All Forum Posts by: Blake Novotney

Hey Antonio,

Creative financing is great, but it's a whole different can of worms. If you get your credit and financial status in better shape, locking in long-term debt with conventional 30-year financing is a much more attractive option and will be easier for you to get started that way. 

I grew up in Southern NH and frequented the lakes region. You're right, summers are beautiful there and plenty of people travel there for fall as well. I think the vast majority of us who don't ski or snowmobile stay as far away from NH as possible though in Winter! It could be great if you could find a place near popular snowmobile trails for winter, and you'd be in great shape year round!

Why not use FHA or similar with 3.5-5% down to purchase a house hack? That would allow you to get started much sooner.

Definitely not insane, in fact, you already know exactly who you need! Start building your database with the appropriate contacts and make sure to have multiple of each just in case, especially handyman for little things that can respond quickly. In my market, those who treat managing their own STR's like a business see that directly result in success. I've seen property management companies do a piss-poor job managing STR's far too many times, make sure you vet them well if you go that route.

Love these market data posts, thanks for all you do!!

Many others have given some great advice here and I do agree, $25k could maybe get you into a small condo somewhere but there are still closing costs for the loan, furnishing, and it would be wise to have more set aside for unexpected expenses when setting it up as STR.

I would say look into a few of these markets in NC-

1. Wilmington, NC

2. Brunswick County beach towns (Oak Island mainly)

3. Pender County beach towns (Surf City, Topsail)

@Mack Lengel will be your go-to guy for the Smokies, he's helping me out right now also! I'm always happy to chat about any of these eastern NC markets more in depth.

Whatever way you are willing to stick with and be consistent! You'll see tons of different ways, everyone has their favorite. My favorite "unusual" one is instead of driving for dollars, I get on my bike and make notes of addresses on my phone for properties that look distressed/interesting. Its much easier to get around at that pace compared to a car, and you're getting exercise!

Pick a licensed electrician you trust, inform the tenant he will install it, and bill the tenant. If he's willing to do that, I don't see any issue! I love my side projects too, I'm sure he'll really appreciate it and he respected you enough to ask your permission. That sounds like a good tenant!

On our standard offer-to-purchase form here in NC there is a box for seller financing and one additional addendum. That would really be the only thing that sets it apart from a regular transaction!

Once you come to an agreement on terms and both parties sign the offer, send the contract on over to an attorney of your choice here locally and they'll take care of the rest! Let me know if you need any help, I'm close by in Wilmington.

I assume like most investors the end goal is to have a few properties, so I'd leverage to a comfortable amount on a few lower-priced properties. As many others stated, you'll get appreciation across all the potential properties instead of just one. As long as you are comfortable with maintenance items and budgeting for capex the more the merrier in my book!