Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is a condo conversion?
A condo conversion is the process of legally turning an apartment building into individual condos to be sold separately for a profit. This can be done to a building you already own, or to one you purchase. Often, condo conversions also include renovations to the buildings and individual condos to increase salability and market value.
Why is a condo conversion so profitable?
Well, this is explained in much more detail in the first chapter of the book, but mostly it’s because a condo conversion is a form of arbitrage. Apartment buildings tend to sell for a lot less per square foot than condos do. If you buy an apartment building at $100 per square foot, renovations cost $30 per square foot, mortgage interest and other expenses cost you $30 per square foot, and then you sell your condos for $200 per square foot, then your profit is $40 per square foot. On a 10,000 square foot building, that’s $400,000 in profit, which might take a year to complete. This is a lot more than most small- to medium-sized investors can make using any other real estate investing vehicle in the same time frame.
How does the guarantee/return policy work?
If you decide that you didn’t get at least $297 in value from our kit (which is hard to imagine, since it’s so packed with great info that can be applied to more than just condo conversion investing), then just send us a letter to our Returns Department at:
Permanent Weekend LLC, c/o Returns Department, 2870 North Speer Boulevard, Suite 280, Denver, CO 80211
Please explain why you didn't like the product and what you felt was lacking, and where and to whom we should send the check. As soon as we receive it, we will send you a check for $397, the purchase price plus an extra $100 for your hassle. Better yet, you can keep all the downloads. It’s that simple.
If you find the kit useful, then keep it. If the kit doesn’t live up to your expectations, then get your money back plus $100.
The guarantee seems too good to be true. There’s literally no risk for me to buy. Is it really that easy?
Yes.
I’m new to real estate investing. Is a condo conversion right for me?
It’s hard to say. Condo conversions can definitely get complex, but any kind of investing is complex. It’s often just as much work to buy a 100-unit apartment building as it is to buy a duplex, but the profits are astronomically more for the 100-unit building. The same rule applies to condo conversions. If you’re going to get into real estate investing, why not start where the profit margins are huge?
But I don’t have much money, should I start small and try big condo conversions another day?
Perhaps. I personally did my first condo conversion with literally a few hundred dollars in the bank. I borrowed the rest. As a result, I was pretty heavily-leveraged, which definitely caused a lot of problems, but I still made it through very profitably. After that, I had plenty of capital for my next deals.
That said, I certainly do advise that you have some money to invest, some money as a cushion, and decent income. If you literally have no money and no income, you’ll crash and burn if and when you hit the smallest bump in the road. Don’t look to real estate to solve your immediate money problems. I’ve seen many would-be investors make that mistake. Instead, get on your feet first, and then use real estate investing as a vehicle to set yourself up for the future. If this is you, start smaller and work your way into something bigger.
One thought to keep in mind is the fact that you can actually do a conversion on a duplex, triplex, or quad. In fact, even duplex conversions can be quite profitable. Duplex conversions also don’t require much time, capital, or expertise, relatively speaking. You don’t have to jump in and buy a $10,000,000 project for your first deal. Start where you feel comfortable.
$297 is a lot of money for a bunch of downloads. Will I get $297 in value out of this kit?
If you are seriously considering investing in a condo conversion project, the closing costs alone will be many-fold greater than $297. You could be investing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, all told. Investing another $297 to ensure you know what he heck you’re doing seems like a no-brainer.
In fact, at one point, we sold this and other similar informational products as physical, printed-up (and hefty) tomes, CD-ROMs, booklets, and so on. In order to cover our printing, shipping, labor, inventory, marketing costs, and overhead, our price was originally $900, which we considered a good value even at those prices, and our several of our customers actually wrote to tell us that we were grossly underpriced for what they received (no exaggeration).
To date, we've never had a single customer return this or any other of our products, even when they cost a lot more. Eventually, we decided we could reach a lot more people more afforably, and for roughly the same net profit per sale, if we dramatically dropped all our prices and only offered electronic versions of our products. If you would like a physical copy of The Complete Condo Conversion Kit, we probably have a few in inventory still, so we could sell one to you. Let us know if you do want to buy one. But it's exactly the same information and files as the electronic versions, so save yourself the money and just buy the downloads instead.
Let’s look at it a different way. Let’s say you read through the manual and booklets, work through the spreadsheets, put the forms to use, and use all the other resources too. Then, fully-prepared, you go out and buy and complete your condo conversion project. Let’s say the knowledge, wisdom, and tools found in the kit help you to maximize your profits and earn an extra $25,000 on the project, which is very reasonable. Let’s say the kit also helped you avoid some major blunders, which saved you another $25,000, and is also quite reasonable. Your $297 investment just earned you an extra $50,000. That’s a 16,835% return on investment. Not too shabby.
The last and most-telling point is that, to our knowledge, there is no other similar product out there on the market today. While we have been able to find plenty of other how-to real estate investing packages and kits, most of them are priced much, much, much higher than $297. More importantly, none are geared toward condo conversions. The knowledge and tools you need are only found in our reasonably-priced kit. We think the price is quite fair, possibly even on the low side, given the value of the tools and resources in the kit. And don't forget that you can probably write off the cost of the purchase as a business expense.
Are condo conversions allowed and profitable in my area?
For a vast majority of cities, yes. For your city? It’s impossible to say without more information. This is what you will find out in your initial research, and that’s what our kit can help you to figure out. One thought for you: is there any reason why you must invest only in your own backyard? Why not the next city, state, or province over from yours? It might take more planning and a local partner or project manager, but people do it all the time.
I don’t live in a big city. Can a condo conversion work in my small town?
Absolutely. You’ll want to do your homework to make sure the numbers work in your area (there’s lots about this subject in the kit), but if condos currently sell in your area, then a conversion will probably work. If your town is so small that there are no condos at all (I grew up in a town like that), then ask some local realtors to find out if they think condos would realistically sell, and if so, for how much. I’ve found that sometimes apartment buildings can be bought so cheaply in small, rural towns that condo conversions can be very, very profitable. You just need to know your market well and do all the same due diligence you would anywhere else.
I’ve heard about big condo developers going bust in Florida and California in the news recently. If they can’t survive, how can I hope to?
The big condo developers overbuilt for their areas. It’s dumb and entirely preventable, but developers do this all the time. Before buying in any specific neighborhood, you’ll do plenty of research to make sure condos are actually selling, and if so, are they selling at prices that will make you money?
The Condo Conversion Manual that comes in the kit contains a whole section on understanding and identifying the types of neighborhoods that are ripe for condo conversions. Nearly every city has neighborhoods like this. On the off chance your city doesn’t, then it might soon, or perhaps the next city over does.
What about the crash of the real estate and financial markets. Do condo conversions work in today’s market?
Definitely. One of the unique features of condo conversions is that they work in both sellers markets and buyers markets. This is because you will both buy and sell property within a relatively short period. You’ll either be at an advantage when you buy the apartment building and score a great deal (buyers market), or you’ll be at an advantage when you sell your condos, getting top dollar. Rarely will you be able to manage both.
Also, there’s a lot of talk about leveling and decreasing property values lately. This doesn’t matter whole lot to a conversion investor. You’re not investing (i.e. praying) for appreciation. You’re making a value play, which means you’re buying something for a lot less than you can immediately turn around and sell it for. If the market goes up or down a few points, it won’t affect your bottom line a whole lot either way.
As a matter of fact, today’s market is a great time to invest in real estate of all kinds, since the doom and gloom headlines tend to keep the masses away. Buy low and sell high is the name of the game. We’ll never see lower prices than we can find now, and there are serious deals to be found everywhere these days. It’s a wide open market for those of us in the know.
How much work will a condo conversion require of me?
This depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is the size and scope of the project. It also depends on how much you plan on doing yourself and how much you contract out to others. A duplex will probably require a few busy weekends and evenings, plus some midday calls here and there on weekdays. A 10-or 20-unit project requiring major renovations will likely require 10-20 hours a week for several months, at minimum. Make no mistake, condo conversions are a business, not a passive form of investing. They are incredibly profitable, but do require some time investment.
How long will a condo conversion project take?
As you might expect, this all depends on the size and scope of the project. A duplex can be converted and sold for profit in a matter of a few months. A 100-unit apartment building will take much longer. A good rule of thumb is that it will take roughly one month per unit to sell all the condos in the project, once you’ve begun putting them on the market. It will take you at least two to three months before you can put your first unit on the market, and possibly longer.
How much will I need to invest to complete a condo conversion?
This all depends on the size and scope of your intended project. I’ve literally completed conversion projects entirely with borrowed and/or other investors’ money, so it’s definitely possible to do conversion without a dime of your own. There is an entire chapter in the manual showing how you can do the same. Generally speaking, however, you should count on needing to come up with (one way or another) at least 20% of the purchase price and 20% of all other budgeted costs. On a small project, such as a duplex, this can be as little as $20,000 to $50,000, but it all depends on the purchase price and scope of the renovations you’ll be doing. Larger projects obviously require more capital.
What will I learn from the kit?
You will learn literally everything you need to know in order to be successful as a condo conversion investor. This kit is designed to be your own personal mentor in this complex but profitable arena.
The manual breaks the process down into seven distinct stages, beginning with your initial preparation and taking you all the way through selling your individual condos. The spreadsheets, Word docs, and pdf's include every form you could possibly need, template business plans, interesting articles, and, most importantly, several spreadsheets that help you to analyze, budget, and plan potential and current condo conversion projects. You’ll also have access to myriad resources including useful websites, must-read books, quality vendors, and more. With this kit, you could literally begin a project not knowing a single thing about condo conversions and take the building all the way through to successful and extremely profitable completion, all in a matter of months.
How long will it take to be delivered?
Immediately, via email. Everything in this kit is downloadable.
I live in Canada. Can I buy one of your kits?
Yes. The material in the kit applies to Canada just as well as it does to the United States.
I live in (some other country besides the U.S. or Canada). Can I buy one of your kits? Will the material apply to my country?
Yes and yes. The information in this kit is written not only for Americans, but with a worldwide audience in mind as well. Generally speaking, the real estate laws found in the United States exist with minor variations throughout the world. I can't guarantee that your country allows for condo conversions, but most do.
Are the kits available in other languages?
Not yet. Is there a language you would like to see it offered in?
What is Permanent Weekend?
Besides just being a catchy phrase, Permanent Weekend (PW) is the parent company that owns and sells The Complete Condo Conversion Kit. PW currently has several other similar products, and even more are schedule to be released soon. Come back to our website periodically to check out the recent additions. Many of the additional products are real estate niche based, so if you like The Condo Kit, you’ll probably like them as well.
What does the Converters’ Club membership include?
The Converters’ Club includes access to quality vendors, lots of downloads, and a continually growing list of additional resources and tools. We’re working on creating a way to network with other local condo conversion investors, so stay tuned.
What is the privacy policy for Permanent Weekend and The Complete Condo Conversion Kit?
We abhor spam as much as you do. We will never send you unsolicited emails, nor will we sell your information to anyone else. Your privacy is safe with us.
Furthermore, we use Paypal for all our credit card and debit card processing because they are one of the most secure methods available for processing payments online. We couldn’t get your card information if we wanted to, and we prefer to keep it that way to protect everyone involved.