All Forum Posts by: David Lowe

Welcome to Charleston! I moved here (Summerville/North Charleston) in July and have loved it!

@JD Martin Thanks for the feedback.  Cashing out doesn't work in my particular case because the houses are in a flood zone.  The houses themselves sit high enough that there is little risk of them flooding, plus they're from 1950 and have no evidence of flood damage.  A refinance would force me to get flood insurance which would eat away at quite a bit of my profit, otherwise that is exactly what I would do.

I don't mind mixing refi-d and free and clear properties eventually, but right now interest rates are so low I really want to take advantage of that.  I'm not looking to build a house of cards, but I can still qualify for traditional mortgages so that seems like the way to go for me.

I always assumed I would buy several SF houses, hold them for a while, and eventually sell some to upgrade to MF.  I don't have a goal for a specific number of doors; I am mostly focused on cash flow at the moment.

@Jonathan Tremblay They are technically 2-1, but there is also an office that my tenants have used as a bedroom (the office doesn't have a closet and doesn't have room to add one).  They are approximately 1,100 sqft.  One is rented for $700 and one for $750.  One house had tenants when we purchased it and they have been great.  They take good care of the and have very few maintenance requests.  The other one took about a month to find a good tenant, but they have also been very low-maintenance.  

I've never used the site before, but I just looked on www.rentometer.com and it looks like my rents should be a bit higher.  The properties are located between Atlanta Road and S. Cobb Drive, north of Windy Hill.  What rents have you been seeing in that area?

I still feel pretty new to this real estate investing thing, so I am having trouble comparing options.  My past experience includes two town homes that were more or less move-in ready, three single-family homes that needed quite a bit of work, and one single-family home that was move-in ready.  My current portfolio includes three single-family homes (two in Marietta, GA and one in Charleston, SC) and one town home in Kennesaw, GA.

For my next deal I was planning to look for another single-family home (in Charleston) needing only minimal cosmetic work, but then my brain started churning.  I have saved about $30-40k for the next property intending to put 20% down on a $150k property.  Instead, I could look for a ~$20k property, fix it up, refinance, and do it again.  Another option would be to sell one or two of the single-family properties in Marietta (they are paid off and each should sell for between $60-70k) to create a down-payment for a fourplex in Charleston.  How do I begin to compare the pros/cons/returns/hassle of such different alternatives?

@Brandon Barnes Same question.  I would love to meet other folks who love real estate as much as I do!

@Terry Burger That sounds like a great ministry.  I am a Civil Engineer and have worked with Engineering Ministries International (eMi) in Costa Rica as an intern after finishing my undergraduate degree.  I was living in Costa Rica and coordinating plans and construction for a hospital renovation/expansion project in Guatemala.  The bulk of the design was done by volunteer professional engineers and architects in the States and the interns prepared the plans.  Additionally, my wife lived in Haiti for a year and worked in a Hospital as a Physician's Assistant before we got married, and I was involved in water filtration and distribution projects throughout Haiti during graduate school.

I am building a real estate portfolio in order to create passive income that will give me the time and financing to volunteer with organizations like eMi without needing to fund raise.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the advice! We purchased a property in the Dorchester 2 area when we first moved here and lived there for about a month until we could move into our primary residence.  We renovated the property while we lived there, and it was rented shortly after we moved out.  So far, I'm a fan of DII.

@John Semanchuk and @Troy Gandee are there other areas I should be considering as well?  I was thinking areas near one of the military facilities would attract quality tenants.  What do people generally think about West Ashley?  It is closer to downtown and prices seem to be relatively affordable.  Are there any other things you look at when considering locations to really keep an eye on (such as proximity to Walmart, public transit, schools, crime rate, zoning)?

@Brandon Barnes I would love to get together to discuss what I'm looking for.  What's the best way to get in touch?

I have been listening to the podcasts and reading articles for years and decided its finally time to make an account.  I just moved to the North Charleston/Summerville area (from Marietta, GA).

I am building a real estate portfolio to generate passive income to allow me to do work in developing countries without having to fund raise. My wife and I have began investing about five years ago and currently own four investment properties. In the past, we looked for single-family properties in decent school zones as close cities as possible. This formula (good school + dense population) worked well in Marietta, but I'm still figuring out the market in Charleston.