There's a $54,500 gap between what a distressed Iowa listing looks like it's worth and what the math actually says.

Iowa foreclosure filings are up roughly 30 percent since the fall of 2024, putting more distressed listings on the Des Moines metro market than investors have seen in years. More listings that look like a deal isn't the same thing as more deals.

The mistake is letting the discount do the thinking. A low asking price feels like a deal before anyone runs a number, and a wide comp spread can hide months of deferred maintenance a struggling seller never fixed.

Rising inventory means more houses to chase, but the math doesn't get easier. Neil Timmins walks through his four-step process for every property: pull true sold comps, walk the mechanicals before the finishes, build a rehab number room by room, and run the 70 percent rule last, never first.

Then he breaks down a real Waukee listing that looked like a steal at $210,000, until 1998 mechanicals, a dying roof, and a full kitchen gut cut the real number to $155,500.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to spot an underpriced foreclosure versus one that just looks underpriced

• How to pull sold comps that reflect true after repair value

• How to walk a property for the red flags that wreck a rehab budget

• How to use days on market as a submarket-specific risk signal

• How to run the 70 percent rule last so the math decides the offer

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/real-estate-deal-analysis-iowa/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

Why would two contractors quote the exact same electrical panel job fifty percent apart?

On the first-ever episode of Flipping Iowa, host Neil Timmins says he's never seen a flip blow its budget because somebody bought the wrong house. He's seen plenty blow up because somebody hired the wrong contractor.

Most investors vet a contractor with a handshake and a good feeling. Neil breaks down the phone call he makes before anyone sets foot on a property, what an insurance certificate has to show, and why he'd rather walk an active job site in Beaverdale than look at a photo of one.

Then there's the story that opens the episode: a borrower staring down a five thousand dollar gap between two electrical bids after an inspector flagged a fire hazard days before closing, and how a referral from Neil's own contractor bench closed that gap by half.

He closes with the five red flags that mean walk away before you've spent a dollar, and a real Johnston flip where the vetting process, not the bid, decided who got hired.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to run a screening call that filters out the wrong contractor early

• How to verify a contractor's license and insurance without taking their word for it

• How to read a job site walkthrough for signs that predict your own timeline

• How to ask reference questions that surface what actually goes wrong

• How to spot the five red flags that mean walk away before you've spent a dollar

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/vet-a-contractor-iowa-flip/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

One piece of drywall turned a $25-a-square-foot rehab into $50 a square foot. What's hiding in your next flip that you haven't priced yet?

Most flips don't go sideways over the purchase price. They go sideways over the rehab number, a guess wearing a dollar sign, borrowed from the last house instead of pulled from the one in front of you.

Neil Timmins just relearned that in Beaverdale, where a bungalow that looked like paint and floors turned into knob and tube wiring behind the basement drywall. One wall changed the whole budget.

The fix is order, not optimism. Mechanicals first, then structural, then finishes, then curb appeal, because a cosmetic flip with a bad panel isn't a cosmetic flip anymore.

Neil and Maggie Monroe walk through the room by room process, real Des Moines-metro rehab numbers, how contingency should scale with what you find, and how the seventy percent rule turns a rehab estimate into a real maximum offer.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to walk a house room by room and catch hidden rehab costs before you offer

• How to price mechanicals, structural work, and finishes in the right order

• How to size your contingency to what you actually find on the walkthrough

• How to run the seventy percent rule to set your true maximum offer

• How to build a contractor bench that gets you a fair price on a surprise

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/estimate-rehab-costs-iowa-flip/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com