All Forum Posts by: Max Householder

@Peter MacKercher manages our two 4-unit properties and is a great resource for investing in south city.

That makes sense price-wise. I think Bevo is turning around pretty well and a lot of investors like Dutchtown. Not much appreciation on the horizon in either, so make sure you buy right. I love Dogtown and The Hill, but it's tough to get into those sub-markets; no inventory! 

You could consider house-hacking or a live-in flip if you're handy with rehab work. If you can cobble together enough money to put a downpayment on a run down 4-family then you can fix up each unit and re-finance to move on to the next one. You can get an FHA with <5% down so you'd only need to come up with $5-10k depending on where you're looking in the city. If you can't come up with $5k in the next 12 months you probably shouldn't be investing in anything.

The other route would be what Kyle suggested, find a partner. For a BRRRR deal to work you need a property, money, and rehab/time. If you don't have money, and I'm assuming you're not a contractor since you didn't mention it, then find "the deal" i.e. a motivated seller with a property that can be fixed up and then partner up with a contractor and/or money guy that you meet at a local meetup.

St. Louis is a large metro area and extremely diverse in terms of real estate. First big thing is the difference between St. Louis County and St. Louis City which are separate jurisdiction and generally very different for investors. A lot of people flip in south county or west county and then buy-and-hold for cash flow in the city or north county. The city is primarily small multi-families and the county is almost entirely SFR.

Continental Title on Hampton closed both our 4-family properties and did a great job.

Seems like you're trying to juggle a lot of moving parts here. Maybe put the real estate investing on the back-burner while you get your new business off the ground and producing reliable income for you that looks good to lenders. If you can't support yourself, you're going to have a hard time make this property a successful investment, especially with a hard money loan. Without a job, you'll need enough liquid assets to fund this investment (if you're considering hard money it sounds like you must not), plus provide reserves, plus fund your upstart transportation business, plus money to live off. 

I know you said you didn't want to get into the long story behind quitting your job, but from the info you provided it sounds like you should probably pick a lane and move in one direction for a while. Unless this $40k property is an absurd screaming deal, I doubt the income from it is going to be meaningful to your bottom line with the other things you have going on.

Talk to @Peter MacKercher. He's an agent, property manager, contractor, a one-stop shop for St. Louis real estate investing.

I second @Peter MacKercher. He's done a good job managing our two fourplexes and has experience working with out-of-state investors.

I did not, I ended up buying in South City.

Hey @Jacob Gammon, Dutchtown has pros and cons, but it's generally a good area for cash flow if you buy right. Make sure you lock down your numbers tight. While there maybe/could be some long term green shoots in this area, do not bank on any appreciation to bail you out. If you overpay, you could have difficulty unloading the property in a pinch.

Get with Eric and talk specifics about location because every neighborhood in St. Louis is block-to-block so you don't look for a blanket yes/no on Dutchtown per se, you need to evaluate exactly the block you're looking at and what's on each side of you (next door, across the street, across the alley etc.).

Lastly, there were recently (January 2019) two separate homicides (one double homicide and one homeowner killed an intruder) on Dunnica Ave. near Amberg Park. You might look into the details of that as I saw like a half-dozen properties go up for sale on those blocks in the few weeks after. May just be coincidence, but could be that some people on the ground are seeing issues that aren't as obvious from the outside. On the other hand it could be a buying opportunity if some weaker hands are getting shaken out.

Overall Dutchtown is on the edge of where I'm comfortable going in St. Louis, but lots of investors are having success there so follow their lead. Good luck!