Recommendation for detailed home inspector in Kansas City - SFR

[Amanda Lam]

I'm an out-of-state investor getting ready to purchase 6 investment properties in the Kansas City area (primarily suburbs about 15-20 minutes from downtown) from two turnkey providers. 

Would appreciate any recommendations for great home inspectors in that area. I'd love to work with a referral from the forums so I can get an independent opinion from an inspector who doesn't have an existing relationship with my providers.

The more aggressive about uncovering potential issues, the better. I want to know as much about what I'm buying before we close as possible so we minimize surprises down the line.

[Amanda Lam]

@Adam M. - thanks for the info on the startup community in KC. Google Fiber was one of the reasons I was attracted to the area, but I hadn't looked into how much traction there is already with the developer community -- really appreciate the insights!

@Adam London - I've been thinking about diversifying outside of the Bay Area for about a year now, went into earnest research phase for about 4 months but I'll try and share my thought process and filters to help you get some momentum.

How did you choose KC as your market?

- Wanted to diversify my real estate holdings, felt I had too much in the Bay Area - and in the next recession/market softening, I want some cash flow that's more protected from market volatility. 

- Because the Bay Area is such a boom/bust environment, I wanted to cash in on the equity I had built up on my most recent purchase (the SJ condo) and move that money to a more stable real estate market. 

- Areas I looked into, Indianapolis, Atlanta, San Antonio, Cleveland, Memphis, parts of Florida. 

- First filter - any city that I read about that had good purchase prices compared to rental income I considered. Lots of articles on the 1% rule that give you a quick way to evaluate without doing much math at the outset.

- Once I had my narrower list, I dug into census data to look at job and population growth, net migration, diversification of the local economy. I wanted an area that had a long track record of steady job growth, growing population, out of staters consistently migrating there for lifestyle/jobs, good balance demographically (types of workers, age of residents, etc.). I did research into major employers to get a sense of how deep their investment was there (in 5 years was there a chance they might move their headquarters elsewhere, or was the capital investment significant enough, they'll be there for the long-haul)

- Next filter was finding a good turnkey provider / property manager to partner with. I was initially really focused on Indianapolis, I think the downtown growth and attractiveness of lifestyle there are really promising, and I saw a lot of the indicators that made me invest in Williamsburg in Brooklyn before that became a highly desirable area, and similar feeling to Oakland and San Jose here in CA (ranked #1 and #2 fastest selling real estate markets by Trulia recently). I couldn't find a turnkey provider and team that I felt I could confidently rely on to scale and help me secure the 5-7 properties I knew I needed to complete my 1031 Exchange, so I started focusing more on Kansas City after coming across lots of recommendations from different folks on Bigger Pockets and other real estate bloggers who had great experiences with Bridge and USREEB.

- Working full-time at a pretty demanding job, living out-of-state from the investments, and with our first baby on the way in November, I need the support of a really trustworthy provider to handle the day-to-day.

How did you choose that specific neighborhood?

- Focusing on A and B+ neighborhoods that are within a 20 min. commute of downtown or located near another mini center of employment (for example Claycomo near the Ford plant - they focus on trucks and made a huge investment in expanding that facility, so unless the world stops needing trucks to haul things, it should be a long-term employer in the area, and the new Cerner innovation campus). 20 min. is the average commute time in that area, so I wanted to stay within that range. I also looked at crime rates, and spoke with my turnkey partners about the types of tenants that typically rent in those neighborhoods.

What do the number look like for you investments?

- I'll do a post on this after we finish our closings and have a few months of data behind us. In general properties are meeting or beating the 1% rule, and more importantly, I'm trying to target properties that will attract longer term tenants to reduce turnover costs/vacancies.

What company did you choose to manage the properties and what do their fees look like?

I went with 2 turnkey providers who are vertically integrated so they handle acquisitions, renovations, and property management. Management fees run between 8-9%. They take their margin on the reno side - you get a property that's ready to go, and tenanted at close.

Hope that helps to get you started! There's a great thread from Chris Nordella below documenting details of his first purchase in the area you should read through.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/41...