All Forum Posts by: Kelly Rastatter

The "not REIA" group is still meeting in person in Chattanooga at least once a month, this Saturday, and virtually every week. Feel free to ping me to chat.

The group is the "not REIA" one on FB. We are meeting this Saturday in person outside and every Monday on zoom. It's an active group. Feel free to dm me too.

@Chase Prater There are very very few deals that sit on the MLS in Chattanooga. Most are gone before they hit the MLS. Typically, not always but typically, you are only seeing the ones that no one wants either because the price is too high for the condition or the area is rough. Chattanooga has attracted investors from Cali, NY, Hedge Funds, as well as having a healthy amount of us locals who are watching the MLS and buying off-market too.

I'm 99.9% sure I know which duplex you are looking at on the MLS and I can tell you that the area brings low-quality tenants. For that, I don't play in that playground but to each his own. I will say, for those who do play there, they are looking for much much better than 1% rule to cover the additional headaches that come with the high crime, poor tenant quality areas. The numbers you posted give you lower than 1%. I'd keep looking.

Get on the lists for the wholesalers and start working with a good property management company to help you vet the areas. They are going to be the ones handling most of that tenant headache. You don't want to buy and then figure out that you can't find a PM who will work that area for normal rates.

@Andrew White In Chattanooga, if you are in that price range of $30-50k for single-family with only $5k in repairs, you are in the roughest areas we have with high crime. Yes, you can get close to 2% rents but you are going to be dealing with a rough tenant pool. You need to determine if that's the playground you want to play in and make sure you have a good property management company willing to manage those areas for you since you are out of state.

So what did you do to predict it?

@Jerry Fowler Are you looking to learn how to work on properties? If so, you may be better off trying to apprentice under a contractor/handyman or GC. They may even pay you to learn.

If you are looking to learn real estate investing, you are better off offering to run errands, do showings, material runs, place ads, transaction coordination, make phone calls, etc.

Looks like good strategies. One of the biggest hurdles here right now is a trades bottleneck. Getting material in a reasonable amount of time, finding good contractors who will actually work and are reasonably priced, and banks and appraisers are so swamped that it's very difficult to get your loans on the refi. I just had it take 6 weeks to get 4 appraisals and then they came in about $40k low on every single one because they didn't bother to try and find legit comps. Brrrr in Chattanooga is tough right now. It can be done but you'll need patience and boots on the ground that you trust and know in real life. There are big players here who have large operations and are taking advantage of out of town investors. Do your full due diligence on everyone you consider working with and don't take their word for anything. 

You may be better off trying it out closer to home before you branch out to another state. The strategies are good though!

We are getting back to in person meetings this month. It's always the 4th Thursday and as soon as I have the location nailed down, I'll update a post here

Who did you work with in town to manage the rehab?

@Charles Hirst What's funny is that Chattanooga is so hot right now that many investors are looking at Hunstville and investing there instead. Have you done some deals yet or just getting started?