Deals to analyze in Birmingham

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Please Help. All opinions welcome. Looking to get both C and B class props in Birmingham. 1). B Class SFH 3/1 1800 square feet (addition done on the back) Large Corner Lot No garage Built 1959 Located in Center Point 35215 area code Irwin Schools Price $70,000 Rent $850 New roof, hard wood floors, new HVAC. Older windows. New paint and basic cosmetic stuff. 2) C class SFH 3/1 962 square feet All brick. Located in Bessemer 35020 Hard wood floors, new HVAC, updated plumbing. New paint and basic cosmetics Price: $50,000 Rent : $700

[Spencer Sutton]

Joey,

I've been buying/selling and managing rental property in Birmingham since 2003.  I have to tell you that those prices are too high. 

There's a lot I could say about turnkey here in Birmingham but I'll save that for another time.  I sat down with out of state investors the other day looking to place 900k in Birmingham and after looking at the list of properties they were presented to buy from a 'turnkey' expert, I had to tell them the truth about that junk list.

Instinctively they thought something was wrong when they visited and saw burned down houses on the same street and a lot of vacant properties.

I'm not saying these houses you're looking at are junk...but what I am saying is you need to be crystal clear on the neighborhood, the condition of the houses and the type of tenant placed in the house.

All it takes is a couple of months of slow pay, then no pay and then you've got an eviction on your hands. In Alabama that takes 3 months.

Investors lose money on turns...and that's money you can't get back from another tenant. The goal is to buy a great house, get it in great condition and have a disciplined underwriting process. The way you make money in this business is to keep a tenant for 10 to 20 years.

I'm actually working on an ebook now about Birmingham's turnkey business and how investors really make money in this business.

I'll step off my soap box now...sorry for rambling on.