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All Forum Posts by: John Harmon

John Harmon has started 5 posts and replied 14 times.

I've used Brad Boni for 5 or 6 transactions and he's always been great to work with.

@John Mocker Thank you for the insight! Fortunately, I don't run any other business operations out of this LLC, so that should make things easier. I have a few agent/broker recommendations now and plan to start working with them today.

Hi BP Community,

I'm putting a duplex under contract today about an hour away from Aiken, SC. This will be the first property I've purchased with partners through a newly formed multi-member LLC. My other properties are in my personal name. The broker I've used for my other properties says they can't insure it because the partners are not family members. Does anyone have recommendations for brokers that could help in this situation? I do have a call into the NREIG that I found here on BP, but would like to shop around if possible. Thanks for your help!

@Christopher Morgan You're very welcome, happy to help! Karen focuses mostly on single family and small multi-family properties. I'll DM you her contact info though if you want to reach out. I don't know if she'll be interested, but it won't hurt to ask!

Hi @Rachel Marie Shelley

I apologize for the late response, I forgot to turn notifications on for this post. My wife and I did do some research on our own, but since this was our first rental, we contacted the PM early on. We have had this one rented for 1.5 years now, and the experience has been great so far. Our first tenant renewed her lease in May for another year. We also refinanced in June and increased cash flow. In September, our tenant's employer transferred her unexpectedly, so she had to leave with little notice. This had me nervous, but our PM had the property leased before October, and actually increased rent from $1,350 to $1,400/mo. 


We bought another house .5 miles away from this one to renovate while we lived there for a year with the goal of making that our second rental. This is a central location in town and very convenient for shopping, churches, restaurants, etc. We paid $108k and put about $15k into the reno. It is now worth about $150k and is leased at $1,250/mo.

We are currently looking for another rental unit in the area. We like the city of Aiken because we know the area very well and know which neighborhoods and streets are places we would want to own property. Other parts of Aiken County that we like are North Augusta and Graniteville. For price, we want to be able to charge $1,000/mo or more, since this seems to be a price point that attracts higher quality tenants in this area.


Hope this helps and good luck when you start investing here! If you have any other questions or if I can help in any way, I'd be happy to do so. 

Hi Christopher,

Our property manager, Karen Clayton with Gold Ivy Realty, manages a few hundred units in the area. She is well connected and recommends Jud Smith who is based out of Columbia. I don't know him personally, but Karen's other contacts that I've worked with have always been very good, so you may benefit from a conversation with him. I can't post contact info in the forum, but the company is MJS Inc. 

Good luck on your search for a PM company, and congrats on getting that 80 unit under contract! 

Hi @Stephanie P., we are going to continue to rent it out. Using "flip" may have been a poor word choice, since I was really referring to the renovations we were doing while we lived there. We purchased this home with the intent to live in it for 1 year while renovating it, then hold it as a long term rental. It is currently rented on a 1 year lease at $1,250/month.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Aiken.

Purchase price: $108,000
Cash invested: $23,000

3Br, 1.5 bath SFR

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We wanted a property we could remodel to add value. We have done renovations in each home we've lived in, so the idea of a live-in flip that we would turn into a rental made sense for us.

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

My realtor knew what type of property we would be looking for, and that it was about time for us to buy another house. He brought this deal to us before it hit the market. We were able to speak directly to the seller about the house, but negotiated through the realtor. We offered about $3k over what he was asking, but got $5k in seller concessions, which reduced the amount of cash we needed at closing.

How did you finance this deal?

This was a conventional mortgage with 5% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

We literally touched everything from floor to ceiling in this house. We installed LVP before moving in, replaced all light fixtures, plugs and switches. We refinished the cabinets, added new countertops, sinks, and faucets, and added a built-in storage bench in the kitchen. The main bathroom got a new tub with subway tile that matched the kitchen backsplash. We also had the roof replaced and the ceilings smoothed, which were the 2 jobs we hired out.

What was the outcome?

We originally planned to rent this for $1,100/month when we started. After finishing, our PM listed it for $1,250/month and had it filled within 2 weeks. The estimated current value is $140k - $150k.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The biggest lesson from this deal is to be very clear about your expectations with contractors. When we had the ceilings refinished, the subs had to come back 3 times to get the job done right, and I still ended up doing some touch up work after they left. This could have been avoided if the contractor and I had worked up a more detailed SOW in the beginning.

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

Josh Cline was my realtor(we've done 5 transactions together so far, and he's always been great). Matt Hunter was my lender, with this being 1 of 3 transactions he's we've done together.

Hi BP Community,

  I'm looking to refinance my first rental property in Aiken, SC. My wife and I bought it as an owner occupied property in 2019 with a 15 year note at 4%. After deciding to make it a rental unit and learning more about the power of leverage and cashflow through BP, we'd like to refi into a 30 year mortgage. When I spoke with my "go to" broker, he warned my that it may be difficult to find a lender for an investment property because of the new FHFA guidelines.

He did find a lender, but the interest rate on the 30 year note is 4% with nearly $1,000 in additional closing fees compared to what I usually pay. I do have a call in to another banker that I used for my most recent purchase, but I am curious, is this in line with what you all are seeing? Have you been affected by the recent guideline changes?