Raleigh Suburbs: general area/investing questions

[Joseph Shevy]

Hey Everyone! My name is Joe - I currently live in upstate NY and may have the option of moving to the Raleigh area for work. Im excited for this possibility, as this area offers MANY more opportunities than the area I currently live.

So - there is only so much you can learn from Google. Ive researched different suburbs that i might like, but I'd love to hear from investors, agents, brokers, etc., on which areas are nicest to raise a family? Which areas are best for cash/cash returns, appreciation, etc.? Which are growing fastest? Are HOA's typical and how much are they usually? What type of investing do you do in the area, and why?

My goal, if everything worked out how I'd want it to (it never does), i would find an area I like and house hack a single family house, that i could update and rent out eventually. I currently own 8 doors in NY, and would probably liquidate my lower cash flow properties and move that money into NC real estate.

Please reply or message me if you have anything you can share! Even if its just to tell me which areas you prefer.

Also, I am looking to make a trip down in July, and would love to connect with investors/agents in the area and possibly look at a few houses.

Thank you,

Joe

[Jerry Agbon]

Hello Joseph! I was in a similar situation a year ago, my wife and I were moving to NC from MA, we have to decide between Raleigh and Charlotte, visited NC for 2 weeks, drove around to both Raleigh and Charlotte, then decided Raleigh was the better city for us.

Sold our primary residential single family house in Quincy MA, of 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms for 599K with a profit of 250K. Then, bought a 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms condo in Raleigh for 85K, paid cash, and then moved in last year May. Our monthly expense dropped by about 80% by making this move, that means we can now save more.

We also have a rental triplex in Dorchester MA. once the move to Raleigh was completed, the next objective was to start looking for investment properties to replace our triplex in MA. We then put the triplex on the market using a 1031exchange, to avoid cap gain tax. We were expecting to replace our MA triplex with another triplex or quad in Raleigh, but we quickly realized that houses here are a lot cheaper compared to those in Boston, and for 1031exchange we needed something of equal or more in price range comparison. So, the only choice left to use was to go MFH, from 12 units and above. We decided not to make purchase in Raleigh main town because of low cashflow, set a parameter of 2 hours drive from Raleigh, found a 36 MFH deal, clench the deal, sold the triplex in Boston and make the payment using 1031 exchange from the triplex, quadrupled  our cash flow, now am back on the market looking for more MFH to buy.

In the process of our research, we decided to stay out of the red hot market zones like Raleigh and Charlotte, rather to focus on those up and coming towns that are in between these 2 competing cities. That seems to've paid off handsomely so far, even with the covid crisis we've just had.

I hope this would be of some help and encouragement to you. I wish you the very best in your endeavors!