All Forum Posts by: Chris Lounsbury

I've only ever been on the other end of this type of agreement.  Definitely great for the landlord.  He never reached out, I forgot about my lease ending and then I was locked into another year.  My fault on not reading through the lease carefully, but now on the other side of that equation, I really like the strategy.  I wonder if there are any state codes that prevent this.  If not, I think I'm going to implement as well. 

I am currently managing B+ to A class townhomes and they are all painted with a flat sheen right now.  I get complaints constantly about how quickly and easily the tenants damage the walls with minor scuffs and fingerprints, pretty much right from the day they move in.  We are providing pretty high end townhomes, and they immediately get damaged, leaving the tenants not feeling proud of the home they rented.  It seems as though painting with an eggshell would help prevent some of this damage.  The drawback is it does not look as nice when it is fresh, and is more difficult to touch up.  All of the painting professionals we use say that flat is the way to go, but I'm wondering if this is because they know they are going to get a full paint when the tenants move out because after a year of living, there's no way just touching up will be sufficient.  What are you guys using? What is the best balance of cost and looks?

Hey Aalok,

Although I won't be able to offer much help in the way of actual advice, I just wanted to reach out and say welcome. I am in your area, but just moved here a month ago so learning the ins and outs of york county currently. I am stationed in Rock Hill, SC.  If you ever want to connect just reach out.  Best of luck!

Very thankful for this post.  I have been on auto-pilot the last couple of months and have blamed my recent move and new job for my lack of motivation and overall productivity.  It's funny how we can know all of the things we need to do to stay at the top of our game, and still not do them.  Sometimes we just need the right looking glass, and reading all of the comments on this thread have provided the inspiration i've needed to get my butt out of bed tomorrow morning and hit the gym before work.  Thank you all.

Hi Everyone!  I am having a little bit of trouble refinancing a property I own and hoping someone has run into this before.

I invested in an over/under duplex 2 years ago and did the BRRRR method. Bought it for cash, rehabbed it, rented both sides and then refinanced. Unfortunately since the property wasn't seasoned, I had a hard time getting conventional funding on it, and instead went with a private company to refinance the property. Our terms right now are 7.95% (adjustable after 5 years) 30 year mortgage. I really want to refinance this property again with a better mortgage now that the property has seasoned for a couple years and is surely rent stabilized. I also want the property to qualify for refinancing without having to use my personal income or tax returns to do so, as I am a 1099 employee and have only been at this job for a year so I really wont qualify.

I talked to a bunch of local banks and they all basically told me that I need to come in person to meet with them.  This doesn't really work with my schedule and it being pretty far away.  I called Quicken Loans and got through about 90% of the process and then they told me I wouldnt qualify because they needed to use my tax returns.  I write off as much as possible in my tax returns so I don't look good in Uncle Sam's eyes. 

Basically, what I need is a bank or lender that can qualify the property by looking at Rents vs debt service.  The property is a cash flowing monster.  It shouldn't be this difficult.  We are bringing in $1700 a month in rent on an $80,000 mortgage.  

If someone has any ideas on how I should handle this, or have dealt with a similar situation, I would greatly appreciate it. 

Thanks!!!

Hey Jen, Staunton is a very finicky market. Do you know where the house is? Different locations would definitely call for different strategies. With that being said, your best bet would most likely be renting it out on yearly leases as long as youre hitting your numbers correctly. Staunton is a very c class area, with a lot of working families that want to settle in one place. These people, as long as you keep up with rent prices are great because turnover costs should be very low. Id be happy to help if you have any other questions! Thanks, Chris

Chris Ayers I definitely get inside the city is getting harder and harder but areas like gastonia for example you can still find these deals. Im an outsider coming from an outside perspective so im just trying to understand why going out to the suburbs would be less beneficial then going out of state. I very well could be wrong, just figured id put my two cents in.

Hi Melanie Short , I’m curious why you dont expand to the greater Charlotte area? Is there not deals within an hour of you? I am constantly looking in that area and finding great 1-2% rule deals there. Im moving from Virginia, but have been very intrigued with the market here. Am I wrong in my Analysis?

Hey @Keith Meyer , while I can't speak to the other two, Appfolio has been great for us.  We manage ~150 units and just finally made the switch over to a property management software.  The built in accounting is very extensive and you should easily be able to get away with using it in place of Fresh/quickbooks, although we currently are still keeping our old systems in place as a back up until we get more comfortable.  While there are definitely some things that we feel are lacking on the tenant side, (i.e: very basic online lease signing that makes it difficult to customize each lease you send out, no canned/generic responses for their email client, task/notification section could use tweaking) their accounting is awesome.  One last thing, we have been using their services for 2 months now and they've already had 5-10 upgrades.  The developers are constantly listening to the clients suggestions and implementing them quickly.  Hope this helps!

Hi everyone! I'm looking to move in the next few months to Charlotte or nearby and would love to link with some real estate agents that are investor friendly. I have access to private money and have a few deals under my belt so I am ready to jump on a deal that works for me. Ideally, I am looking for a multi-family dwelling, one which I can rent out one side and live in the other. I would love a value add project, something with one side or more fixed up and ready to rent and one side that could use some work. Alternatively, I could be in the market for a SFH with a significant value add but is livable. I have done some research and have some questions on different areas. Places that seem interesting are Salisbury, Gastonia, and Lexington. Of course the closer to Charlotte itself, the better! I look forward to talking to anyone in the area!

Thanks,

Chris