All Forum Posts by: Tim C.

Hi @Scott Winbigler. Welcome! Let me know if I can help at all.

So I'm starting out with buy and hold investing. Have one rental (former primary residence) and have a newly acquired duplex with one side that has existing tenants.

I'm at the mental crossroads about whether I should do as much of the repair work as possible or just contract the entire package out. I see pros and cons of both.

Doing it myself

Pros - Save labor cost, Develop standards for future repairs, Use saved repair costs for next investment?

Cons - Will take longer (working full time job), Higher holding costs during repair, Spread too thin? (will need to find new tenants for both units soon)

Contracting all repairs

Pros - Shorter duration, lower holding costs, more time dedicated to tenant screening and property management, begin developing relationships with contractors

Cons - Higher labor cost, harder to develop specifications/standards, less money available for future investing.

What are other folks doing out there starting out? Keeping in mind this is for buy and hold so generally time is more on my side than a flip.

Hi @Lisa Capriotti

Welcome! I am a local so if I can help please let me know.

@Marcus Brown

Hi Marcus - welcome to the forum.

I live in Goose Creek and just purchased a property in Ladson. I'd be glad to help in any way I can.

@Ryan Kolodzej

Ryan - I think you can find some good deals in mobile homes in this market. Yes you can buy and hold and make good cash flow. I have researched mobile homes extensively over the last year but ultimately the thing that pushed me away was the types of tenants and the constant smell of cat urine.

I have ready about 5 books and used a few websites but the best deals were found on craigslist. I had a few homes in the $1,500 range that would sell for around $7,000 and some deals that go for $8,000 and sell for $13-15K. It just depends on what you are looking to do.

For starters, I'd recommend going to www.mhvillage.com and look at some of the Charleston area parks.

Then I would read Adventures in Mobile Homes by Rachel Hernandez. Third, put some adds on Craigslist that you are looking to buy with cash and go visit some homes when you get into town. If after all this you are still interested then I recommend you go for it.

@Emily Snapp

I use EMD as a tool to get a property if the deal is good. You can put in the base $500 if you just want the offer in but an EMD of say $1,000 to $10,000 could possibly get your offer accepted quickly for rehabs or buy and holds. Just my two cents.

@John Semanchuk

John I see a similar tax structure to what Elizabeth is reporting in some areas. I'm guessing its dependent on when the reassessment was conducted some areas have a structure that supports owner occupied is 1x, absentee owner instate is 2x and absentee owner out of state is 3x.

If the reassessment was conducted just before the bubble burst you could have a high property tax on a property that has significantly lost its value.

Just a theory though.

@Account Closed

The short answer, it depends. If you are handy and are good at rehabbing you can find mobiles still for $1,000-$4,000 but they are in rough shape and smell like cat urine usually. These can be fixed up and sold for as much as $10,000 - $13,000 depending on how much work you do.

If you go the buy and hold route, I'd recommend lease options as an exit strategy. If this piques your interest at all, there are some good books.

Adventures in Mobile Homes, Deals on Wheels and Zalman Velvel books are all good and ones that I have read.

@Aaron Sizemore

I think the market would tend to drive the type of investment. Looking briefly at Columbia in particular. I see a lot of 'blue houses' telling me there are a lot of pre-foreclosures, foreclosures, etc. This could be attributed to the high property tax rate. Homeowners can only sell to owner occupants since investors won't touch it. If you are very interested in Columbia, looks like buying foreclosures is where I'd personally start to learn.

Just opinions coming from a beginner investor myself.

@Aaron Sizemore

One quick and easy way that I use is the following. Go to zillow.com and look up the property address you are interested in or an adjacent property that was sold recently. For the specific property, scroll down in the zillow listing to just under 'Features' where is says 'County Website.' Click on it and you should be redirected to the county website for the address. Continue your research until you find a good absentee owner as a comp and that should give you an idea of what the taxes will be.