All Forum Posts by: Katherine Serrell

Farm Bureau out of their Benson, NC office is the best insurance provider you’ll find. Their rates are half of what I’m used to seeing and I’ve never had a problem making a claim. 

Farm Bureau out of Benson, NC has been the best insurance company I have found by far. Their rates are half of what national companies’ are and I’ve never had a problem making a claim. 

’m a realtor and investor in NC and Scott Baldwin with Alcova mortgage out of Greenville, NC is the best guy you will find. I’ve spoken with dozens of lenders over the past 2 years and he’s the man. I send everyone I know to him.  I’ve had to do some COMPLICATED financing strategies with this guy and he’s definitely not a “one size fits all” broker and will figure out a way to make it work (in my experience). 

I’m a realtor and investor in NC and Scott Baldwin with Alcova mortgage out of Greenville, NC is the best guy you will find. I’ve spoken with dozens of lenders over the past 2 years and he’s the man. I send everyone I know to him. 

@Jason Malabute sent you a map on IG of the areas. Can’t go zip by zip in Raleigh. Doesn’t work like that here. I know it does in most cities but can’t truly evaluate the market that way here. 

I’ve used Becton Law firm and have been pleased with them for the past two deals. They’re based out of Raleigh. 

Raleigh and Durham are VASTLY different markets and should be approached differently depending on what investment goals you have. To make a broad generalization, Durham is overall better for Cashflow, the prices are not outrageous, it's less competitive and there is more inventory. Durham also has some really, really bad areas. Raleigh's rents haven't caught up with the prices, it's 10x more competitive, prices are crazy and only going to get worse at the moment, but the appreciation is extraordinary so your ROI will be amazing (depending on the deal obviously). Focus on one at a time. They're different cities with different economies and should be treated as such.

I'm a Raleigh native and local agent and investor. Raleigh doesn't have any "bad" zip codes in my opinion. All of the zip codes have vastly different properties in them unlike every other city I've looked at. Durham is a MUCH different story and I've had numerous awful experiences there and Durham does have "bad zip codes" I'm not not as familiar since it's not my primary market. The C neighborhoods in Raleigh are anything east of Capital Blvd, anything around MLK Drive and Rock Quart Road. So basically anything inside the belt line in southeast Raleigh is dicey. There are a lot of tear down/new builds going up in the C areas close to downtown in the 400k-1M range but it really is street-by-street in those areas and google earth isn't exactly reflective since those "up and coming" areas consist of mainly new builds and a few flips. There are some B neighborhoods in north east Raleigh around Capital Blvd but it's really hit or miss. The price to rent ratio in Raleigh is awful at the moment because rents haven't caught up with the prices. I know people still making money on upper-end flips (500-700k ARV range). However, your best bet would be anything north inside the "outer belt line" or close to NC State University. There is TONS of road construction underway so if you are looking at properties near a highway check with city planning to make sure they won't be planning on paving through your front yard. Raleigh is 10x more competitive than Durham so finding good deals in Raleigh is really difficult at the moment…( Opendoor and Zillow have ramped up their acquisitions here and buy whatever they can get their hands on that's under 300k.) Happy to answer specific questions or take a look at the list of properties you have.