First Time Charlotte REI

[Kyle Belles]

Hi there,

I'm new to BP and am down-the-rabbit hole of their real estate investing podcast series. Thanks to everyone for the helpful posts I've read so far!

My wife and I will hopefully be first time rental property owners later this year and are doing our research now. We're prepared from a financing perspective but I'm hoping to learn more about the process of actually finding and closing on the right investment property in the Charlotte market, specifically:

1) Recommendations for Charlotte REI networking groups - I've seen a few mentioned in different threads here but they appear event-specific from this past month

2) Ideas on approaching the property search - Are there local RE agents / firms that specialize in REI properties around town? I have a bunch of pre-filtered saved searches on MLS but it feels like they disappear before I can price them into my model.

3) What to watch out for in property #1 - BP podcasts have a ton of great examples that I've learned a lot from, but would love to hear more about local stories and lessons learned. We are planning on using a property manager FWIW

4) Thoughts on purchasing a rental outside of Charlotte - My first thought was to look only in the 485 belt, but supply continues to seem limited and demand remains high. We've been exploring fringe neighborhoods and other neighboring cities and towns that I think will continue to grow as the city expands (Matthews, Indian Trail, Belmont, East Charlotte, Gastonia). We've been in Charlotte just over 2 years and are still learning the neighborhoods.

5) General thoughts on this local market - I'm not trying to arbitrage the market by any means, but price appreciation seems like it's unsustainable. This will be a long-term hold-and-rent property for us, so I'm less worried about a market crash / correction and more concerned about overpaying for our first property.

Thank you and look forward to connecting!

Kyle