Property in same neighborhood as a TurnKey provider?

[Neel P.]

Hi all, 

I’m a bit of a novice and these forums have been fantastic. I’m specifically looking at out of state investing because of where I live (Los Angeles). This led me to research turnkey providers and that strategy of buying from them. 

From my understanding, TurnKey providers are geared towards investors who want to do the least work possible (less time / less return). They rehab the property and find tenants, and therefore charge a markup. The other end of the spectrum are investors who do the buys/rehabs themselves (more time / more return). 

I am somewhere in the middle....I don’t want to do an out of state rehab, but I have more time than the typical TurnKey investor. What I don’t have is insider knowledge on out-of-state markets and which neighborhoods to invest in vs avoid. 

Is it a viable strategy to find an almost ready-made property (minimal repairs) in the same neighborhood as a TurnKey property, buy it, and then find my own property manager? Essentially piggy-backing off the TurnKey providers market research to find the good market and neighborhood...specifically looking at market data that companies like Jason Hartman’s group or The Real Wealth Network are in. Could even use the same vetted property management companies that those networks pitch. A bit more work on my end, but (hopefully) with more return.

Would a semi-TurnKey strategy like that juice up returns? Any holes in this strategy?

Thanks all!

Neel

[Kyle McCorkel]

@Neel P.

The two properties you described are apples and oranges.  The more expensive property is larger and newer.  But, I would almost guarantee if you did a cash on cash return analysis on both properties, the $99K turnkey one would give you a higher return.  The situation would be different if you found an identical property to the turnkey one listed for LESS.

The main questions you want to ask yourself are (after first vetting and getting comfortable with the team) if you are comfortable with the returns on the turnkey property AND will it appraise at or above $99K.  Good turnkey companies will sell it to you at or slightly below "retail" value.  As long as you are buying at or slightly below retail, it doesn't really matter how much of a "premium" the turnkey company is making.  

Turnkey companies are essentially flippers with a property management department.  So they make money on the equity gain after the renovations, then they make money off the property management.