All Forum Posts by: Dan DiFilippo

@Anthony Sgro no, not quite. Fayetteville is a large city, and, as such it's footprint is more complicated. There are often times strange little "pockets" of really good areas surrounded by really bad areas. And then the opposite can be true as well. In ways that I don't think are typical for the rest of the country. I have a couple theories as to why. Understanding Fayetteville overall is not easy. It's a fascinating place though. And excellent for investing if you can learn how things are done around here. If there is no one you're working with as your professional, I'd love to talk. If that deal you're looking for is an off-market, I'd be a bit dubious. We have some fantastic and professional wholesalers here (Rob Sleeves is the guy you want to talk to there), but Fayetteville has a scourge of unethical wholesalers who are only interested in eeking out as wide a spread as possible and the accountability just isn't there like it is with brokers.

@Anthony Sgro local broker here. Back when I when in property management, we had a few houses in that area. There are drug problems up there.

@Justin Gottuso In my time managing, I haven't encountered tenants who have trashed a place vindictively. Trashed one because they're just disgusting people? Sure. But I've been through many a home before and after an acrimonious eviction - the condition never markedly changed. Your results may vary, of course.

@Justin Gottuso no, it's not BS. It happens. When I was in property management, I would commonly be involved in clients' acquisitions from homes that were renting well below market value. On the order of what you're describing. Usually the seller is just an older guy who lives across the street or something and he doesn't care to maintain the property and he's had stable tenants who don't complain that he doesn't fix everything, etc. So they've more or less unspokenly agreed to continue renting the place, but without a rent increase. And things might go that way for 5-10 years or longer. The tenants may not even have a written lease, or are usually month to month. And they'll think they're being diplomatic when they say they'll accept a $50 rent increase. But that doesn't cut it. Especially not if you intend to reno. So, yeah, it's definitely possible.

@Antionette Carradine absolutely! I'll private message you!

@Roman Santos I'm in the Fayetteville NC area. Some of the most stable housing prices and rents making for an excellent cashflow market. Plenty turnover on houses from the military as well, so there are always BRRRR and flip opportunities to boost capital as needed.

Contact either myself or @Chris Stroup if you want more information. We'd love to have a call and chat!

@Iwan Rhys Williams I think, unless you've got money to throw away, it's best to learn how others do it first. Especially as a younger guy. Don't worry about five years wasting your youth or anything like that. Real estate isn't an immediate success game. There are people who have made millions from just a few thousand and then lost it all. Without even being very highly leveraged. But expertise isn't so easily lost. And human capital can easily and fluidly be harnessed for value.

@Jake Davis I don't know, man! You got licensed in each one! You tell me! What kind of insurance is it, first of all? If you're offering insurance on yachts, then I have no idea. If you're offering life insurance then you've got something going on, haven't you? Because you're dealing with a lot of young families seeking to establish themselves financially, and that involves security. Whether that's through whole or term insurance. Either way, sit down with a piece of paper in draw it into four quads. One quad is how you can personally make money on insurance customers by doing real estate. One quad is how you can personally make money on real estate clients in insurance. One quad is how you can make money leveraging insurance customers to other real estate people. And one quad is how you can leverage real estate people to other insurance people.

Your leverage quads will be your strike zone. Because that's where you can make more for less. Right off the bat, I can guess that maybe the most efficient approach is to maintain your real estate license, stick to insurance, and just refer customers like crazy. You might get a refer every month and tbat may be a $15,000 game e a ch year. But I don't know. Maybe there's a scheme that works in the other direction. Once again, I don't know what kind of insurance you're in, let alone how work is sourced or how work can be referred. So that's up to you.

@Michael Sepe that's a little on the high side for me, but every market is different, so, as some have said, you'll just want to grab comps.

Like with sales agents, I think people misunderstand the operation of property management. At 10% management fee, if average unit is $900/month and there's 4% vacancy and 250 units, then they have $21,600 a month to work with. They have an office, marketing, software, they've gotta pay gas, license maintainence, and then everyone's gotta get paid and with employer share of payroll tax as well. The costs to operate are high, but the revenue is pretty stable. But as a result, management companies usually have to peel off extra somewhere else. Late fees, yes. Construction markups charges to the owner. Leasing commissions. Personally, I think renewal fees are the best because they're correlated to the success of the rental. The owner can underwrite for them much more efficiently.

@Kelly Claiborne that's seeming like loan fraud. Also most mortgagees require borrowers to certify that they aren't making their down-payment using debt.