Why Do You Invest in North Carolina? (Testimonial Request!)

Question

BiggerPockets! I'm working on building a landing page for North Carolina and/or the cities of Fayetteville, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro. Would anyone be willing to share why you choose to invest in the state and/or city? What makes your state so wonderful?

Jason E. Smith · Answer

Hey Lauren, Hope you are doing great!  That would be awesome if we had our own landing page!  Thank you!  Just to give a quick history of how we got to where we are today I'll share a quick sound bite.  North Carolina was known for tobacco, textiles and furniture.  All industries that have been shifted overseas.  So that many large key industries moving off shore has challenged NC.  A lot of small towns based upon one large employer have struggled after that employer left US soil.  Charlotte has done a phenomenal job of re-inventing themselves as a banking/finance city.  Their population growth & job growth over the past ten years has been a statement to their efforts to attract talent.  Raleigh/Durham area (also known as Triangle area) has become known for research and tech companies.  To the west is the mountain town of Asheville.  If you love outdoors this is the place to be.  More of a quiet community for those who love cooler weather, hiking, kayaking, peace and love.  The population growth and job growth isn't as sound as Charlotte but this is a nice tourist destination.  Would be more of a vacation rental investment play.  Winston Salem, Greensboro and High Point make up an area known as the Triad.  This is the area we live in.  You can be skiing in the mountains in about a two hour drive or at the ocean in about a three hour drive.  But this area hasn't really found it's identity yet like Charlotte or Raleigh Durham.  If/when they find their industry focus and begin attracting companies and people of that industry I think you'll see greater job and population growth then.  But till then it's more of a steady 3% per year and light traffic area.  Other factors I think play a big role in why it's a great state to invest would be low taxes, affordable labor, great weather all year and landlord friendly.  A lot of people who began moving to Florida from New York for retirement or to avoid cold winters started coming to NC because it's more affordable yet still nice climate.  The term "half backs" was given to this crowd.  Even today when you're in Blowing Rock during the summer you find many Florida license plates.  We also don't seem to get such drastic rapid appreciation as some other cities do.  Which may look like a negative when investors in other states are making lots via paper appreciation of money at the end of a market cycle but looks better when NC remains stable as other over priced markets correct.  So those are my two cents.  Let me know if you have anymore questions of if there's anything else we can do to help!  Thank you!  And please share the link for the landing page if  you do create one.

Laura Shinkle · Answer

I can't speak to the entire state, Charlotte is my turf. One big reason Charlotte is so popular right now is that from a lot of different angles, it is a sturdy, diverse economy that is rapidly growing. More people are moving here every day than we are building homes for so the price of homes, especially in the affordable price range, is going up. Our year over year appreciation for the Charlotte region is over 8% on average and some zip codes have seen a 30%+ increase year over year which is INSANE! With prices where they are and rents also increasing, you can still stand to cash flow as well, although there are certainly other areas of the country that have better cash flow. This market is a happy medium between appreciation and cash flow.

As previously mentioned, we have been known as a banking city and of course that is still strongly rooted here. There are also more and more diverse industries moving headquarters to Charlotte or companies that have been here a long time (Lance) that are growing. Click HERE for a list of Fortune 500 and 1000 companies in the Charlotte region.

As also previously mentioned, NC weather is very mild compared to other areas of the country. Charlotte was actually ranked in the top 10 cities in the world for quality of life, alongside Raleigh, in a recent study from the user-contributed database website Numbeo. Click HERE for that article reported by the Charlotte Observer.

Just a few things about our area. Hope that helps!

Chris Levarek · Answer

@Lauren Hogan We invest out of state in North Carolina. We like the Raleigh-Durham and Fayetteville markets but North Carolina as a whole has great economic indicators when compared to the National Average.

The tech industry growth/presence (Cisco, Redhat, IBM, Lenovo, etc) and job diversity in Raleigh-Durham, the well-established Universities & student/affordable housing needs, the friendly landlord regulations, the favorable affordability gap (difference between cost to rent and cost of mortgage monthly) and the population growth are all some great reasons.

Speaking of population growth, check out U-Haul's migration trends of 2019. Raleigh-Durham #1.

The Fayetteville market is also a great cash-flowing market with a bustling support system (Ft. Bragg - largest military base in world) and growing infrastructure (recent MLB stadium built for example). As veterans ourselves, we are also really enjoying the interactions and network we are building around the Fayetteville market in our investments with other veterans, military and/or investors/partners.

It's also a beautiful state! So the visits are nice... :)

David Lee · Answer

I live in Caldwell County NC and that is where I invest. NC use to be the furniture capital of the world and Caldwell County is where a lot of the manufacturers where based. A lot has changed in the last 20 years with furniture leaving this area with loss of jobs and the housing market crash. Since then things have been on the up swing with other types of jobs coming in like Google, MDi, and Exela Pharma. Real estate is on the up swing here.

Kristi Davis · Answer

We chose the Raleigh/Durham due to the economic growth that is being realized. Large businesses, recent examples being Microsoft and Eli Lilly,  and are flocking to the area. We are becoming a biomedical and informational technology power house. Companies are choosing to move here due to the much lower cost of living that does not sacrifice the convenience, culture, and entertainment of living in a larger City. We chose to focus our investments on corporate rentals, by turning our rental properties into fully furnished housing. We have found the ROI to be in some cases up to three times the ROI of a traditional rentals. With the RTP (Research Triangle Park) being in between Raleigh and Durham, our investments do extremely well as we serve corporate clients in the area.

Brad Collins · Answer

Hi @Lauren Hogan, this is a fantastic idea and I look forward to reading the posts that follow! Jason gave a perfect picture of North Carolina as a whole.

We just bought our first rental property here in Winston-Salem and the reason was quite simple - being that it was our first investment property, we wanted to buy something in a market we're familiar with. I have been here for 4 years now and have come to really love this little town. The downtown area is being revitalized, the hospitals provide some relatively steady/secure forms of employment for much of the area, Wake Forest is just up the street, and we're 2 hours from Asheville, an hour from Charlotte, and 4 hours from the beach. It's not a bad place to be!

Raul R. · Answer

Living in an expensive market I chose NC because I was looking for markets that offer good appreciation and could still cash flow with tenants Laws more Landlord Friendly compare to my local market. I visited CLT 4 years ago for the first time after doing my research and saw everything @Jason E. Smith mentioned on his post and picked that city to start my investment journey. All the research I did pointed CLT had good job & population growth but actually visiting the city and seeing all their infrastructure improvement they were doing at the time and still continuing to do validated all my research.CLT having a major airport with many flight options to my local city made it easy for me to travel back and forth.. As an OOS investor learning, in the beginning had to do more trips than I liked..

Abigail Gibson · Answer

I live and invest in Asheville/Western North Carolina. Its a beautiful area that is only going to continue to appreciate over the next 10+ years. As people look for more affordable places to live, many have identified the South as a good place to focus their efforts. You can sell a condo in CA and buy a big, beautiful home with incredible view here. It is difficult to hit a 2% or even a 1% return, but people aren't going to stop moving to NC anytime soon, which has been emphasized by COVID, so for a long term hold NC is a great place to put your money. As places like Austin and Portland and Denver become larger and more expensive, Asheville has become a very attractive alternative.  That being said, Asheville has a shortage of jobs, so it will be hindered in its growth by either A. big businesses coming here or B. people's ability to work remotely.

Patrick Knapp · Answer

I'm a licensed General contractor and real estate investor for the Fayetteville and Raleigh area.

Fayetteville has been a great buy and hold area because of Fort Bragg (place I served in the army). Lately with how the market has been flipping is better than ever. Issues with Fayetteville though is that the town relies on the base for rents. So basic alloted housing (BAH) somewhat controls thr rents, bit lately thats been changing. If you plan to flip don't expect bid DD or EM because military families are broke and are gonna use a VA loan.

Raleigh is one of the best growing markets in the country for jobs. The area has lots of stuff to do but boy has it become tough to buy in the Raleigh market. Rents don't have as good of return in my opinion like Fayetteville, but better potential for flips. Getting a 10k DD is normal where in Fayetteville it's extremely rare.

NC can be a fantastic state to rent in and I love to call it home

Lauren Hogan · Answer

Thank you for all the replies! You all are amazing. When the pages are created, I'll share the link with you all.

Why Do You Invest in North Carolina? (Testimonial Request!)

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