All Forum Posts by: Colleen Goldstein

@Allen Viancourt Screen them yourself, it's as simple as a Zillow ad and a Google voice number with a script for questions to ask before showing the unit. Basic questions include - full name, who all moving in, where do you live now, what's your current rent, why are you moving, any pets, when are you looking to move, what's your job (and those moving in) and income, credit score. then use cozy to background and credit check

@Louis McLaughlin Hey Louis, it's a small world - I'm also originally from Bucks County & moved down to Charlotte years ago - and haven't looked back! Welcome to BP & to Charlotte, it is certainly fairly priced in comparison to up north. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions along the way - happy to be a resource!

I steer clear of South Carolina due to the extra taxes they charge investors (vs. primary occupants) on the properties. It is definitely harder to achieve the cashflow and their rates keep increasing overtime. 

For cash flow, I'd focus on lower end starter homes or projects in good areas. I like the Charlotte suburbs in anywhere with good school districts as I have continued to see the appreciation on my homes climb over the past few years. This gives you the opportunity to leverage via cash out refi down the line. I personally would steer clear from Gastonia, happy to give my two cents on why offline - but a simple drive over in that area may have you reconsider that strategy especially if self managing (which I do, and recommend). Another avenue that I you haven't mentioned is mobile homes - you can find these in good areas, minimal taxes (especially on older units), and rents can be very profitable compared to single family or multi family for the same money. This will depend on how much cash or other financing options you have available. For the 15-20-25% question - depends on what rates and the cost for each of them. Depending on how fast you want to scale and what the incremental cost of the money is to put less down vs. opportunity cost of not having the funds. If your shooting for cashflow though, likely 20% as you won't have to pay PMI and the lower rate benefits will likely exceed the opportunity cost of a few thousand up front - wouldn't recommend going higher than 20% down though as no extra benefit. For rehabs, if you have good credit there is always the lovely no interest 18 month credit card to help finance rehab (vs. loans). This is how we finance majority of our projects and snowball the debt afterward once the project is renting & cashflowing. I only recommend to help get through that initial tight squeeze for down payment, closing, and rehab - and if you have the funds/buffer to pay it back and not pay the interest. Feel free to reach out, happy to discuss further.

Agreed with Brandon that you're unlikely to find a good deal on a small multi-family inside the 485 loop. I would still keep your eye out though - as they definitely come up from time to time (but may be tenant occupied already - so may be a barrier to owner occupying depending on lease length). I would think your best bet would be finding a single family home with a basement (finished or unfinished with separate walk out) to allow you to subdivide and rent out or airbnb the bottom portion. The other alternative would be a single family home with an additional structure - I have seen folks finish a garage to convert to a rental on their primary residence. In Matthews, this is allowable to rent to unrelated persons (though would have to confirm with Meck county this is OK to do as well).

@Vik Hogan Relatively easy to find tenants for entry level homes in the area (1400-1650). I can't speak to larger homes as that's not our bread & butter.

@Austin Lynk welcome to BP! I'm a 27 year old Charlotte investor (more suburbs - Matthews, Indian Trail area). Your plan structure seems reasonable, although the multi family portion you will likely not find any deals that make sense as investments in CLT, only make sense for owner occupancy since they are overpriced compared to SFH. For a true investment multi-family you will likely need to secure large commercial funding - a direction I am considering as well for our next moves though the down payment and loan will be substantial. I would personally say that the 1 heart time horizon to go from no homes to 5-8 is very aggressive. You will learn a lot your first year of including dealing with contractors, screening tenants, dealing with maintenance issue, nonpayment, leases, etc. You will make mistakes. In my opinion it is risky to dive in all at once for the learning aspect as well as not averaging out your purchase price or "buy-in" basis. The market is high right not but money is cheap, there is speculation on what it will do but buying in all at once may be a bad idea if it goes down. Buying properties seemingly spaced ensures you are at least buying an average of the market price over a few years, can devote energy to one project at a time. Food for thought, but happy to connect, chat, and answer any questions along the way!

Eric Little is a real estate investor & CPA. Charges by the form. Very easy to work with & highly recommend

Hi @Michael,

Welcome to BP! There are lots of resources in Charlotte though I'm sure a bit more limited in the mountains. I invest in Charlotte as well as short term rental in the blue ridge mountains (Beech Mtn). There is a facebook group that is just starting out called Western NC Real Estate Investors that may be a resource for you. There is plenty of opportunity especially with short term rentals in the mountains - despite COVID we've had our best year yet. Of course, feel free to connect and reach out if you have any questions happy to help! 

@DIllion, welcome to BP! For real estate contacts, I use Brandon Colberg at MortgageRight for all my loans - he's extremely responsive, easy to work with, and great rates. Also, for lawyer Harry Marsh law is used among investors as they are used to handling all sorts of deals and have very fair rates. For CPA, I use Eric Little - he's a real estate investor himself so is very well versed and charges by the form. Of course, feel free to reach out if you have any questions, happy to help!