All Forum Posts by: Austin Wayland

Hey everyone, I am newer to real estate investing and have been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts. I have 1 rental property that is cash flowing around $700/mo. It was the first house we purchased, lived in it for 1.5yrs with the intention to buy another house and rent that one out. It is going great so far and we love our new home.

I am looking for another investment property but since the strategy is completely different from the first one I have had some issues deciding if its a good option.

We are looking in a new area that is seeing massive growth, Woodruff, SC, if anyone knows the upstate South Carolina areas. We are looking at a new build community that is in phase 1 of building (only built 25 out of 350 planned homes). They only allow 1 investor per 100 homes and we have made a connection with the agent for the community. The issue I am seeing is that the rent in the area is low since it is still up-and-coming. 

The house prices are not anything crazy but with rents being so low the cash flow just does not seem to be hitting any of the numbers that BiggerPockets talks about hitting. I know that appreciation would be great and rents should go up in future but still having issues seeing that. 

Would love to hear any feedback anyone has on this. Is the new build route a good route? We like the lack of issues that come up with them and the fact almost everything is under warranty. Any guidance would be much appreciated! 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $285,000
Cash invested: $57,000

First rental. Lived in it for 2 years. Bought new home and had it rented out in a day.

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

Tired of renting so decided to buy our first home. Bought well under what we could afford with the plan of living in it and renting it out in the future. Wanted to generate cash flow.

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

We bought from a builder that was in phase 1 of their development. We were the first single family home to move in.

How did you finance this deal?

Mortgage through builder with all their closing incentives.

How did you add value to the deal?

Built a fence, did small things to the inside. Made it look less like a "new build"

What was the outcome?

Outcome has been great. We are able to generate $700/mo cash flow. Using those funds to help purchase or next investment property.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We are currently managing the property ourselves. Learned that when we add another 1 or 2 properties to our portfolio that we might need to look into a property management company.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Yes, our agent was awesome. He has been in the business in the area for 30+ years so he knew the ins and outs of the market.