in the success of a
rehab, we try and hire the most affordable
crew we can even if it means having to su-
pervise them more,” admits Ruth.
The last entire home rehab they com-
pleted cost only $25,000. Regular price
for the same project elsewhere runs around
$40,000. That price includes a new kitchen,
new two bathroom remodels, new floors
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