All Forum Posts by: Curtis Rouse Jr

@Randall Hoeber I agree with the others to do a yearly  treatments as I do the same for all my apartments complexes and house down in the Macon, Ga area. Glad to see you are investing from Canada, that is pretty awesome and yes the returns are substantially greater than where you were initially looking. That is exactly the same reason I invest down here and actually looking in the Warner Robins area for more apartments because there has been tremendous growth especially with the Air Force Base being at the center of it all. 

Best of luck and if you ever need any help on this side of town, I'm only a message away!

@Aaron Humerickhouse I agree with @Michael Dorosh & @Mario Brown. Adding to that I would also focusing on for instance the Greenville market or where you plan on investing. If you are unsure of any parameters when analyzing a deal, I would advise to posting it and get other investors feedback giving you a more realistic advice. You take that advice and apply it to the next and it's like a snowball effect taking you only 5 to 10 mins to do analysis and feeling more confident in the numbers. In regards to MFR because I invest in apartment complexes down in Macon Ga area, try to get a hold of some local brokers in the area and ask things like typical cap rates, average price per unit, areas that are up and coming, etc because they are a world of knowledge (especially the ones that invest themselves). Although I reside in the Atlanta market, I have a lot of family in the Greenville area and will be looking for another apartment complex (preferably in the 25 - 50 units; $1M - $1.6M PP ) within the next year to add to my portfolio and would definitely be interested staying in contact if you and anyone else in the area as up there often on the weekends.

Feel free to PM at any time and best of luck with your real estate endeavors and leverage BP for literally EVERYTHING real estate!

Welcome @Jason Bright to BP!

Glad to hear you are taking the journey into real estate and most importantly have been educating yourself which is very important. My recommendation would be to read the UBG and go through all the podcast whenever you have some free time. These were invaluable when I first started about 1 year ago and has completely ignited my business as I'm now working on closing my second apartment complex. With that being said, when I first started I started I was looking around the Atlanta area and couldn't find anything that meet my criteria (specifically my bottom line) so I started looking elsewhere in the metro area and ended up down in Macon, Ga.

So long story short, invest your time in yourself, find your niche (you already know), define your investment criteria, network with like minded investors and most importantly is to pull the trigger when YOU are ready and the investment meets your criteria whatever that may be.

Best of luck and if you have any additional questions please feel free to PM me at anytime and utilize the knowledge of others on the site. Have a blessed day!

@Phil Grady

Welcome to BP! 

So my suggestion for your dilemma would be to buy a MFH (1 -4 units) and utilize a FHA loan (3.5% down) that way you are saving money vs renting and you would be getting cashflow from the other unit(s) that you are renting out. Once you have stayed in the property for at least 1 year, you can move out, rent out the unit you just left and do it again. We call that house hacking that @Brandon Turner coined that many investors utilize to get started early in their investing career.

With all this being said, it's all dependent on your market because possibly in NYC with the higher entry point you get the appreciation, but not the cashflow. So I would really analyze your market and ask local investor in your particular market what would be best. I'm sure there are plenty or meet ups or like minded investors that you can take out for coffee. A perfect example is where I currently reside, there is slightly any cashflow on multi's and/or sfr's so I started investing about one hour and a half away into a  market that meet my requirements and now have my second apartment complex under contract. So do your homework and with the hot prices right now, be very careful and run all your numbers utilizing the bp calculators if you don't already have a spreadsheet ready to go.

I hope this helps and best of luck to you!

@Vincent Crane It's the same email address below for my signature

Hey @Edison Chuquiralao

Welcome to BP! 

I also reside in Lawrenceville Ga, but all of my investments (1SFR & 19 unit apartment complexes) are located in Macon. This is a great place to be and I give all my success to the podcasts and everyone on the forums because they have really guided me over my first year investing.

It seems like you have a really good background and similar interest as far as what you are looking for in your investing career. I also look for value add off market deals because they are usually the best deals that have equity potential and under utilized. I'm currently looking for more apartment complexes in the range of 15 to 50 units, but also looking for 1-4 units to utilize an FHA loan and rent out the other units in our gwinnett area. Properties now in this hot market are tough to come by, but you just have to keep networking and get out there to drive results.

If I can be of any assistance or if you would like to meet up for lunch, come to my office or go down to Macon to see what I have going on, please let me know. I'm down there every Saturday all day from 8am to 7pm.

Best of Luck!

@Vincent Crane Please feel free to message me when you have something along the lines of a 15-50 apartment complex in this area or down in the Middle Ga area. 

Thanks again and best of luck to you

Thank you @Matt Schambeau it definitely hasn't been a walk in the park and I literally learn something new every week I'm down there.

So I got it for a great deal. Purchased for 217k, currently worth on the low end around 350k, cashflows a little over 4k per month at around 45% occupancy rate, needs about 100k - 150k of rehab, once renovated with market rents in place I'm looking to bring in close to 9k per month in gross rents on the low end and will be worth in the 500k to 550k range according to a few appraisers I have ran pro formas across. These are all very conservative numbers because I always run worst case analysis so I don't get into the speculation game.

I like the Macon/Middle Ga area because there are less investors, better cap rates if managed correctly, and I have a lot of "boots on the ground" like other investors and my property manager. They are always bringing me deals, mainly off market, to analyze and directly contact the owners. The other investors I know all have over 100 units and I express with them literally every weekly that my goal is to own 1,000 units within the next 10 year (now 9 because I made this goal last  year) and they are 100% supportive and help me out all the time with any advice, contractors, financing, and deals because they see me every week down there and they know I'm serious because I take action. I forgot which podcast #'s they were, but there were 2 other guys that shared their story about being in expensive markets and now invest here as well.

I hope this helps and any other questions you may have or if you would like to come down to Macon, please free to let me know. I'm down there every Saturday from 8am until about 7pm. 

Best of luck to you!

Hey @Vincent Crane,

Have you seen any apartment complexes? Specifically in the 15 to 50 unit range....

Thanks,

Curtis

Hey @Brandon Davis,

Have you seen any apartment complexes in that area? Specifically between 15 to 50 because I'm looking around that area as well even though all of my investing is in Macon, Ga

Thank you,

Curtis