All Forum Posts by: Edward Barnes

If it's south of 664, that's a pretty rough area. Lots of cheap houses. Multifamily's pretty rare on the peninsula though.

My first home was a 203K about five years ago. Mine was pretty nightmarish. Best piece of advice I can give you is thoroughly screen everybody who’s going to work for you as well as you can. If you can’t find much info on them, then keep it moving. I honestly dont recall selecting the HUD consultant. I think I was pretty much given a name via the bank and hired him. My total rehab was $53K w/ 10% contingency. This was for pretty much a full rehab. But really too lean of a budget in hindsight, but the low number made me feel good at the time. I never got a home inspection because my realtor referred to the HUD consultant as an inspector and said he had done an inspection and asked if wanted to have another one done. So I was kinda misled and it seemed redundant to me. But obviously get a home inspection. The consultant’s there to draw up a budget, not so much perform an inspection. My first contractor did the juicy/profitable larger items in the scope of work and then stopped. I don’t know if it still exists, but there’s a 10% holdback on all the payments until the end of the project. I argued with the bank that he wasn’t due his holdback because he didn’t complete the project. I finally ended up paying him the holdback too, because I needed to move on and hire somebody else because there used to be a 6 month deadline to get it done. Second contractor wasn’t much better. I paid for a good amount of stuff out of pocket, maybe $10-15K. Sold the house three years later made maybe $35-40K overall after everything but I could’ve made a lot more. But yes you can fire your contractor. And they’re going to come into the job expecting to use the entire budget and contingency, so yeah any leftovers maybe applied towards principal, but anticipate there being any. Also, the money can move around from item to item, not sure if you were aware. And as previously suggested, get as detailed a SoW as you can, so everyone’s on the same page and don’t take any crap like I did. ;) But after all is said and done,I’d do it again.

@Nancy Bachety

Would you mind sharing numbers? Give me something to shoot for.

@Nancy Bachety

Thanks for the encouragement. Do say hi. And Tapped is a bottle shop with a bar and tables, and light apps. So if your husband's a beer drinker, he'll appreciate it.

@Nancy Bachety

Thanks for the response. My wife is holding me back ;). That and I've checked the zoning ordinances for Greenville and it made me kind of leery. Did you get any pushback from the city at all? I don't have any issue being down there as long as it's not every weekend or something crazy. We're probably down there 4-5 times a year as-is just for family functions. But I'm sure, as you know, real estate down there's pretty affordable and seems like it should have good appreciation as well.

Like I said my brother-in-law runs one and has a pretty good cleaner. I would probably just use them. He actually own the restaurant, Basil's, and his wife runs, Tapped. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but I'm sure he's got contacts with maintenance people.

@Nancy Bachety

Hi, just found your thread. How are you managing your airbnb from such a distance? Do you have property manager or a team? I've literally thought of doing the same thing, but I'm maybe 2.5 hrs away. Both my brother-in-laws live in Greenville and one is airbnb-ing his old primary residence and doing pretty well.

Yes, you’d have $30K in equity with $30K down payment.

Thanks for the replies. I’m certainly not looking to add a pool. It’s a 10-unit (6-2bd, 4-1bd), average rents are $380, it’s listed at $271K. Neighboring complexes are starting at ~$450 for a 1 bd, but have pools. Just trying to figure how below market rents are. I’ve also been using 50% for expenses, because of the low rents and a 10-unit doesn’t really benefit from the economies of scale.

I'm analyzing a 10-unit nestled among other big complexes. Buildings are identical however, but the bigger complexes have a pool and some kind of clubhouse/internet common area. What would you guys value these amenities at rent-wise? 

Yep, I’d say so. It’s the whole pride of ownership thing. Renters are usually more transient, less well off, etc. And the ratio of rent to mortgage payment gets worse as you get into more expensive housing, I.e. $200K houses don’t rent for double $100K houses. Just be careful with condos as HOA fees and assessments can eat your cash flow.