All Forum Posts by: Chris Lounsbury

@Britt Loukos hey Britt, fellow investor from the Rock Hill area. Happy to connect with anyone interested in the area! Would love to get a meetup going

@Joshua Lafferty im not sure how the reciprocity works with north and south carolina but i just got my south license. I went through theceshop and it worked out really well. The course is long, and theres no real way to get around that, but its pretty easy and it definitely prepared me for the test. Hope this helps.

@Baron Hicklin

Hey Baron, fellow SC resident here. Currently live in Rock Hill. Let me know if you need anything. As far as contacts, there are a couple guys I can put you in connection with, but they dont waste time so I would suggest not reaching out until you are ready to pull the trigger on something. Best of luck!

There are definitely no guarantees that the market is going to continue to rise.  In fact, when I left Charlottesville 6 months ago, there were many long time investors in the area who were cashing out, properties were sitting on the market for a lot longer than previous months, and banks were analyzing even more stringently.  I'm not saying Walter is wrong, I just don't like dealing in absolutes. I worked for an investor of 40 years in Charlottesville who was liquidating and waiting because he felt a correction was due.  

With that being said, Charlottesville will always be a pricier market, and is fairly insulated to major corrections due to the University and Hospital. You may be able to wait and purchase something more affordable down the road, or you can begin searching for deals off market and potentially creating a deal rather than just simply finding something on the MLS.

Congrats to you as well @Scott Wolf . Yep, looking to tackle a flip down here next to try and build some workable capital! Best of luck to you on your next one.

Thank you @Phong Tran . I certainly did learn a ton! I am very energetic to get going on the next project.  

If I could go back, I would have done a couple of things differently. I would have definitely made sure I narrowed down my short list of lenders sooner. I also would not have withdrawn from my LOC until after they ran the credit report on me, because I think I would have been fine with credit if I had not done that. I will never try and push the comps in this area for a better ARV. This location is all over the place with comps, so I will make sure to always use the low end moving forward. Lastly, I really want to build my capital reserves up before tackling another long term project. It is much simpler to have that equity sitting there in my accounts accessible. I still could have used the LOC if I wanted instead of my own money, but just having it there would have made purchasing much easier.

Overall however, I did what I had to do to make the deal work.  There is a ton that could have went better had I been in a better circumstance, but I have a property that after refinancing should bring in about $200/door, so I really cant complain!

I paid 65,000.  the asking price was 74,000. They did want more, but had a couple of deals fall through previously, so really just wanted to have someone get to the closing table and make it happen.  I think they were worried about me using an out of state hard money lender.   

Hey Deano,

I have not used him personally, but my realtor recommends Kevin Ginn with Ginn Builders. (803)493-2122.

Let me know if you would like any other help on this project or others.  I am looking to make some connections down here and possibly partner on some flips!

I finally did it! Was able to close on my first deal without any equity partners! What an awesome feeling it is today, now that the closing is official, but wow was it a bumpy road to the finish line.

I have been a part of this community, and have dipped my toes in real estate investing for about 3.5 years now.  I completed my first deal with my parents 3 years ago.  I offered my time and experience as a property manager, and they came with the money and financial stability.  I didn't have much to deal with on the closing side, and it seemed like a breeze! Off to the races.

Unfortunately life happens. I was young and hungry, but also young and stupid.  I didn't save properly.  I bounced around living in Los Angeles, back to New York, then Virginia, and now finally settled in South Carolina.  I kept trying to find the right place, way, and time to invest.  I made a ton of excuses on why "now's not the right time to buy." "there are no deals to be had."  I watched people continuing to grow, while I sat dormant.  

Then I got the 90 day journal and joined my mastermind group. Main Goal: Buy a Rental Property. I started going through the process of narrowing where to buy. Constantly searching for a place, until I remembered just how good my one property was still doing. So what if it is out of state. I'm already managing it from a far, why not just pick up another house there. The teams were already in place, the market was still good there, and a quick search made the decision a lot easier. There were a few duplexes on the MLS that looked promising. I found one I really liked. It needed some work, but I've read everything about BRRRR investing on BP, I could do this! So I made an offer, got it accepted, and then panicked: "How the heck am I going to pay for this."

Queue The Book on Investing with Little or No Money Down.  Conventional was immediately off the table.  I could not come up with 25% down without borrowing.  I searched high and low through BP and other resources to find private lenders.  Eventually I found a couple of lenders in the Hard Money fix and flip space, and found my route.  I could get the property for 10% down, and 100% of repairs.  I worked with a couple lenders at a time, just so I had options when we got closer to the finish line.  (Thank goodness I did.)  The first lender with all of these amazing promises turned out to be a hack.  I fell back onto my second lender, and he was able to take a lot of the pressure off.  

Unfortunately we ran into every problem under the sun trying to get this thing closed. 

1. My Credit came back too Low. This came as a total shock. I have had 700+ credit for over 5 years. I didn't realize how much my credit would be affected by all of the inquiries and credit hits. I also took out a personal LOC to help with the down payment, and that raised my debt to income. I dropped nearly 70 points in a month and a half. No more 90% of purchase price. Dropped down to 85%. Still not terrible.
2. The seller got cold feet and almost pulled the deal multiple times.  It took a lot of smooth talking and communication to keep everything going.
3. ARV appraisal came back significantly lower then what we needed. I worked with an appraiser in the area to come up with my ARV. He was very confident in his numbers. When the lender hired their 3rd party appraiser, he was not familiar with the area, didn't use proper comps, and weighed the defects in my property much more heavily then what I had figured. We appealed, but no luck. They wouldn't even open the report up to look at my appeal. Lender said they were no longer going to be using them, but that didn't help me. Now my 10% all in original thought, already had gone to 15%, and now with the low appraisal, I was looking at more like 30%. (I should've just went conventional).
4. Mail away closing.  I thought this would be awesome.  Turns out it is quite difficult for a first timer.  One group of docs has to go to place A, another set to place B, a copy emailed, another copy sent to place C.  The closing attorney was ready to kill me with all of the questions everyone had.  
5. Lender didn't release funds in time, so the closing got postponed until Monday. I tried everything I could to make sure the lender was going to have everything they needed, but no matter how much preparation I tried, we had a bunch of hiccups and they didn't release the funds in time.  
6. Seller's agent had the wrong price. We had negotiated 2,000 off of the purchase price for repairs, but the seller's agent came to the closing table thinking we were still at the original price.  Again almost railroaded everything. 
7. Seller has still not given me new tenants information.  I asked for this information 2 weeks ago. They said they would give it to me at closing.  They didn't.  Its now the first of the month and the tenants have no idea who to pay.  

As you can see, there were a ton of opportunities to just walk away.  I could have easily said,  "I guess it was not meant to be.  Maybe real estate is just not possible without a ton of capital and experience."

Thankfully I didn't.  I kept fighting for this opportunity.  I want to thank Bigger Pockets. Without their podcasts, forums, books, and calculators, I would have never gotten to the finish line.  My mastermind group, how awesome they have been to push me through this.  Anyone who is reading this rambling, thank you for listening to me! 

I am officially a 100% property owner, with a cashflowing duplex under my belt! Now it's time to rehab, optimize rents, and refinance! 

Hey @Steven Gough , did you ever find out information or use Hard Money Man? Just started talking with him and he sounds like he has what I am looking for.  

When you say the tenant is living rough, does this mean that they are rough or the unit is rough? If the former, then you definitely have to let them go, regardless of whether they say they are going to get their stuff together.  

But if I am reading this correctly, I think you meant the latter, which I would approach slightly differently.  If you want to keep them, I would first make it clear that you do not want them to do any "construction work".  I'm guessing you have not seen their craftsmanship, and their idea of fixing something is probably not going to be the quality that you would accept.  I would let them clean up, but nothing more than that. On top of that, if your relationship with them ever diminishes, they may take back what money they put into the house, destroying the work they did, and now you're left with an even bigger headache.  

Now you need to think about the timing.  Usually, right now is one of the toughest times to find qualified renters, with the spring and summer being the best months.  It might be in your best interest to sign a short term lease with the current tenants, see how they are as tenants and decide in a few months what you want to do.  This gives you the most flexibility and allows you to start planning repairs while collecting some cash flow through the rough winter months.  This of course would be subject to what the prior owner has to say about the tenant.  Ask to see proof of on time payments. Ask a bunch of questions.  Don't go into signing a lease blind.

Hey Joel,

I would definitely move on from that property manager.  They are looking out for themselves, not you, which is a major red flag.  Getting those tenants on a 12 month lease with their forms makes their life easier.  My owners often ask to leave tenants on a month to month contract as they want the flexibility, especially recently as they look to sell off some of their portfolios.  Although its not ideal for me, as at any moment I could be saddled with a bunch of 30 day notices, I completely understand their view points and if the notices start coming in, then I get going on getting new people in.  You want to find a manager that puts your wants first. Cut them loose and start reaching out to new managers.

Slow to HIRE, quick to FIRE.