All Forum Posts by: Jason Scott Vawter

@Lucas Mobley Wow! If I'm doing the math correct, you put somewhere close between 20-30k into the renovations? Did you do anything to accentuate the historic character on the inside? The outside looks fantastic.

My wife and I are almost ready to make an offer on a home in a historic business district and we think we're going to use the age as an advantage.

@Joddie Mcclain, did you ever buy the historic district triplex? I'm looking at buying a historic home in middle Alabama. I expect it to be hard, but I am hoping for "hard but worth it."

@Eric M. Did you ever purchase the historic property? I'm looking at one myself. I understand it can be hard, but sometimes as Brandon puts it, the lucrative thing to do is "run towards hard."

Huntsville's definitely the best city in the nation!

(I may be partial since I grew up there). 

@Daniel Hyman Thanks for your response. What about a loan application process? I would assume a larger company wouldn't have the president/ceo filling out loan paperwork. If I'm asking "who not how", what kind of employee, partner or service provider would fill that roll in my company as we grow? Is that something a CPA does? Or is that a VA job?

@Jackson Horn I grew up near Weatherly Rd. It's a great neighborhood and well established.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Prattville.

Purchase price: $187,000
Cash invested: $60,000

This was a 1031 which we purchased with proceeds from our Jasper, TN home.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We found it on the MLS through Zillow. We offered above asking price with strong earnest money on the same day it hit the market.

How did you finance this deal?

We used 1031 money from the sale of our Jasper, TN home.

How did you add value to the deal?

We turned a large room in the basement into a 4th bedroom (a second master suite) by adding a set of double barn doors. We also redid the flooring throughout the home with LVP and updated the kitchen cabinets.

What was the outcome?

We are currently renting the home for a good income. This is also our first time using a Property Manager whom we have already leaned on to fix some issues after the home was rented.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

So far, I'm glad we are using a Property Manager. I would possibly have made a better decision on what improvements to make if I had sought their help during the rehab process.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Laura Phillips in Prattville has been a great PM so far. Susie Williams, our realtor from Clanton, AL worked with us over and over again and is still showing us homes for the next deal. She's been easy to work with and a very experienced advisor. Luke Hays was the best 1031 lawyer we could have ever asked for. He and his office worked with us to make the exchange process easy.

My wife has been our business accountant up till now, but she's pregnant and we have a 1 year old. Life is rightly taking up more and more of her accounting time. A lot of accounting can wait to be done in big push spurts as she has time, but the paperwork we have to turn in while we apply for loans is much more time-sensitive. I beginning to believe that having the help of a VA is where we are headed long term... and maybe even mid or short term.

What accounting services can I safely expect out of a Virtual Assistant? I would love to find a way to give the VA read-only access to all our accounts and have them coordinate with the lender(s). Is that feasible, or safe? As a pass-through LLC, the business's financials are our financials.

That said, how do you find someone you can trust with your personal and business financial information? We already use a CPA, is this the same, or different?

@Cody Lewis Thanks!

@Cody Lewis: Do you know of a good place to go to find lawyer recommendations?

My wife and I started an LLC with a lawyer here in Smalltown, AL and had a decent experience, but nothing to write home about. On the other hand, I did a 1031 exchange with a different lawyer over the phone. Never met the guy in person or even through video chat, BUT we received super-top-notch handling, simple explanations, and a smooth experience. If that lawyer did everything, I'd go back to him for all my legal questions.