All Forum Posts by: Ashton Levarek

@Joseph Druther thanks for the update. Looking forward to it. See you there Joseph.

@Wy Kay - good question... but probably depends on the individual. I carry a concealed weapon everywhere, legally. That being said I’ve spent the last 14 years of my life/career carrying a gun, have had extensive training both with using concealed weapons and exposed, so I’m certainly comfortable and capable. But I never advertise that I’m armed.

But guns aren’t for everyone, if you’re not trained you may just be exposing yourself to more problems in all reality. If the gun is visible people may leave you alone... or you may become the first target.

Other option is to invest in less war zone type neighborhoods. Why push your luck... gun or no gun.

Thank you all for the for the interest, good to know there are other multifamily investors in the area as well. And although we aren't at the point to start a proper multifamily meet-up just yet, the Moore County REIA has asked me to come talk about multifamily investing at their next meeting. Everyone is welcome of course and I'd love to connect with you all to start putting a plan into action.

The Moore County REIA will be at Hickory Tavern in Southern Pines, NC, starting at 630pm on 10 September. Hope to see you there.

 @Victor Martinez Lazaro

Well to answer your first question, if the median home prices are more than 3X the median income in an area, well then you have a market that is favorable to the buy and hold investor.  Obviously there are many other factors that can affect this but a simple rule of thumb for banks when deciding whom to loan to is - if the individual makes over 3 times the mortgage payment amount then they should be able to afford the monthly payment and will not need to rent. So we look for area where the median housing is MORE than 3x the median income, because then we know that there is likely a large pool of renters. Again, this metric alone will not determine your success but it will help you make smarter choices. 

https://www.longtermtrends.net/home-price-median-annual-income-ratio/

Demographics that make good renters - ones that pay on time. Kidding... but seriously.  College tenants are not bad, especially when their parents are paying, but retirement homes are probably going to be the next big thing.  With more and more of the baby boomers retiring there will soon be a deficit in assisted living communities, and retirement money.  Read anything by Harry Dent for more on that.

Hope that helps, all the best.

Ashton

@Victor Martinez Lazaro

Great question Victor.  Well a great place to start is looking up the key three as we refer to them - the Population Growth, Job Growth and Unemployment.  When picking an investment market we like to see those numbers either match or exceed the national average. For example, population and job growth needs to be as good or better than the national average and unemployment should be lower than the natl. average. 

Next we like to look at the housing market vs the median income. Is the median house price more than 3 times the median income? If so then its likely to be a good renters market. 

And if you want to really dive into it, how many new homes are being built? If new homes match the population and projected growth then there you're probably going to have issues with occupancy rates, i.e. a lot of competition. 

And even more into the weeds, whats the demographic of each city? Does the city have a large millennial or retirement population? Whats the job market like? Large amount of college students, military, traveling professionals such as nurses, doctors, teachers, etc? They tend to rent more these days.

Hope that helps, best of luck.

Reaching out to all the small and large multifamily investors in and around Southern Pines, North Carolina. Trying to decide if there is an appetite for a mutifamily meetup in this area. If so I'd love to connect and possibly start a meetup in our area. 

Really interested in mutifamily in and around the emerging Sanford, NC, market. Anyone? Bueller, Bueller?

Pfiezer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the US just dumped some 500 million dollars into developing its factory in that area and is projected to bring in an additional 300+ jobs to that market.  Yea, yea, small potatoes compared to Durham, Raleigh and Cary just north of there but still an interesting prospect. Especially considering the commute time to those larger cities (30 minutes) as well as the proximity to one of the largest US Army bases in the world (Fort Bragg, NC). 

What are your thoughts? 

Ashton 

Kelsey McCabe, great to see a fellow Aussie on here. 

All I can recommend is - Action, take massive action. Only by taking action can you see what works and doesn't work. I am not a website designer, nor am I a whole saler but I can say that presenting an easy to use/understand and straight forward website that explains what you do is probably the best way to start. Once you get rolling you can always tweak and adjust it to meet the needs of the market. 

Feel free to visit our website if you like, we try to keep it as simple as possible so as to prevent confusion and keep people coming back. But I can tell you one of our whole salers uses a pay-per-click website designed by a commercial website provider, he pays for it to be the first site to pop up when ever some one Googles how to sell their home fast in his respective area (hope that makes sense). But he has been very successful. But his site offers information on who they are and provides an area for customers to leave contact information if they are interested in selling their property. Pretty basic really.

Hope that helps.

Best of luck

Ashton

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $240,000
Cash invested: $50,000

Contributors:
Jesse Marinez, Chris Levarek

Current project - Under preforming small multifamily apartment complex, 5 units each with 2 bed and 1.5 bath. Purchased for $240k with plans to raise rents through rehab and decrease expenses by sub-metering water and managing professionally. More to follow.

Once rehab is complete we will refinance in order to pull cash out and return capital to our partners. More to follow.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Location as a commuter area into Raleigh Durham.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found through off market investor network.

How did you finance this deal?

Combination of personal money as well as private and commercial lenders.

How did you add value to the deal?

Rehab, sub meter water usage, add central air, stop paying for cable, professional property management.

What was the outcome?

Still in progress.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Find out when the seller plans on turning off water.

@Gabe Barlow - some one smarter than me once said “Good deals aren’t always found, they’re made” by smart investing, I would add. And yes, cash flowing deals are still to be found in Fayetteville. We close on a 13 unit this Wednesday and it’ll be cash flowing from day one.

All the best

@Andrew Smith - the Carolinas, Fayetteville, Durham and Raleigh.