All Forum Posts by: Courtney Fricke

Steve hit the nail on the head. This market has its pitfalls but its not crashing. Buy conservatively and don't speculate. For sure get hard quotes for the reno and for insurance and property tax increases. Irish Channel is a great area! I don't love Orleans Parish so much but that hasn't stopped me from owning there. Major renos in Orleans can be tough though. I can't speak to that myself, it's not my specialty but I think that would be one of your biggest concerns is their permit processes. 

Thanks Antonio! The Northshore meetups are still going strong. I passed it on and Cole Frechou now runs them monthly. I still attend them from time to time as well as others in the area. Come say hi if at an event. I usually have a baseball cap on. 

Hey y'all, 

I have taken quite a break from these forums but have decided to step back into these by reintroducing myself. I got into the industry in 2014 with a property management job on Lake Ponchatrain in Slidell, north of New Orleans. I even had a wild hair to make an offer on the marina I was managing at the time. Thankfully it didn't get accepted. It wasn't long after a good bit of offers that my first deal got accepted - a short sale on a condo that I would up living in while renovating. That one deal sealed it for me. I was hooked! Since then, I have done hundreds of deals over the various strategies. These days, I am mostly a buy-and-hold investor in South Louisiana with a portfolio also in South Mississippi. My preference is Single Family, although I currently own some mobile homes, some parks, and some small multi-family as well as notes on land and houses. 

I founded a meetup on the Northshore that I have since passed on to another investor after running it for years. I am still very active in my local market as a host of the WWL Home Improvement each weekend. I also attend a lot of the investor meetups from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to South Mississippi from the Coast to Hattiesburg. I enjoy networking and talking shop. 

I specialize in creative financing, title issues, and stopping foreclosures. Holler if you have any questions. 

I know a lot has changed with BP over the years since I was first on here nearly a decade ago but am looking forward to getting back to these forums and helping folks and getting connected. 

See y'all at one of the next local meetups! Feel free to connect with me on here or on socials.
Courtney 

Joe, I own multiple rentals in Gulfport, MS near these 9 you are considering. My first purchase in MS a few years ago was 31 properties at one time from a retiring landlord. Here is my advice feel free to take it or leave it. Make sure you to do your due diligence. Squatters can be issues, management companies in MS are royally lacking and can hurt deals for out-of-state landlords, and flood zones are an issue so double check that expense. I live an hour away in New Orleans and have had to fight with multiple management companies even to the point of considering litigation on one. My two cents is just to have a plan since you are in TX. The deals can be good on paper but execution can be tough with third parties. We have been spending more and more time over there and had to take management in house because after calling 30+ companies off of Google and from hiring a few, we had a ton of issues with 3rd party managers. Mississippi just operates at a different speed and caliber than most of us are used to. This applies to more than just managers. I'm saying this as someone who has a ton of family there, my parents were born there with one still living there, and as someone who speaks at the local REIA on the Coast from time to time including this coming week. Feel free to reach out if I can help. Best of luck!

As far as your original question, I would get one loan for all of them if possible to limit fees and loan minimums or do bundles. I only have suggestions for referrals as I use true private money lenders that I convert from my network and seller financing but I do run an investor meetup in New Orleans and am involved in the MS Coast meetups. I can send you 2 that do DSCR type loans if you are interested.

Hey Bryan, I have the privilege of being on the radio each weekend with WWL in New Orleans on Saturdays (870am). This is a frequent conversation each Saturday for investors and civilians alike. I am also an active investor in the area and feel the woes of insurance with my portfolios as well. There is some hope for new insurers coming after Hurricane season and with this large Grant Fund that the state issued. Not sure what it will look like but we are adjusting our premiums left and right (raising deductibles, going from replacement cost to actual cash value, etc) and shopping them at renewals as much as we can. Many of us are with LA Citizens out of necessity in Orleans, Jefferson, or St. Tammany parishes. 

Best of luck! 

Hey Ethan, congrats on starting with education and putting yourself out there. I am an active buyer in New Orleans (consider me someone who actively wants to be on your buyer's list) and I also founded one of the local investor meetups in Covington. I have wholesaled over 100 properties over the years in the South Louisiana and South Mississippi areas. One of my close friends and business partners (we own rentals together) @Stephen Keighery has done over 100+ as well. I mainly buy rentals these days but when I wholesale it is either when a deal falls in my lap or when I join forces with Steve and we help out of state wholesalers or new wholesalers wholesale deals. We have the buyers, we know how to run the numbers, and we know the process. Feel free to get out there and find some sellers that need a solution to their problem then reach out to Steve and I and we can help you get the deal across the closing line! Check out cowholesalewithus . com. Feel free to reach out and keep learning! Cheering you on!

Hey Logan, Welcome to Nawlins! I am an active investor that works all over the region. I founded the Northshore Investor meetup that meets the second Tuesday of each month in Covington. As my good friend and property manager, Stephen Leonard, mentioned above, there are many investor meetups in the area worth attending like the Westbank meetup (@StephenKeighery) and the new St. Bernard (@MikeFernandez) parish one. I primarily buy rentals with creative financing and stuff (houses, land, trailers, etc) that I sell on terms. Feel free to reach out if I can help. I attend a lot of the investor meetups from MS to Baton Rouge to all over the GNO. 

 Highly recommend being open to Slidell/other parts of St. Tammany parish but more than that, recommend being open to Ponchatoula and Hammond if possible. 

Come join us THIS coming Tuesday 9/12 at the Northshore Real Estate Investors Association. You'll find yourself in a room full of likeminded folks from the area. Doors open at 6pm, event starts at 6:30PM. Free to attend and all are welcomed. Come say HI if you can make it.

Joel you are in an old school real estate mecca. Many don't know it. Go to the McDonald's at 8am M-F on 150th Ave in Madeira Beach. Pete Fortunato, one of the most prolific investors in the country, has coffee there every weekday morning. You'll usually find a table full of gray haired guys talking shop with him. 

Also, plenty of meetups in your region. Check out Frank Everheart's roundtable at the IHOP in the Westshore area. I think it is on a Wednesday night each month but I can't recall which. 

Sarasota has a decent REIA and Frank ^ is on the board of it. J. Scott from Bigger Pockets speaks there regularly.

Best of luck! 

Hi Olivia,

I was tagged in this post by Aussie Steve in the comments above. I run the Northshore Real Estate Investors Association. We meet each month in Covington and have been for 5+ years.Our meetups are free to attend and all are welcomed. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month at the WeStay Suites in Covington from 630-830PM and then head to Chimes from 845PM onward. Great time of networking and to learn with likeminded folks in a no sales pitch atmosphere. 

Feel free to find me on social media too. We post our events on FB around the first of the month. 

As far as the area goes, New Orleans is known for its duplexes but the Northshore is lacking in inventory. If you are dead set on that I would suggest one of two things, build from the ground up or be open to it either taking time for inventory to become available or that it may look different like an in-law suite or two houses on one lot. 

I have been in real estate in the area for nearly 10 years. Happy to help. Born and raised in Slidell to feel free to reach out if need be.