All Forum Posts by: Daniel L Mills

What neighborhood is this in? Getting into almost any property in Charlottesville for under $200,000 is quite the feat.

Charlottesville is definitely a place to consider. There's a lot of things to do (especially if you like the outdoors), without it being an overwhelmingly large place. You will see some nice properties for $350k, but a lot of places are starting to push the $400k mark. If you're trying to stay on budget, I would suggest looking out in Albemarle County, as the further you go from the city, the more the prices drop. Hope this helps and good luck in your property search!

@Blaze Prax I live in Cville and am house hacking in a similar way to what you describe. I rent out the basement floor of the property with a standard annual lease and Airbnb a spare room on the floor I live in to cover the mortgage. In hindsight, one thing I didn't plan well for in my models was utilities- I didn't know exactly what they would run and didn't know how to best split them up. Also, I didn't anticipate a situation where I had a large(ish) repair before I really got going. Just throwing these things out as items to consider.

The comment about the STR is a good one. I had a traveling nurse stay with me for multiple month-plus stays and was an awesome guest. If you can find someone like that, it's great. Do check the rules for getting an STR going though, I know the city of Charlottesville put some things in place that made less places eligible.

As far as first steps on the contract and finance side of things, one (maybe more) of Brandon Turner's books goes into some detail about that process. I want to say How To Invest In Real Estate has a whole chapter on it.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

@Jake Johnson When you say Charlottesville multifamily, are you talking du/triplexes or 4+ units? I keep my eye on the Charlottesville SFR inventory but am curious what that side of things is like. Either way, watching prices hike over the past year and see the kind of offers that win bidding wars has been mind boggling.

I have a property in Charlottesville that I got a HELOC on through Tower Federal Credit Union in DC. They offered a credit line up to 100% of equity with interest only payments for the first 10 years with 1% over prime being the rate.

I can't tell you who to go with, but either way it seems you might be able to get better terms than what you have initially listed.

Welcome (back) to the East Coast, Adam! I was going to suggest looking into the Charlottesville Real Estate Meetup group, but I see that you're already on one of their Zoom meetings. Good luck getting settled in, and hopefully we'll cross paths in the future.

Just wanted to clarify- profit margins can't be over 100%, right? If that's correct, I'd be a little wary of the percentages in general.