All Forum Posts by: Clayton Mobley

@Joshua Oclaray Welcome to the community! If you are looking to generate passive income with out-of-state turnkey investing, I'd love to chat with you about what you're looking for. We are a full service turnkey investment company in Birmingham, AL. While, I definitely second @Michael Lee's mention of Memphis Invest - as a they are a top quality outfit - I'd encourage you to think about moving a little further south and taking a look at Birmingham as well. We specialize in solid B properties and currently run a 96.1% 52-week rolling occupancy rate. 

Whether you're looking at property in AL or not, please feel free to reach out to us any time if you have any questions about turnkey investing in general, the market we have here, or what your options could be based on your financial position.

All the best,

Clayton

Hello @Shaune Faust and welcome to BP! Glad to hear you're already putting in the legwork and learning the ropes here. There are a ton of great resources and some very knowledgable people so there couldn't be a better place to get your feet wet.

We (Spartan Invest) are a full-service turnkey investing firm in Birmingham, AL. We have six years of experience and have been growing swiftly, currently posting a 96.1% 52-week rolling occupancy ratio. Not to throw a ton of numbers at you just yet, but we know our way around the industry and Birmingham has plenty of amazing opportunities for long-term buy-and-hold.

It sounds like you haven't yet decided where you'd like to invest, but I would encourage you to look at Birmingham. There are several good providers here, but we manage our own properties in-house and pride ourselves on helping our clients attain reliable, consistent cashflow, month after month, while we take care of everything else.

If you have any questions about the Birmingham market or what types of investment properties we have available, please don't hesitate to ask. If you have any other questions about real estate investing, turnkey, or what resources you should turn to to further your education, just drop me a line. I'm always happy to help new member of the community in any way I can.

All the best,

Clay

Welcome to Birmingham @Brian Gawronski!

It sounds like you are already putting in the work necessary to make an educated investment decision, so you're well ahead of a lot of people.

Full disclosure, we are a turnkey provider in the Birmingham area (Spartan Invest), but more than that, we are a member of this community and always want to help new investors when and how we can. There are a ton of amazing investment opportunities here in Birmingham and a number of truly high-quality providers. That being said, I know the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming when you’re first starting out.

We have six years of experience in the industry and a 52-week rolling occupancy ratio of 96.1%, so we’ve been around the block. If you ever have questions about turnkey investing in general, specific properties that catch your eye, or even just want a knowledgeable wall to bounce ideas off of, feel free to message me directly or give our office a call. 

Best of luck!

Clayton

@Brian Gawronski

Hey @Lei S.!

I'd make sure to get the sellers permission, but if it's a buyer's market there (like it is here in Alabama) they'll probably be happy to let you show the house to prospective tenants. I see absolutely no problem in showing the property to tenants with an expected move in date of mid-April or whenever you feel like you'll own it ** Just Be Honest **. Tell the tenant you have to wait to close, and tell them there is always the possibility of complications. 

As long as you are up front with potential tenants and cover your basis, why not get it rented as soon as possible? We usually list properties 2 to 3 weeks before they  become available, and sometimes that results in a zero transition time. We make sure to inform the tenant that there could be complications, but as long as your up front, usually people will understand. 

@Nuwan Ranasinghe Hello and welcome to Bigger Pockets!

I'm excited to hear your considering rental property as an investment. I can tell you from a lot of personal experience that it can be a great cash creator and can help you create wealth like nothing else I've ever seen (especially for the risk level that a good area can provide). 

I have a contact out there in San Diego that might be of service. She has been in the industry of out of state turn key investment for over 7 years. PM me if you would like to reach out. 

*Full disclosure - I own and operate a turn key rental property investment company in Birmingham AL* That being said, we truly like to just help anyone out even if it isn't a good fit for out company. The partner I have in San Diego is very well connect, and she would be willing to help you out in any way possible even if it doesn't benefit her financially; it's always good to have friends in such an awesome area of the country. San Diego is a truly amazing place. If I wasn't so addicted to this southern culture, I'd pack up my bags tomorrow :) 

Please send me the list at [email protected]

Thanks!

@Ian Stevenson Hello and welcome to Bigger Pockets!!!

I'd have to agree with @Jay Hinrichs in that we haven't been able to find any solution that provides 100% financing for a turn key or buy and hold property. If and when you do have some capital ready to put down, we would be glad to introduce you to some of our lenders that could help you out.  Good Luck!

Hey Christopher,

I'm not an insurance broker, but usually they need the following for rental property:

• Year Built
• Square Footage
• Beds/Baths
• Roof, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical system age (if you know it)
• Type of construction and exterior cladding
• Basement (finished or unfinished) and square footage values
• Some companies require pictures

I hope this helps. We have over 150 properties insured through State Farm, and they are excellent. I would recommend Beth Slaughter and her team at State Farm. PM me if you would like her personal contact info. 

Good Luck! 

@Katherine T. Yes, I would recommend a couple that I believe have several properties in that area. Try Alabama Rental Managers or Rudulph Real Estate... These are both good property management companies who use legit leasing agents to show properties. Tell them that Clayton M. gave you the referral, so I can get some street cred :) 

Our property management company is Alabama Rental Property, but unfortunately we don't manage any property that doesn't either belong to us or one of our investors. We'll keep you in mind if we ever change our model though. 

Best of luck to you!

@David Hodge I'm sorry to hear that you haven't had a good experience in Birmingham. I truly hope this won't put you off the entire market all together. I believe in Birmingham, as with all places, it's all about your provider. I'll give our detailed stats below for our entire portfolio, so hopefully you'll know that there can be some fantastic numbers in this area. 

@Tyisha G. Memphis is a great market, but I hope you are not completely turned off to the Birmingham market. As with any market there are bound to be bad experiences, but I'd like to share some of our property management company's data, so you can get a sense of how a large portfolio can perform in Birmingham (254 properties currently).

*Disclaimer - Our companies provide full turn key properties from acquisition to renovation to leasing to property management. I am giving our property management statistics to inform how a well managed portfolio in Birmingham can perform. Please do not take this as solicitation.*

First off, we have a very specific portfolio that is ONLY in B-Areas (no C-Areas) and a few A-Areas. We do not rent Section 8. I've described most of our areas in this thread in a previous post. We also have completely renovated properties. Some think we go too far with our renovation, so this can have a positive impact on the numbers below (but it also increases the capital in the property, so you need to weigh that in). We are numbers geeks at Spartan, so we keep extremely accurate records of our entire portfolio. Here are a few specifics for our entire portfolio:

• Average time from renovation to lease: 29 days. This is after the property has been completely renovated - essentially how long it sits on the market before we get a 2-year lease on the property. 
• Average move out turn around: 48 days. The extra time here is to account for the clean out and renovation that must take place on the property after the previous tenant moves out. 
• Average move out cost: $1202. This is the average amount of money spent after a tenant moves out that it takes to get the property back to rent ready. Keep in mind that the median security deposit for one of our properties is $950, thus our average "out of pocket" cost from a move out is $252. This does not include the cost of vacancy which can be calculated from the above two numbers. 
• Average maintenance ratio: 2.9%. This is the total amount of maintenance costs an average property has over the course of the year divided by the total annual rents received. 
• Average length of lease: 35 months. This is the average number of months that a tenant will occupy one of the houses in our portfolio. Keep in mind that we only sign 2-year leases, and this is a year longer than the average in the market. 

I'm not sure how familiar with property management statistics you are, but compared to national averages on single family house management, these are stellar. Also, I truly wanted to post this to give people a representation of what you can get in the Birmingham market with a good provider. Of course, we would love to do business with you, BUT I really just wanted to post the statistics to give folks a representation of a large portfolio in Birmingham. In my opinion, our market is an amazing one for turn key properties. 

Sincerely,

Clayton