All Forum Posts by: Ryan Braman

I purchased a property in Lexington, VA with two houses and a vacant lot this January. The vacant lot is 'landlocked' behind the two houses and bordered by neighbor houses on the other three sides. There are two alleys that I have legal access to, that lead to this lot. I've been driving F-250 trucks with equipment trailers down these alleys to get to the lot, so you have an idea of scale...the city also sends its trash truck down these alleys to pick up the resident's garbage bins, as another indicator of their size. More on that later..

These houses and this lot have been empty for years, and the neighbors and other properties on the alley have become accustomed to them being empty. One neighbor even put their kids playset up on the empty lot. When they got word that that I was planning to build they got pretty upset. Two of them approached my construction manager and tried to argue that it's unbuildable because I don't have access. Another argued that one of the alleys is actually his driveway, even though city GIS clearly labels it alley XX and shows it running to my lot, turning a corner, and joining the second alley.

Fortunately my dad gave me some great advice to run a title search on the alley prior to purchasing. And we found references as far back as the 1800s and as recently as 1964 on deeds for the vacant lot and other houses along the alley that clearly show my lot has access.

I called the city planner to get the ball rolling but three separate neighbors had already called. This is a small town, I'm new and the other three are long time residents...there is a probability they know the planner already. After I gave the planner the deeds that proved legal access, he checked with the fire marshall, and determined that the alleys are not wide enough to be "fire apparatus access roads." They sent me the three page section of VA State Fire Prevention Code that indicated I needed to be within 150 ft of a road that was 20ft wide.

I'm not trying to get one up on anybody and I for sure don't want to be a sore loser, but I get the sense that the planner/fire marshall are being pressured to not let me build. There are other landlocked properties nearby that have homes on them, in fact one is on one of those alleys. Couple of other questions ('what about driveways, they're not 20 ft wide?' 'I'm 150 ft from a different road, why didn't you look at that?) but looking broadly for two things:

1) Anybody else run into zoning / planning issues where you felt like there was sort of an entrenched opinion you had to work through, how'd you do it? This is my home now and I don't want to stir the pot more than is absolutely necessary, but I get the sense that conciliatory attitude or not, at least 2 of the 3 are going to fight me on this to the bitter end.

2)Anybody build new construction where you had to deal with this 'fire apparatus access road' requirement? Any wisdom gleaned from that experience you can share?

Many thanks!

@William J. Morgan I'm not too experienced, I lucked into a sweet rehab deal that I'm neck deep in now and I've had a little apartment bldg since August..not long enough to have to deal with any turnover or evictions yet. I've been churning through the podcasts like they were crack though..up to 165 now. 

So far the biggest challenge, at least for me, is finding contractors for my rehab. This is a tiny market and despite there being a massive labor pool in nearby Buena Vista, there's a surprising lack of skilled labor. There's plenty of guys who can kind of swing a hammer, kind of do plumbing, kind of wire..but actual licensed and skilled workers are hard to come by. I think to get started, you might not necessarily need to have tons of money, ie sell your truck, but if you can bring the deal to someone who has the money you should be able to negotiate a cut of it and get the ball running from there.

I think maybe if I was in your shoes, I'd try to find the lender first, ask them what kind of return they're looking for, and then use that to set up your spreadsheet. I use one from Jay Scott's file directory here on BP. If I'm looking for returns of say, 12%, I start by assessing how much it would cost to rehab the property, ask my property management friend for what she thinks the property would rent for, all fixed up, and then play with the purchase price until I get a return of 12% or higher. That's going to be my upper limit. So far, I've not found anything listed on MLS/zillow that I could offer more than about 70% of what people are asking, I've also not offered anything yet since all my money is tied up in the three unit rehab.

Once you find a property, on-market or off, take your numbers to the lender and see if they're interested. If the house is cheap enough that you don't need a lender and you could just pay cash, I'd probably pay an appraiser to get a desktop appraisal for $100-$150..just to make sure that my after-rehab value is in line with what I think it should be. That will let you know if you can flip it as an option B, in case you can't rent it out or you need the cash for a better deal.

Dude, take all that with a massive grain of salt though, because I've not gotten past the analytic part using that process yet. I paid cash for my properties, took a construction loan for the rehab costs, and ought to be able to refinance out with an additional 30% beyond what I put in and still cash flow on the project. Like I said, I was pretty fortunate to get the property..either that or everyone else was scared away by the foundation issues...

@Charles Hensley, let's set something up. I'm down in Roanoke every month or so to pick up or drop off family at the airport. Lexington's a pretty small market, but there's definitely money here and net growth between the VMI and W&L alumni that move back.

VMI is on spring break starting the 12th, so I may try to get down there on the 19th for the REI meeting you referenced earlier..could meet with you a little earlier, or at the mtg if you go to it too.

@William J. Morgan I'm up the road in Lexington, but have spent a little bit of time thinking about Roanoke as a way to reduce my risk exposure from being all in with Rockbridge County. I agree with you that I think there's a lot of upside for Roanoke, kind of surprised at the lack of Roanoke presence on BP. I'd be happy to meet up sometime and talk, it may be kind of one-sided as I don't live down there so I don't have any expertise beyond what you can find online and with the occasional drive through Old Southwest. 

Hi BP community, I'm relaying what I put on my FB page as a way to get input from friends/family on a logo design,  my intent for posting it on BP is two-fold.

1) most importantly, get a sense for the potential to try and link non-profits that work with crisis, transitioning, temporary housing with investors/landlords/property managers who may have unutilized / underutilized units that they can put somebody up for a few days to a few months. Insurance / furnishing would all have to be worked out beforehand, but I'm sure I'm not the first one that's thought of this as a way to use the experience / knowledge we're getting for a meaningful purpose.

2) less important to you, but important to me..pick a logo for my company, with the thought that I use the logo for a non-profit that tries to connect the dots, as mentioned above, if there's work that needs to be done there. I'm running the poll through 99designs. If you could care less about logo designs, but have knowledge on point 1, above, please just let me know what you know about that linkage, I already have decent logo feedback from my family

https://99designs.com/contests...

I'm out of Lexington, VA, but have reached out to a WV non-profit that houses trafficking victims to start to understand the real level of need, whether it's just perceived on my end, or real. I'd look to start in some semi-local areas, such as Charlottesville, Richmond, Roanoke, DC, Lynchburg, and then branch out. Could be as simple as a keeping a spreadsheet of property managers willing to play in a specific area, and providing the numbers to relevant non-profits, could be a whole lot more...I don't know, I'm trying to figure it out.. FB post below: for reference, 'Ky' was my wife, she was a psychologist and passed away last August, her middle name, Anuhea, is Hawaiian for cool, mist (think mountain fog)..that's what pushed me into RE investing , bigger pockets, and hopefully soon, non-profit work.

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Ky knew a psychologist who spends time every year or every other year in South Africa counseling and assisting rape victims in a culture where rape is normalized...we were trying to figure out timing that would work for us and the kids in the hope that we would be able to one day accompany him and utilize our (her) talents for a greater cause. I was never really sure what my contribution was going to be, I thought that maybe if I just showed up, I'd find some way to be useful..it was always hard for me to think of a way that my career and education in intel and ocean engineering could somehow contribute in a meaningful way.

After Ky passed away, I needed to start looking for a post-ROTC career immediately, and decided that real estate investment was the quickest and most stable way to build up to a livable income for when I come back off active duty. This led to me creating an LLC and taking on a few projects here in Lexington.

The last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the conversations Ky and I had about doing something bigger than ourselves, and I've felt this pressure on my heart to start looking at human trafficking in the U.S. It hasn't taken much digging to identify several needs in this area, one of which seems to be finding/sourcing transitional housing for trafficking victims. When I realized this was a need, I felt a sense of relief as if I'd found something lost; that feels awkward, but truthful to say. I have an incredible amount of research and networking that's still needed, but in the short term, I'd like to try and connect the dots between willing landlords, property managers, and RE investors to source unutilized and underutilized properties to the non-profits that integrate victims into a normal life. In the long term, I think there is a need to develop strategically placed homes, purpose built and staffed to help trafficking victims cope with the trauma of their experiences and develop the confidence they'll need to integrate.
With that in mind I hired 99designs to find designs for a logo for both my LLC, and a non-profit subsidiary to do the work I just described. I would appreciate any time you spent looking at 8 of the designs and help me select one that you thing best embodies the spirit of the LLC and non-profit. Those of you who know Ky, knew Anuhea was her middle name and sunflowers were her favorite flower, so I asked that the designs incorporate both. This is absolutely something Ky would have done, so I don't feel like this is just an endeavor in her honor but more of her endeavor.

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Thanks @Tom Gimer, contract gave the the seller the option to select the title company, with my benefit being they'll pay for title insurance. I had a local attorney run a title search on the property for my own sake. As your follow-up post mentions, the title company is also the escrow company. Also, as your post indicates, and something I should have added as a fourth explanation, I'm learning the differences between Virginia and Hawaii, wrt this process. I really appreciate your input!

Thanks @John Barrows for the distinction, as Tom mentioned above..the title/escrow company are the same, but your point is well taken. I have a lot to learn about what the law actually says regarding REOs in Virginia. I had very little time to do any research on the process before I pulled the trigger on this; I'm a new investor, new to BP, new to VA, lots of other atmospherics that I could use to try and make excuses on how little I knew. Bottom line is I've been listening to about an hour of podcast every day for the last 3 months but it looks like especially for REOs, I need more location specific info that can only come from a book or from local experts. That's the next step..

@Wayne Brooks this is an REO. Thank you for the context, and for the heads up on the signed deed, I definitely don't want to be unreasonable. I probably should have asked on the forum prior to the day of closing for some insight...hindsight I was naive to think it would unfold like a conventional purchase. Thanks much for the education.

I'm supposed to close today (20 Dec) on a foreclosure that I'm paying cash for here in Lexington, VA. The seller, a national mortgage service company, as of yesterday has not provided the signed deed to their title company out in Texas that is working this, they've also not done the tax lien search. I've never 1)bought a foreclosure, 2)paid cash for a property, 3)purchased from a large company, vs an individual...so with full transparency I may be worried over nothing..if this is par for the course for any of those three conditions.

My understanding is the title company, after receiving what they need from the mortgage service, still needs to FedEx the documents to me for notary/signature. Since the closing was supposed to happen today, what can I expect in terms of fallout for this looking like it's not happening? They've already accepted / cashed the earnest money check. I can't/won't schedule a wire transfer until I see the signed deed and HUD statement that actually tells me the final amount I'll need to transfer and that everything is legit. Is it unreasonable to ask that we extend the closing at no penalty to me so I can give my lawyer a chance to read everything over?

Thanks!

Thanks @Jon A., @Dell Schlabachand @John Teachout, my dad has been down here with me since I moved into town, he was a contractor in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Michigan for 40 years, he's usually the guy at the lumber store at 0600. Unfortunately the recommendations are all the same people, the aforementioned 3 builders/1 roofer/etc, like mentioned before they are absolutely not hurting for work so they are giving me astronomical prices. My realtor warned me when I moved here that there were no builders, she actually sold a vacant lot to someone who wanted to retire in Lexington, only to turn around and help him sell it 18 months later when he couldn't find any builders.

This is the weirdest labor/service setup I've ever seen..just not enough of a market to pull in more workers, or more probably, as @Matt Groth suggests, we've already hit our pinch point. I'm pretty sure I've exhausted the local talent, I'm not particularly interested in any of the gray area labor pools. The good news is I have two homes on the lot, one of which is in decent enough shape that I could furnish it and live with myself offering it as accommodations to out of area work..next step will be finding them.. 

Thank you @Frank Geiger I'll reach out if I get into January with no leads.

How has everyone dealt with not having contractors nearby? I'm in Lexington Virginia and there is like 3 builders, 1 roofer, etc. And they aren't hurting for business so it doesn't seem like they are looking to take my work. Closest cities are Staunton at 45 min, and Charlottesville, Roanoke, Lynchburg at 1 hr. The siding guy who drove down to give me an estimate from Staunton wasn't even out of his truck before he was complaining about the drive..I have a feeling I'll get similar responses from the HVAC, roofers, foundation guys.

I'm a few weeks away from closing on a foreclosure that's been vacant for 2 years, pretty much a full gut rehab, and am trying to get work lined up for a post Christmas push. Anyone brought contractors in from any distance and just boarded them during the project? Ot better yet, anyiine in one of those aforementioned cities know of a contractor that coould make the drive?

Thanks