North Carolina vs South Carolina Rentals

[Nathan Barshinger]

I never bought a rental property before and I'm thinking about out of state investing in the Carolinas. Of course I'll need the core 4 especially since it's out of state but if I were to find them in a certain 1 or 2 markets I'm thinking about Sumter SC, Columbia SC, Greensboro NC, Fayetteville NC and Durham NC. Does anyone recommend a particular market? If anyone invests in any of those markets, what do you like about it? What do you dislike? Is it easy to find off market properties in that certain market? How are the returns? How easy is it to find the core 4? I apologize for all the questions but any answers are GREATLY appreciated!! Thank you in advance!

[David Lutz]

I buy in NC and GA. Feel free to PM me.  My only big comment is that SC passed a law a while ago that prevents taxes on homesteaders from going up with increased property appraisals. Sounds good on the surface, helps keep fixed income folks in their homes, but it forced the state to lean really heavily on everyone else to make up the gap. And the need keeps going up because more homesteaders keep moving in because of the low taxes and what was a great school system. Puts even more pressure on budgets because there's more demand without the tax base. Anyway, net effect is that property taxes for investment properties are about 3x what they are for homeowners in SC. So it's really hard to find properties that make sense to buy.

I like greensboro. Don't know Fayetteville as well. Just make sure you research those cities and know what areas to buy in and which to avoid. There are some good forums on that already.