All Forum Posts by: Cole Oraham

@Stephen Spearman Congratulations! I was surprised that that one lasted on the market as long as it did. 

@Russell Wagner I’d love to meet up with you. Send me a message with your email or shoot me an email. My contact info is on my profile.

Hi @Juan Carlos Arellano, you may want to wait until after you get back from training before jumping in. With the extra cash available, you might be able to get a better deal. You could also look at a 1-4 unit with a VA when you get back and house hack or do a live in flip. It might also be difficult to have your first ~7 months of rental investing to be done from a distance. If you do partner with someone locally then that would of course change my opinion on it.

Also being in the Clemson market, I know first hand how hard it is right now to find a deal that makes sense. I have been looking more toward Anderson, Easley, Greenville, etc. for any buy and hold properties. The main thing with your first deal is that you don't know what you don't know. I couldn't imagine being in the military and far away from a property to learn some of the lessons that I have learned.

Best of luck! 

@Sahar A. I agree with @Irene Nash. Never Split The Difference is a good one for negotiating/tactics. I haven't had the chance to read Pitch Anything yet, but I have heard a lot of recommendations for it! 

While not a book, I would also recommend listening to Barbara Corcoran's interview on "The School of Greatness" by Lewis Howes (a quick Google search should get you a link). She spends a little bit of time talking about real estate negotiations.

Best of luck!

Congratulations, @Russell Wagner! Good luck on it!

@Praneeth Nadipalli In general, most communities are still doing pretty well even with the new construction. The most difficult thing about investing in condos is that they are all alike in the community. It is hard to differentiate yourself to a renter. You can do updates which can help to make your condo more attractive to prospects, but if you are buying in a community where rental rates are normally $400 per bed then your updates are not going to be able to justify charging $500 per bed (normally). The other difficult thing is that even if the community is at 95% occupancy, if you are the unfortunate owner in the 5% vacancy then you could be looking at 12 months of vacancy. Most leases are in place from August-July, and the vast majority of renters are students. So if you don't get leased in August then it can be extremely difficult to get someone in there after school starts.

All of this is not to downplay condos as an investment. There are quite a lot of investors who are in love with the Clemson market. I just wanted to make sure that you are aware of the risk before making the purchase. 

And lastly as a disclaimer, if you are in an agency relationship then please disregard all of this and consult your agent.

@Praneeth Nadipalli I would reach out to Entegra Bank (Art Wray), Oconee Federal (Marlene Martin), or United Community Bank (drawing a blank on the lender’s name). All three should be able to help with non-warrantable condos. If you need an agent in the area then please feel free to message me.

@John Smeltzer, I would love to answer any questions that you have. I am a real estate agent here in the Clemson market. My company does sales, management, construction, and maintenance. Feel free to send me a private message with any questions that you have. I also agree that @Chad Carson is a great person to reach out to about it.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Anderson.

Purchase price: $125,000
Cash invested: $28,000
Sale price: $182,000

I double dipped in house hacking this one. I purchased it with an FHA as my primary. I invited my previous roommate to move in with me to split the mortgage. We fixed up the home as we lived there. It stayed as my primary for over 2 years, so I was able to avoid capital gain taxes. It was a great experience. My only regret was that we didn't keep good records for expenses, so we don't have an accurate breakdown of scope of work. It was a full cosmetic flip. We fortunately did not have any major unforeseen things come up with it. Can't wait to find the next!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I am a real estate agent. I found it in the MLS. It was a short sale, and the agent who listed it did a very poor job trying to sell it. I was able to get a great deal on it.

How did you finance this deal?

FHA

How did you add value to the deal?

Appreciation from buying in the right neighborhood really helped. We brought the home back to life and brought it up to date. There were 7 different types of flooring in it when we purchased it!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Keep better records/spreadsheets. Trying to keep track of all receipts and then remember what they are for was nearly impossible. Also, some vendors did not provide receipts and we paid with cash, so we can't remember the exact cost of some items we replaced when we purchased.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Anderson.

Purchase price: $125,000
Cash invested: $28,000
Sale price: $182,000

I double dipped in house hacking this one. I purchased it with an FHA as my primary. I invited my previous roommate to move in with me to split the mortgage. We fixed up the home as we lived there. It stayed as my primary for over 2 years, so I was able to avoid capital gain taxes. It was a great experience. My only regret was that we didn't keep good records for expenses, so we don't have an accurate breakdown of scope of work. It was a full cosmetic flip. We fortunately did not have any major unforeseen things come up with it. Can't wait to find the next!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I am a real estate agent. I found it in the MLS. It was a short sale, and the agent who listed it did a very poor job trying to sell it. I was able to get a great deal on it.

How did you finance this deal?

FHA

How did you add value to the deal?

Appreciation from buying in the right neighborhood really helped. We brought the home back to life and brought it up to date. There were 7 different types of flooring in it when we purchased it!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Keep better records/spreadsheets. Trying to keep track of all receipts and then remember what they are for was nearly impossible. Also, some vendors did not provide receipts and we paid with cash, so we can't remember the exact cost of some items we replaced when we purchased.