All Forum Posts by: Chris Dawson

@Derrick Lasley the 2 best RE clubs in Kansas City are the Kansas City Investment Group (www.KCIG.org) and Mid America Association of Real Estate Investors(www.marei.org).  Both meet once a month.  I would suggest you go to a couple of meetings at each club before you decide to commit to one or both.  You will find a great deal of people to network with at either club.

@Mary Newman welcome to BP!  You have come to the right place for real estate investing advice.  Feel free to reach out to me if you need any advice.

I'm here to help.

I have had good success with investment properties with both Secured Title and McCaffree Short Title.

@Ejy Mirjan, I have seen some investors use a spreadsheet and actually calculate a numerical risk factor based on several categories such as, location, age, type, construction, and population stats, just to name a few.  I personally feel that this is overkill and truly a waste of time since risk is a relative term that can't be quantified by one, absolute number.

I recommend a much more simple strategy that works very well for Kansas City's markets.

Basically, I look at 3 things:

1) Location

1. A) Inner city - Highest Risk
2. B) Midtown (areas surrounding the inner city) - Medium risk
3. C) Suburbs and surrounding cities - Lowest risk

2) Property Type

1. A) Single family homes - Highest risk
2. B) Multi Family - Medium risk
3. C) Commercial (office space/ retail space) - Lowest risk

3) Property Condition

1. A) Needs major work - Highest risk
2. B) Needs minor work - Medium risk
3. C) Needs no work - Lowest risk

So,  based on this formula, you can see that if you were to choose a house in the inner city that needs a complete rehab, you would be taking the highest risk.  If you were to choose a commercial property that is 95% occupied and located in the suburbs, you would be taking the least amount of risk.

Obviously I am generalizing about a lot of things here, but this is a good place to start.

I grew up in St. Louis but I have been living in Kansas City for the past 20 years.  To me, the St. Louis market and the Kansas City market have always been fairly similar.  KC is smaller and always seems to be a little bit more mild when it comes to the fluctuations, but otherwise they are very similar.  I find it interesting that KC isn't mentioned at all since they are so similar.  I also wonder what the long term effects will be of the recent national attention SL has received for its racial tensions.  

We have done many in those area and continue to do many. The hardest part of trying to do a flip in those areas is finding the deal. Be careful when looking in Hyde park as it borders up against areas of the city that will make it more difficult to flip your house for top dollar. Generally, we avoid the east edge of Hyde park unless you can get a phenomenal deal on the purchase price and your ARV spread is great enough to offset longer days on market and/or a lower sale price.

Another gotcha in those areas is the age of the house.  With older houses usually comes more expensive rehabs; especially if your goal is to restore the character of the house.  When doing your upgrades, you really have to think about what kind of buyer will be buying in this area and what that buyer wants in a house.  

It is A LOT different than doing a flip in a  20 year old cookie cutter subdivision. 

@Ejy Mirjan, as JJ said, the KC market is a big area with lots of possibilities.  You need formulate your investment strategy and goals before you do anything else as this will help you determine what areas in KC you want to look for properties.

You have already established that you want rental property, so here are a few more questions to ask yourself:

1 Do you want SFR (single family residential), multi family, or commercial (commercial tenants)?

2 How much money do you have to invest and how much money can you borrow (if you want more money)?

3 Are you more interested in cash flow or long term equity?

4 How much risk do you want to take?  This is probably the hardest question for most investors to answer.  We all want the best returns, but with high returns usually comes higher risks.  You need to determine if you are a big risk taker or a little risk taker.  Think about your financial situation when you answer this question.  Do you have the financial means to recover if your investment is a bust?  Do you need income from your rental properties to pay your bills?  Are you simply looking for a way to reduce your taxes?  

If you can answer these questions, I can better tell you what areas of Kansas City you need to be looking at.

@Brandon Jackson, welcome to BP.

There are several investor clubs that you should look at in KC.  The first is www.KCIG.org.  This is a non profit investor club that meets once a month.  The other one that I would recommend is http://www.marei.org/   This one also meets once a month.

I would recommend you go to each of these at least once to get a feel for the venue, then you can choose to sign up with one or both.  Membership is around $100 a year for each of them and it is well worth the money; especially for new investors.

Let me know if you would like to get together and further discuss your strategy.  I'm here to help any way I can.

Welcome @Account Closed!

The first thing you need to decide is where do you want to invest. Dollar for dollar, California is not the best place to invest your $100k. There are plenty of other markets; especially in the midwest, where you can make a lot more money off of your initial investment. Kansas City is one of the best places to invest. The cost of living is lower than the national average. The housing market is more stable than either the east coast or the west coast which means your risk is less (although your potential ROI could also be less).

We help investors from around the globe make the best choices for their unique situations/goals.  I would be happy to help you if you decide to invest in the Kansas City market.

@Brandon Sturgeon, what type of financing are you needing?  Hard money?  Local bank?  Private money?

I have a great hard money lender if that is what you need.  PM for the details.

If you are looking for a bank, Central Bank and Arvest Bank are both investor friendly.