All Forum Posts by: James Brewer

Quote from @Scott Mac:

D = Dangerous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3RiJxu-yKU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y_hMK1en5M

Not good for business.

Wow!!

How exactly do you distinguish between a C and D class neighborhood, especially when looking online? Higher crime seems to be the entire inner city, so perhaps it's just the locals who can classify it best? Opinions can vary so that's tough to judge.

Quote from @Nicholas L.:

@James Brewer do you own any rentals already? Trying for an out of state BRRRR comes with many different risks... and as you basically stated, buying in a tough area is just going to make a hard process even harder.

Have you listened to Spencer Cornelia's BP podcasts?  Great case study of how things can go.

Thanks @Nicholas L. I'll take a look at that podcast!!

Thanks everyone for your comments, these are all really good and helpful!!!!

@Brian Kantor Thanks for sharing your story! I'm glad to hear your properties in Detroit have done relatively well and I appreciate you mentioning I should pad the numbers to account for more lost rent, more repairs, etc. Thanks for sharing your stories!!

Thanks again @Andrew Garcia!

Thank you for all of your comments. You all make great points that I'll need to ensure I have solid boots on the ground in order to make this work, hopefully they can be onsite a couple times a week to make sure things are going smoothly and facetime/send pictures as needed. I'll attempt to work with a solid PM for this, and as an alternative I'll see if there are project managers that do that type of work - just don't know exactly who that would be, maybe the PM will know someone.

Thanks I've heard that about contractors, it really depends on which one you get but regardless they probably don't have the time to be taking pictures and documenting everything for you as they've got enough to worry about. Such a busy time for them right now.

That's great to hear you've used your PM to be your eyes and ears too, I may have to go that route I like that idea a lot - I suppose that comes down to finding the right PM at that point!

About working with another local investor, you give me an idea. I wonder if I could bring value to out of state investors looking for that same help in the San Diego area where I could assist folks with those kinds of renovation inspections, property drive by's/walk-thrus, etc. Not sure of the demand for that local investor assistance, but I could just offer to do it for free as a favor to start out - which would give me additional exposure and experience beyond the work i'm doing for my own renovations then eventually move to a nominal fee for my time and mileage/trip fee.....very interesting, thanks again!

Thanks @Rodney Sums, from California to the Midwest I'll be many states over. I work remotely so flying there is no problem, I'd just be away from my wife and kids so I wouldn't want to be gone too long. 

I could probably stay for a week while the project is getting started and I wonder if I could have remote check-ins with the GC or picture/video updates. Maybe they won't want to go through the hassle, not sure. Could I partner with someone that could help me oversee things? Probably too much work for an agent since there's no actual money involved (or could there be?), but what if I found a PM willing to start charging monthly fee early during this time before it's rented so they could do regular weekly or 2x weekly check-ins and can report back to me - that way they are also compensated for their time?

Hi Folks,

I'm considering trying to BRRRR out of state and have heard managing large renovation projects can be extremely difficult while being so far away. I do plan on flying out several times for a 6mo project, but certainly not several times per week.

Clearly you can't rely on a solid GC as much as I thought, so what do you do to make it work?

I'd like to hear any success or failures you've had in doing so and how I can mitigate any issues to be successful.

Thanks!

Hi Folks,

I've heard investing in the inner city and low income/high crime areas is horrible, but I'm here to ask either how you've made it work to be successful, or exactly what kind of nightmare you've had?

I've been considering trying to BRRRR in the inner city in several cities in the Midwest (KCM, STL, MKE, CLE) and I live out of state. I've spoken to many local very experienced and saavy agents/PMs who caution against it due to to the amount of headache involved with low income areas and the crime, dangers and risk that come along with it. Specifically that good PMs will refuse to manage rentals in the inner city, and contractors will refuse to bid your job.

While this is excellent and sound advice, can anyone share if this has happened to you or you've found a way around it, and offer any additional reasons/showstoppers that make this a bad strategy - or offer how investing in low income areas have been a home run for you?

 If I were willing to give it a shot anyways and learn from experience, I'm wondering what other huge negatives there may be that I haven't discovered thus far and how likely I'd be to recover from my mistakes. Clearly I'm pretty risk tolerant and hoping I can make it pay off - posting here to gain your collective wisdom!

Thanks!