All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

Hello I have attempted to brrrr a property recently but didn’t quite go as well as I wanted. So I bought a single family home for 315k that was considered inhabitable. I was able to get a private loan which I used to purchase the house then I used my own money to rehab the house. Once the rehab was done I refinanced out of the private loan into a conventional loan as a primary residence. After all the fees from closing and paying back the interest on the private loan my new loan was at 335k. I had an appraisal done for the refinance and it came back at 515k which seemed pretty good. now I have been in the home for a year so I can start renting it out for a decent amount of money that would pay the mortgage and I would get about 600 in rental income on top of paying the mortgage. I would like to purchase another property so I looked into a heloc and a cash out refinance and it looks like I would qualify for about 75000 max which would be enough to put a down payment on another property and rehab it, but I still haven’t paid myself back from the original property rehab. If I pay myself back I’ll only have about 50k left to buy something which I don’t think is enough. I’m trying to figure out how I can pay myself and buy another property. Do I just pay myself back with a equity loan then start renting out the property while paying off the loan and refinance later? Or pay myself back with a heloc and then refinance out of the heloc later on? Is a second mortgage (heloc) or cash out refinance a better idea? Did I just not do the math right on my purchase? Meaning there needed to be more forced equity? My goal is to get a duplex or triplex. Something with more doors and more potential. Or do I just need to rent it out and accumulate more equity first?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Allie William Wilson:

Hello there,

My husband and I are investors with a few LTRs in the Midwest. I am from North Carolina originally and looking to buy our next property in eastern Tennessee. We have been in touch with a few investor realtors in the Knoxville area, which seems to be largely discovered now. The Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlingburg area seems very overblown these days, so I'm not keen on the region. We want a slightly less discovered region. I'm more a fan of Boone rather than Asheville (in NC speak) - the smaller, more authentic mountain experience rather than the touristy mountain regions. Roan Mountain and Watagua Lake are also favorites. Thus, we are looking into the Johnson City-Elizabethton area or the Kingsport-Bristol area. We are leaning more toward Johnson City just due to location, size, and economy/industries that are there. This next investment for us will be our first venture into STRs (or even a MTR). We travel for work (healthcare) and chronically live out of MTRs, so it will be our first time operating a shorter term, but won't be an entirely foreign situation to us. This STR would also be a place for us to block dates off for ourselves between work contracts (if we want to), which adds a slightly more personal investment in this one.

My question is this - does Johnson City receive enough visitation to justify a successful STR? I know the university, the med school, and the hospital are there, so surely an MTR would work well. Though what about STR? Does anyone know stats on this or have personal experience in this region? We would love and welcome any feedback! Thank you.

I live here and the answer is no. We do get people coming through for ETSU and Milligan graduations, temporary stays for the VA, and some tourism in the summer and fall but you're not going to stay heavily booked.

I have lived here for over 30 years and am a licensed broker here, as well as having all of my rentals here in town, and would consider myself an expert on this market.

Don't listen to anyone lumping JC in with Watauga Lake or Roan Mountain. It's 40+ minutes from either one to JC and people who stay out at the lake are a different group than would stay in JC for events there.

Hi, JD! Thanks for your reply! This is super helpful and informative. Sounds like it could be a decent LTR situation, but you answered my concern on if a STR would really stay booked enough to justify a purchase. Thank you!

Would not recommend the East TN region to anyone right now. We have a few properties there. There is such a massive oversupply of units in that region that it will likely affect other neighboring regions for the next few years.

Hello there,

My husband and I are investors with a few LTRs in the Midwest. I am from North Carolina originally and looking to buy our next property in eastern Tennessee. We have been in touch with a few investor realtors in the Knoxville area, which seems to be largely discovered now. The Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlingburg area seems very overblown these days, so I'm not keen on the region. We want a slightly less discovered region. I'm more a fan of Boone rather than Asheville (in NC speak) - the smaller, more authentic mountain experience rather than the touristy mountain regions. Roan Mountain and Watagua Lake are also favorites. Thus, we are looking into the Johnson City-Elizabethton area or the Kingsport-Bristol area. We are leaning more toward Johnson City just due to location, size, and economy/industries that are there. This next investment for us will be our first venture into STRs (or even a MTR). We travel for work (healthcare) and chronically live out of MTRs, so it will be our first time operating a shorter term, but won't be an entirely foreign situation to us. This STR would also be a place for us to block dates off for ourselves between work contracts (if we want to), which adds a slightly more personal investment in this one.

My question is this - does Johnson City receive enough visitation to justify a successful STR? I know the university, the med school, and the hospital are there, so surely an MTR would work well. Though what about STR? Does anyone know stats on this or have personal experience in this region? We would love and welcome any feedback! Thank you.

I’m navigating a divorce and need advice on handling rental properties we co-own. My spouse was the primary decision-maker, and I’m unsure whether to keep my share, sell, or hire a property manager.

For those who’ve faced similar situations, what worked best for you? Any tips on managing joint ownership or deciding to hold or sell would be greatly appreciated.

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Josh Holley:

I just replied that encroachment was shown on previous survey. 

 In that case you should get an attorney involved as encroachment would be a material issue that if known should have been disclosed both to the broker and to any potential buyer. 

 Remember that disclosure laws vary greatly by state, with roughly 50% of states operating under Caveat Emptor...which means no disclosure at all. A quick search shows that Ohio is a Caveat Emptor state with only 1 exception, latent defects. A roof extending over a lot line would not be latent, as it is observable with the naked eye.

I just replied that encroachment was shown on previous survey. 

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Josh Holley:

Quote from @Stuart Udis:

@Josh Holley It appears you have a personal bone to pick with James given his brokerage is not even holding the deposit money. An important fact you omitted. Also you mention he has an awful reputation yet you acknowledged in your initial post you repeatedly buy properties his brokerage represents...not quite adding up. Also a $5k deposit on a $120K purchase isn't abnormal by any means, its less than 5% and this is something you negotiated. 

 More to the point of your post, the agreement of sale should have language detailing precisely how the escrow funds are released to buyer or seller. Independent of the agreement instructions, regardless if its a title company or brokerage who is serving as the escrow agent, its rare for the deposit to be released without a mutual sign off or court order because there are disputed facts. That's the norm. 

What contingencies were included in your purchase and were you within those contingency periods? How did current owner finance the property or were they unable to finance the property due to the encroachment and was this information withheld in disclosures?  Is this roofline encroachment issue customary in this market? These are the facts that will be most relevant to you moving forward. 

This information was withheld in disclosures. Given the seller owns both properties it’s quite obvious they were aware. 

 How would you know that the seller knew the roof encroached on the other property?

Seller owns both properties. Survey was done prior and it is shown.