All Forum Posts by: Christopher Stevens

Thanks for asking, Jaye. Yes, things have stabilized. This is my year to optimize and organize. As things continue to improve and I streamline my processes, everything will get better.

Well, I surely appreciate your detailed response.

I've found that finding a property manager is not easy since many property management companies are pretty bad. Finding a competent and passionate property management company is the most important piece of the puzzle since I'm doing buy-and-hold investing.

Right now, I have SFR properties in: Fort Worth, TX; Beebe, AR; Alexander, AR; Jacksonville, AR; Bartlett, TN. A good property management company manages these. I self-manage one condo in Burbank, CA, but I plan to sell the Burbank property and move that equity into other newer turnkey properties.

Respectfully, SFR is more in alignment with my strategy. I understand that multifamily is a great option, and I might get there down the road, but I plan to have the first 10 properties as SFR. I have a long way to go, but I'm on my path and learning.

Again, thank you for your time. It's greatly appreciated.



 

Quote from @Robert Ellis:

Quote from @James N Sheils:

Hi Brandon, 

I have worked with Southern Impression Homes for also decade and merged my own company with them to become a full partner in 2022. 
We provide new construction rentals and PM (single family, duplexes and Quads) for investors. We focus in 12 markets in Florida a. We are only selling completed homes with our own in house financing currently at 3.75%, a huge discount from most bank rates.
We are a long time property provider for some of the bigger podcasters: Real Estate Guys Radio, Marco Santorelli (Norada), Kathy Fetke (RWN) Jason Hartman ( Empowerd Investor) GRE (Keith Weinhold), Whitecoat Investor Group and more
We also work with American Homes for Rent, Invitation Homes, Crescent, Haven Realty (JP Morgan) to name a few on the institutional side 
We are partially owned as of 2022 by Sumitomom Forestry, which means we have no bank debt and self fund all our building projects. This has also allowed us to provide some excellent incentives for our investors, locking in long term debt currently at 3.75%  through our in house financing program. Plus  2 years free property management. A client can close on a new property with us in less than 45 days so no long closing or pre construction risk anymore with our program. And easy for us to fulfill 1031 exchanges now. Not to mention we have grown our PM staff by almost 50% to help better support our growth and overall management.

We are currently building out 5,000 lots ion Florida 

If you would like a free copy of my best selling book "Passive Income Playbook: How To Leverage Build to Rent Real Estate to Buy Back Your Time And Have a Legendary Family Life"  just let us know and we will send you a copy 

thanks Brandon

 owned by a Japanese company, the floorplans are pretty poorly designed and larger than build to rent should be. the 4 plex they have is a higher price per door than th national average and needs to be modified. horrible designs. I wouldn't touch a multifamily with them or single family. I'll drive you down the streets of Lehigh acres where they build and show anyone the gap between market rents (real asking prices) and their pro formas 

Thanks for the feedback, Robert. What build to rent, turnkey + good property management companies do you recommend if Southern Impression Homes is not a good option?

My biggest challenge is finding a good long-term partner for turnkey and good property management. It's all starts with turnkey deals, but they need to have good property managers, too, else it becomes a huge task for property owners. I've found that good/fair property management companies are hard to find.

Again, thanks, and keep up the great work!

Quote from @Joe S.:

Congratulations… In the long run it should do well. Keep your day your day job until then.

 I agree, it should do well over time. If I still had my day job, I’d have kept it. However, they let me go in July 2023, so I’m focusing on growing my real estate business. Hopefully, I won’t run out of money:-). I can’t even get an interview for what I used to do, but I don’t know that I’d be happy doing digital marketing at this point. That said, for those who do have their day job still, keep it as long as possible.

Quote from @Lu Kang:

Hi Christopher,

Now that you are approaching one year with your Dallas property, have you gotten updates on new insurance / property tax rates.

I had a similar experience with my place down in Ark. The carrying costs are low, but tenant was making partial payments by month 2. That's the other challenge that i've learned, with only one month as SD, if the tenant leaves even in a relatively new build the fees add up. 

My Dallas property has been one of my best investments, but it's only been about 9 months. Rent is always on time, and things have been going well. It only has positive cash flow due to concessions by the seller that will last about 2 years.

Property values have seemed to drop in that area, so I'm doing something different by requesting a reassessment of my property taxes. If all goes well, my monthly payments could drop about $60 from a tax reassessment in about six months. So, there's more than one way to create more cash flow than refinancing:-). 

Regarding my AR properties, I, too, have had some significant challenges over the past 12 months with Arkansas renters. I have three properties in AR now, and as of about four months ago, two of them were vacant despite having two-year contracts on the properties. One was evicted after about five months and three months of working with the tenant on rent delays, and the other walked away after about three months in the property and got behind for two months. Then, both needed about $5,000-$10,000 each in repairs and cleanup.

Even with low rents in those areas, renters struggle to pay $995/month on one property and $1,095/month on another. These are lovely single-family homes. It's only been a few months, so hopefully, they will get better at paying rent on time, but they make partial or late payments nearly every month. This seems strange since PPMG (my property management company) is vetting these renters. PPMG claims "...an average length of stay of 5.3 years...", it would take a long time for all my tenants to stay in my homes to get to a 5.3-year average. Of course, it's only an average, so it seems I had some bad luck so far.

My subsequent purchases will be in better areas and will be newer homes. I'm still learning, but I'm glad I started investing in more real estate. In another 5-10 years, I'm confident I'll be happy purchasing more real estate. 

Does anyone know how we can write this investment off to help reduce our tax liability? Can we obtain a special form or document to show the loss?  

😂 I wish I was on their payroll. Then, at least I’d be getting some money monthly. No, I needed cash flow since I lost my job and invested. I invested because of their long-standing reputation. I knew the risk was high. This was a good lesson for me and I hope to recover some of my investment. If not, I’ll write it off as a loss. Win some, lose some. It’s best to channel energy towards the future and not dwell on negative things. 

Best wishes and good luck to all! 

Quote from @Chris Clothier:

I'm still not going to post at length here as there is clearly more to come out, but the past few posts are interesting to me. 

I think one critical piece is being overlooked.  It is my opinion, that in order to get investors to look to the left while you are showing them on the right what the investment entails, you have to have a brand with a good reputation using their list to raise money.  If investors believed, as most emails I have received from this company going back to 2012 have made it appear, that this was a real estate company doing real estate business, then many investors may have simply let their guard down.  Many may not have known or understood what they were investing in.  They may have been looking left and preparing for a 12%, 15%, 17% return and never paid attention to the risks on the right.  Many were clearly caught off guard by the detail that their distribution could be halted and their investment converted to stock.  

I would think you have to have a very specific audience to go for this type of investment and pre-existing trust is at the top of the list.  An audience that has been built over a long period of time and with a lot of faith and belief in the personality presenting is one that is most prepared to invest without question and most likely to be attracted to the high returns.  The audience is pre-disposed to believe. 

 100% correct, Chris! Well said. 

Let me clarify. I do know the last mass communication was 9/16 and that Marco promised communication every 2 weeks. Lots of promises have been made and not delivered, but the best thing we can do is be patient and let them do their best. That’s the best chance we have at potentially recovering from this. Negative posts and lawsuits are like chopping off your nose to spite your face.

I’ve respectfully reached out and asked for an update. Here’s what I received from his assistant, Kathy, on 10/23:

Hi Chris- I am helping Marco go through his emails and responding as best I can. Per my recent conversations with Marco, he is working with a financial adviser and counsel on a restructuring plan to repay Norada Capital's noteholders. The process has been and continues to be very time consuming as counsel is conducting due diligence, and has requested and is assessing a substantial amount of information. He anticipates being in a position to provide a substantive update in late October or the first week of November.
Thank you for your patience and continued support. (End of response)

Clearly it’s past that timeframe, so I’ll reach back out again soon. Let’s keep in mind, Marco and his team are people and they’re doing their best. They are husbands, mothers, brothers, sisters, etc. They didn’t create Norada to be scammers and crooks. For well over a decade, they helped many investors grow and they had a great reputation. Let’s give them time to figure this out. That is our best chance at recovery. Send them a kind message of encouragement and gratitude. Ask them what you can do to help. If we all pitch in and provide support, even if it’s just to say a kind word to them, we have a better chance of winning!

Best wishes and good luck to all in your investment journey.

Good points! I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing.