All Forum Posts by: Brent Ryerson

Possible we could speak Tuesday afternoon?

I believe I will be funding a few new build-to-rent homes in an opportunity zone and would like to speak with a professional on how to best navigate this to optimize the tax benefits.

I also believe that there will be one or two homes outside the opportunity zone I will fund that will be sold producing some capital gains I was thinking I could off-set.

I'm in the Charlotte, NC area.

I have been wanting to contribute to the forums for a while now, and I have finally come up with something that might help others.

I heard about Propstream from Joe McCall's podcast (shout out to Joe and his great content!) and thought I would give it a try using his propstreamjoe.com link for a free 7 day trial.

After a day of use here are my observations:

Data Accuracy- I am pursuing a tax delinquent strategy so I wanted to get a good feel for how accurate the data was. My target counties are all in NC and have online tax lookup services.  To determine the accuracy I pulled tax delinquent 2018 or earlier in Propstream and then used a few samples to research in their respective counties' website to see how often they were correct.  Of the 4 counties only 1 returned data that actually reflected being at least 2yrs behind on their taxes.  Using my method I didn't come up with a great way to determine what the lag time of the data would be in the 1 county where the level of delinquency seemed to be correct.  In at least one other county the properties did seem to be delinquent, but only for 2019.

Usability/Interface - Propstream has a very good interface with menus and options that are fairly intuitive.  It does take a few minutes to get a feel for how to create the lists using multiple filter criteria. It requires some experimentation because different counties have slightly different ways they categorize properties for example. You will need to try a few different options if you are getting no results.  Again, pretty intuitive and the queries appear to run very quickly.

Features - This is where Propstream seems to really shine! There is a myriad of information available for every property even in the free trial version so you can get a great feel for the power of using this.It has information on the owner, property itself, mortgage, comparables, prior or current MLS listing information (the actual photos, description, DOM, etc), and more. The numbers of filters including expired MLS listings, liens, vacancy, divorce, bankruptcy, and so on are impressive. They will really allow you to very selectively target sellers. Though I was unable to verify the accuracy of several of the filters, I did toggle some of them off and on to see if my target counties appeared to have that data, and it was again somewhat hit or miss.

Overall - I have enjoyed Propstream and I'm impressed with its value proposition at $97/month (I believe).  However, because the data I need for my counties is not accurate on tax delinquency, I will probably have to use a different source for that information.  I would encourage everyone to give it a try for their strategy and county to see if it works for you.  I may even consider paying for the service just for all of the other features and information that is available all in one place.

Hope you found this helpful!

Thanks Kevin, I will give them a call!

He was not licensed or insured, so I had him sign some injury waivers.  Again, I thought we were looking at a relatively straightforward minor repair and polish job.  It is now a full gut job.  I will bounce back, just need to regroup a little.

Update: One of the highest rated plumbers on HomeAdvisor, BlackChecker, went out yesterday to give me a quote and mentioned a $250 replacement of the kitchen faucet which he did not even look at.  He just said it was leaking under the sink so just replaces the faucet, supply lines, and valves.  

It literally took me 15 minutes to change out the hot side supply line which eliminated the leak.  I'm not sure about the quality of work they do, but that seemed a bit crazy.  I would do 15 minutes of work for $250 any day.

Very long story, but David Stevens is the contractor.  Tried to help someone out and really didn't benefit me at all.  I need to focus more on building the right "team".  Chalk it up to a learning experience.  Seemed like a motivated hard worker down on his luck.  My bad, I have to remember this is a business, not a hobby.

I will say however, this job quickly got more complicated than either of us expected.  I'm not sure if it is just a lack of experience vs. dependability.  Either way, it is fairly clear that he certainly isn't the person to take me to the next level.

I intend on really taking the time to evaluate who I would want to do business with next.  After all of my research on BP and other podcasts, this wasn't really surprising to me as much as disappointing.  David started strong and did a great job with the roof at a reasonable price.  After that things went south quickly, but the complexity of the project increased at the same time.  

Moral of the story, do your research in the beginning to ensure you have the right person on the job.  Luckily for me I didn't pay for any work that had not been completed, so assuming he doesn't steal any materials from me, I figure I come out about even.

Thanks!

I'm trying to track down a plumber for a recent rental I purchased in Statesville, NC (about 40 minutes north of Charlotte).  With the recent cold weather I know there has been significant "emergency" work for burst pipes, but I'm having trouble even getting someone to return my phone calls.

I have checked out HomeAdvisor and google reviews, but wondered if any investors might have a good lead.  Thanks!

I have a rehab I started in Concord just outside of Charlotte, NC and the contractor I was using left me in bind.  The house is gutted and he has stopped answering my calls.  About the only good news is that I did not pay for any work that had not been completed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm pretty much a newbie to real estate investing, but Kristen Hayes reached out to me shortly after joining this community.  She seemed quite knowledgeable and openly shared a number of valuable suggestions as well as some folks in the business she really trusts.  I believe she owns her own brokerage, has her GC license, and is an investor herself.  

After all of her help, I wanted to give something back...so if you are interested in investing in the Charlotte, NC area, I would suggest you check her out:

http://www.newhomesnc-sc.com/