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All Forum Posts by: Chris A.

Chris A. has started 4 posts and replied 53 times.

Post: Spartan Invest - Birmingham Turnkey Case Study

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

Update: 05-01-2017

Renovations are officially done and appraisal and inspections are to happen this week. 

Already a tenant ready to move in once the place is ready. (great news from the Spartan team)

Breakdown of investment:

Price: $82,000

All in Investment: $22,400 (20% down @5.25% 30 year)

Rent: $795

Tax: $320 annual

Insurance: $510 annual

Cap: (will let everyone calc on their own because it seems like everyone has their own way)

CoC: ((will let everyone calc on their own because it seems like everyone has their own way)

All in all the process has been very smooth and Spartan Invest has been very patient with me and the team has been able to answer all my questions and step me through the process. Although communication may have been a little loose at times, when important events occurred - Spartan always made sure to reach out. Lack of communication was subject to my own high standards for communication which I admit can be over the top and a lot to ask for. 

I will post pictures once I receive them from Spartan and will update monthly with any news!

Post: Spartan Invest - Birmingham Turnkey Case Study

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

@Jay Hinrichs @Clayton Mobley @Chris Clothier

Thank you for all the feedback and insight! As a first time investor I agree with Clayton that I do have the first time investor blues. I am trying to keep track of my investment like a hawk - but as I go through the process I am becoming more familiar with all the steps and am beginning to truly understand why everyone says the first investment is the hardest. 

One of the criteria I had when finding a turnkey provider was that they had to be a company that I would be able to start a long-term relationship with and rely on when expanding my portfolio. A part of this is that communication is paramount. I understand Jay's point in keeping my expectations on communication in check but again it is because this is my first investment. 

Once I get past this first investment - I am sure I will be able to ease back and be able to put my full confidence and trust in Spartan. 

As always, thank you for the response Clayton and everyone else! Also Chris - I hope to be doing business with your company in the near future too! 

Post: Spartan Invest - Birmingham Turnkey Case Study

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

Update: 04-24-2017

Renovations are underway and according to my lender - it seems like we are going to appraise the house soon. Last I heard from Scott (2 weeks ago) the house was 99% done. Waiting on picture of before/after renovations on the house, but must admit that the communication with SpartanInvest has been sparse. I understand during this stage there is not much to do but wait. However, it would still be nice to get some form of weekly communication. Maybe @Clayton Mobley can weigh in on the lack of communication. 

Until the I receive an update from Spartan - thats it for now!

Post: Spartan Invest - Birmingham Turnkey Case Study

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

Update: 04-01-2017

Contract is signed and we are moving forward with the steps to close. One thing I am new to is the fact that the property itself is on a septic system. There is a contingency clause for this in our contract so we shall see what comes up during the inspection. 

Was wondering if anyone could weigh in on this? My research says that tanks last anywhere between 25-30 years. The property itself was built in 1953 so not sure if the tank has been replaced since or not? Is there anything more I would need to do on my end or does the inspection notify me of all these things? Would love to hear advice from the community about dealing with properties that have septic tanks. 

Cheers! 

Post: Spartan Invest - Birmingham Turnkey Case Study

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

Hello BP Community!

In efforts to give back to the community, I wanted to document the process of acquiring my first turnkey property through Spartan Invest. I know when I was first researching the forums, case studies like the one I am attempting to do were very helpful and provided me lots of insight into the process of acquiring a turnkey property through a full service turnkey provider. 

Part I - Making contact

I first made contact with Spartan Invest by reaching out to them through a link I found on their website. The response time was great and I heard back from their VP Sales, Maureen within 24 hours. 

Part II - The Discussions

From the time we made contact (almost a month ago) up until now, Maureen has been more than accommodating. Communication has been really good and any questions I had were answered. What I really appreciated about everything is that she was very transparent. There was a slight fall-out in communication a week ago but it was because Spartan Invest is currently growing very rapidly and it seems like their team is overloaded. They are now currently looking to hire new help in order to meet the demands. I just want to note that during the week where they dropped the ball on communication I began to worry and was considering crossing Spartan Invest (SI) of the list. I decided to reach out to the CEO @Clayton Mobley who is very active on the forums to see what was the cause and he was very responsive and explained the situation. Maureen (who spearheads all sales) was on a business trip and was swamped, but when she returned she made sure to reach out to me and explained everything. She was very transparent once again and openly took fault and owned up to the lack of service during that time. Not only did she admit to her lack of service, but also provided a solution to what SI was doing to remedy this. I personally really appreciated this "find solutions, not excuses" approach.

Part III - The Properties

Before being able to start seeing what properties were available, I had to provide pre-approval for a loan. SI recommended a lender that they typically use due to the familiarity the agent (Graham Parham) had with their type of deals. Of course, Maureen ensured that she was willing to work with any lender I chose as long as she was able to vet them before hand. Main reason for this was she wanted to make sure that the lender would be able to close the deal. I decided to go with Graham and up until this point the service and responsiveness from him has been excellent and their rates were what the market commanded as well. 

Once I was pre-approved, I began to receive pro-formas of available properties. One thing I liked about SI was that their pro-formas were very well made and allowed the flexibility for you to change and add your own contingencies when doing financial analysis. 

Part IV: Putting a Property under Contract

Once I found a property I was interested in and committed to get under contract, Maureen passed my off to Scott who would be my personal representative throughout the rest of the process. I want to note that before committing to getting the property under contract, I was provided with Scope of Work being done on the property, the PM agreement, and also a draft of their typical sales contract. As of now I am currently getting a contract underway this property. I shall update as I progress! 

Cheers!

Post: Pro Forma Templates!

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

@Kenneth Mooney Just sent a PM! I use a standard template that allows me to change variables such as tax, insurance, vacancy, maintenance, PM, price of house, down payment, etc. and basically it will calculate my pay down on the loan, cash on cash returns each month, total money out of pocket at close of deal, IRR, and annual gross and net cashflow. Would be great to compare with others!

Post: Pro Forma Templates!

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

Hey BP!

As I am starting to build my investment portfolio (mainly focusing on turnkey type investments) I was wondering what template other people use to calculate their estimated returns i.e. what template do you use to create your own pro forma? 

Cheers!

Post: New Investor, Eager to learn!

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

@Ali Boone Hey Ali! I actually am in LA and have actually read all your articles on BP! They have been very, very helpful. I would love to connect with you and discuss turnkeys!

Post: New Investor, Eager to learn!

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

@James Robbins thanks for the insight! I am making sure when I am doing my analysis on returns to take all these into consideration. 

For typical turnkey rentals what are average cash in pocket per month people are seeing after factoring in vacancy and maintenance? 

Post: New Investor, Eager to learn!

Chris A.Posted
  • Los Angeles, Cali
  • Posts 53
  • Votes 54

@Grant Diggles Thanks for the welcome! I've considered BRRRR however for now I want to stay more passive, although it is definitely something I am looking into for future investments. I've never heard of flip funding but Ill shoot you a PM to discuss this more. Thank you so much for your insight!

@Tom Ott Would definitely love to hear about your experiences with turnkeys. Expect a PM soon! Thank you for your response

@Walter Roby jr do you know where I can find out about these local meet ups? Would be great to interact face to face with some BP members!

@Larry Fried I completely agree, once I've narrowed down my choices, I plan on making the trip to check them out!

Appreciate the warm welcome and all the lovely advice and feedback! I am currently looking into Birmingham, Houston, and Dallas and am currently talking with Spartan Invest and Memphis Invest. Would love to hear if anyone has any insights into these turnkey operations or markets! I started with these two companies because I've heard a lot of great things about them over many posts and their respective CEO's have contributed greatly to many posts here at BP.

Birmingham looks promising, population growth (while minimal) seems stable, lots of new economic activities and projects developing that will help spark the economy.

Dallas/Houston surrounded by great companies however Im afraid it might be harder to find properties in these markets that have been quite hot for sometime now.