All Forum Posts by: Adam Smith

@Karl McGarvey Thanks for the input, I reached out to an agent who happened to have a condo he rents there and he gave me documents on all the expenses associated with his condo. It is very helpful/insightful. 

 Ah thanks, yea I'm trying to connect with a friend of a friend who has 2 properties there to hopefully gather some of his insight.  Would agents answer in an honest way or would everything be skewed to get me to purchase one of their listings?

Hello everyone, I've never owned any property before and I've been looking at getting a STL at Snowshoe WV. I have lots of questions and would love any input.

My goal is to get a place I can use quite a bit, but hopefully rent out to cover at least any mortgage and operating costs. This being my first venture into real estate the lower risk/stress/trouble the better.
I have about $60k in cash, plus another $40k I could access but would rather not. I have no debt, and have been living very frugally since the pandemic hit,

At a glance Snowshoe seems like a great opportunity. My friends and I could use it year round for Skiing as well as mountain biking/hiking/nature exploration. The cost *is* historically very high like the rest of the market, but not prohibitively so. 1 Bed condos go for ~90k - 150k and 3 bed go for $250k - $350k. The HOA rates for the area are very high though with a 1bd being ~$400 and a 3bd going up from $600-800 / month.
I've seen a lot of mixed reviews on this area from "Its very hard to break even due to the high costs and special assessments" to "I bought a place here for 50k 3 years ago and am making a killing" so I'm trying to find out if it is actually worth it.

I did get an AirDNA subscription for the area, but in all honesty it is very difficult to derive much insight from it.
The big questions:

1. 1. Should I even be looking now? The hot winter rental season is only a few months away, I would love to have a place before then, but would I be paying a premium pre-skiing season? I do believe that the market is going to cool off quite a bit in the coming months, this is my personal thought granted it may not be true.
2. 2. 1 Bed vs 3 Bed; I could easily afford a 1 bed condo and purchase any furnishings. I could also support it as a pure cost if worst case scenario there's another covid shutdown or we head for an apocalyptic great recession. I would really like to get at least a 2bd if not a 3bd 2ba so I can have groups of friends join. It does increase the rental price, but according to AirDNA the occupancy rate seems to be about the same, and if there's an increase in utilities/management fees etc it almost looks like they would bring in the same amount after costs.

Other questions:

1. 1. Does having a condo in a building with more amenities like a hot tub draw more renters, or is it mostly based off of price and how many people it can sleep.
2. 2. Is there anyway to see historical "Special Assessment" charges for a condo? I've heard these happen frequently and can be pricey.
3. 3. What could I expect for typical utilities charge?
4. 4. Ballpark how much does it cost to furnish a rental, specifically 1bed vs 3 bed.
5. 5. Property maintenance rate?
   1. Typical cleaning costs? Is it directly attributed to the number of stays?
6. 6. How are owner/resort relations?
   1. I've seen some subtle hints that the resort is strict or controlling in some way?

I currently live in a HCOL area and after doing some math, it doesn't make sense to purchase a place to live in and rent out (house hack) vs. just getting a very cheap room in a shared house. For instance the 2bed 2bath condo that I rent now for $3,150 (with roommate) had an identical unit just sell for $850,000 with $675/mo HOA. I would only buy if I was personally invested in a property for other than monetary goals.

I'm trying to put together a general plan of attack.  I currently have $30k USD (no debt) and plan on getting serious about buying a place when I have $50K probably around tax refund time. These are just high level ideas that I'm trying to see if they warrant any further time investment to determine viability, or if they are just horrible ideas. 

First Case: I am originally from a VLCOL area, and my uncle has been flipping some lower income houses semi successfully(?) and could provide maintenance/boots on the ground. I was thinking about getting a duplex in this area (they can be had for very cheap, 50-75k USD for a decent one, down to 20k for iffy quality w/ roughly ~$350-$500/mo/unit rent) and using it to get me started. The area is not great, but there are people who rent, and I could purchase a place with cash.

Second Case: is to go to one of the few growing areas in that state where houses are more expensive but still very cheap compared to where I live now. I saw a few duplexes listed for 200-300k, I have a few friends from the area that could provide knowledge about the neighborhoods. My boots on the ground would be about 1h 45m drive away, so still reachable but no where near being in the neighborhood. There is also an elite college in the area providing constant tenants with capital.

With the out of state options my money goes a lot further, I don't feel like it would be much of a risk as I could always outright eat the loss in the first case, and in the second case I could pay the mortgage until being able to offload the property.