All Forum Posts by: Jody Schnurrenberger

@Carol Desantis, what do you mean to be wary of wholesalers.  I've never used one, but was thinking of doing so in the future.  Please educate me.  :-)

That's so funny, @Ramsey Blankenship, because I'm also renting.  I don't want to buy here for a number of reasons, price just being one of the factors.

@Tracey Pera, I'm pretty new here myself--about a month and a half old.  I've had properties for several years now and am closing on my 4th next week, but only since BP have I started to really consider it INVESTING.  I didn't do a terrible job-everything I have cash flows, but I was just buying cash flowing properties, not actually investing like I'm trying to do now.  Fyi, I'm an Army veteran.  ;-)  Welcome to BP!

@Carol Zeroual, when you find a property you like, go to the county tax assessor's website.  They should have a place where you can plug in the property address and find the name and address of the owners (as well as more information about the house and its taxes).  If you are considering doing a direct mail campaign, it usually takes a LOT of letters as in to lots of people and quite a few times, before you get a deal that way.  Unfortunately, it's not as easy as they old days when you could just look up their name in the phone book.  lol  Though you can probably pay places on the internet to get their number, but I don't do that.

Stories like this are why I'm glad I have a property manager!  :-P

WOW!  You did a BEAUTIFUL JOB!  Those bathrooms and the kitchen are AMAZING!  It will definitely sell!  :-)

An interesting place I just stumbled across when talking to someone else who is looking to invest in CA is Bakersfield.  They have over 40% of their population as renters and only a 6.7% vacancy rate.  That's a great vacancy rate.  (I get my numbers off www.BestPlaces.net but I can't say exactly how accurate they are.)  No place I'm looking at investing has that low a vacancy rate!  Their crime is higher than average, but I guess you can't have everything.  :-D

Thanks, @Odie Ayaga!  You're always looking out for me!  :-D

Though I haven't met them in person, @Tiffany Alexy and @Dawn Brenengen both seem cool online if you need an agent, @David Carbajal.

While I can't vouch for the accuracy, when I'm interested in vacancy rates, I look at www.BestPlaces.net.  According to them, Tucson has a 12% vacancy rate (and 44% of the population as renters).  https://www.bestplaces.net/housing/city/arizona/tu...

Places I invest in or am interested in investing in include:

1.  Auburn, AL because it's my hometown, I'm familiar with it, the university probably isn't going anywhere, if you're patient, you can find a deal, during the real estate downturn, Auburn was one of only like 15 or so cities where the property values still went up (at least one year--there was an article about it lol), nearly 50% of the population are renters, and the list goes on.  I'm buying my 4th property next week.  :-D

2.  Raleigh, NC because it has multiple draws (state capital, part of the tech triangle, and NC State), home appreciation is up nearly 20 percent in the last 10 years (is that a plus or a minus...I'm not sure lol), renters make up almost 43% of the population and vacancy is only 9%.  Most importantly, I'm in Asheville and it's not too far away.  Crime is higher than I'd like, but it's not completely insane, just higher than the national average.  I've been told it's a really tough market and there is a lot of competition, so we will see how that goes.  It's also not the cheapest market I could find, but I'm going to give it a try.  I've found a couple of agents/PMs to interview, but I'm open to suggestions for both agents and property managers, if anyone has any.

3.  Fort Collins, CO is actually my  #1 choice, except for the distance from me (and to some extent, the cost).  Unemployment is only 3.3%.  Nearly 44% of the population rents and the vacancy rate is less than 4%.  Home appreciation is over 31%...again, is that good or bad?  It's also just beautiful there.  While property crime is slightly above average, the violent crime is significantly below average.  (And property crime in Ft. Collins is the lowest of the 3 locations.)  I just love Fort Collins.  Perhaps I'll move there one of these days.  :-)

Welcome to BP!  You should meet lots of wonderful people here.  :-)  @Adam Schneider is one of them.  :-)