Matt Atkinson Notes Part 2

Matt picks a specific city he likes to work in so that he becomes an expert in that area


Pick a five-mile radius that you’re interested in, either where you work or where you live.

A mile in salt lake county is 8 city blocks

Matt typically budgets 10-15k for a buy and hold home and 25-35k for a fix and flip home.

Rental, vinyl versus Pergo/hardwood, KSL appliances vs. stainless steel, flush mounted vs. recessed lights

He’ll redo guts/plumbing cause who knows when the last time it was done for a rental

Buy and Holding benefits: taxes, cash flow, equity, appreciation, diversity, and portfolio

Holding negatives and costs: property management, tenants, property maintenance, vacancies, vandalism, and market change

Rule of thumb: don’t purchase anything more than 300-400% of your income, i.e. make 30k a year don’t buy something more than 90-120k or 50k is 150-200k.

Fix and flip benefits: quick income, opportunity, less exposure, no tenant/landlord duties

Fix and flip negatives and costs: drug substances, market, no wealth, and budgeting/timing issues

Bought one, then another and another and THEN he created a system. Moral of that story, build the system first and then do real estate.

20% increase to budget for starting out fixing and flipping cause you don’t know what you’re doing

If condo is not Fannie/Freddie approved you’ll have to put 20-25% down with a portfolio lender

203k’s are so much work Matt says.

Hard money financing and investment was 14k out of pocket to fix a home bought for 60-65k cash, and then refinanced using receipts and justification for increase in value. You can have 10 of these on your own credit/name. 0-4 you can go 80% LTV, 5-10 you have 70% LTV per Fannie Mae. He recommends hard money lending in your name and then at refinance do it to the LLC.

Fix and flip in company name, buy and hold in personal name.

Fix and flip favorites: paint and carpet, kitchen, bath, windows, landscaping, adding square footage (i.e. he’ll run heating duct into garage and that adds another x amount in square footage)