All Forum Posts by: Ken Dillard

Interesting question I have also struggled with when looking for properties to flip.  I have stayed away from properties on active railroad tracks, or a cemetery, or other a lake house with 150 stairs to get to the water, or other items that will make a segment of the market say "no, thanks" as soon as they walk up.  It would seem you would at least need to factor some discount into your numbers to offset the risk.

I recognize this may be my own inexperience but I do try to avoid things that alienate a portion of my potential buyers.  I could be missing out on the potential AirBnB haunted house market.

Welcome and good job for jumping into the conversations.  Nothing wrong with turnkey.  If you evaluate it and decide that is the right "deal" to keep you moving forward then it is a good thing.  Feel free to reach out to bounce ideas and take advantage of all the knowledge on the site.

Welcome to the forums.  Chatt is a great city.  I am in Franklin with investments in Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, and Johnson City.  To take advantage of the great conversations on BP, set up some key word alerts for the cities and areas of investing you want to learn.  Feel free to jump in and ask questions - a lot of great people willing to help.

Welcome.  I went to East Tn State and familiar with Greenville.  I am now outside Nashville but have rental properties in the East TN area.

Find @Derek Tellier 's recent post on his East TN Meet up.  He rotates from Maryville to Knoxville and Seveirville.  I have attended and met some good people who are looking to help.  Might be a good way for you to connect with people.

There is probably no right or wrong.  It depends on what you want to do.  I put it in the same category of do you want to own your own lawyer or roofer or any number of other functions I am capable of doing; But is that where I want to spend my time?

@Derek Tellier can probably set you up with alerts that come to your inbox (along with wholesalers, and networking connections sending you off market deals). He also hosts an East TN RE meet up weekly where you can connect with lenders and flippers, etc to have other sources of leads in addition to the MLS.

I have done my own landscaping and ceiling repairs and spent time driving for dollars.  And early on it is a great way to save some money and feel more involved and in control.  I recently changed focus to networking and increasing the number of leads in the top of the funnel so I can spend my time evaluating and scale in a way I hope to.

Absolutely nothing wrong with becoming a RE agent. The question would be, are there others you can go ahead and connect with to achieve the same objective today and MLS leads begin appearing for you.

Hope that helps.

Ken

I am sure he will be a D-Light to hear from.

Looking for deals or partners in Sevierville, Knoxville, Maryville and surrounding areas.

Derek,

I will not make this one but can certainly say I enjoyed last month's meeting in Maryville.  Thanks for continuing to bring together investors in the Knoxville, Maryville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg areas.  I have made additional connections through your meet up and continue to look for leads and partners.

Thanks!

Ken

I had a similar "ah ha" moment when looking for my first short term rental in Pigeon Forge, TN.  I love going hiking in the mountains and there is very little I personally do in Pigeon Forge.  My wife and I walked through probably 5-6 cabins with me commenting I don't want to stay in Pigeon Forge, or I don't like the floors, or whatever - all based on my own taste.  She finally looked at me and said, "what do you care, you are going to stay here?!".

That was a turning point for me.  I am not raising my children in the cabin, or a long family tradition of sitting around that fireplace, etc.  It is an investment.  Do the numbers work work should be the question.

OK BP. Three partners and I have set up an LLC for fix and flips. We have been talking to a couple of hard money lenders who are more than happy to lend to LLCs. All seem to run the normal 90% of purchase and repairs up to 70-75% ARV and will take first position on the lien.

Here is the odd part to me. In order to execute the loan we have to personally guarantee the loan. That seems to defeat part of the purpose of the LLC. The lender out of Texas even said they only lend to LLCs but have to personally guarantee the loan.

Is this normal? Are there hard money lenders which simply loan to the LLC entity?

Thanks!

I have a couple of thoughts:

1) Ground up - talk to neighbors and gauge what the interest is and if there are enough people interested the get the HOA to call a vote.

2) Some HOAs are small little pockets of power and will do only what is in there interests and if one board member refuses you are stuck. Giving the HOA a cut is a good idea but that money goes to the Association's use not the pockets of the "politicians". Could you offer to Host their properties and give the owner a cut or something to make it a benefit to the individuals?

I have a condo in a student area around UT Knoxville.  Virtually every unit is a NON-owner and we all rent to students.  In this situation more owners would see a benefit of AirBnb'ing the rooms during the summers as well.  If there were a lot of full time residents I could see a larger battle.