Hi all,
I recently purchased a property from @Antoine Martel (MartelTurnkey) so thought I'd leave a review on what my experience was like:
Prior to my purchase, I was waiting to buy real estate through a turnkey provider for quite some time but never felt fully confident with how various providers were operating or with their inventory for me to make the jump.
For instance, I thought some of the purchase price for the properties were way too high above retail, or the rehabs weren’t very nice and didn’t looked rehab at all, or they were renting at well below the 1% rule etc.
I took a look through Antoine's inventory and found the purchase price of their homes were in my sweet spot: $60-100k in markets like Cleveland, Memphis, and Birmingham. That was enough to get me through the door but his company offered a few other things I didn't expect such as an intro to the lender, title company, insurance agent, and property management team. Typically, other turnkey providers have their list of preferred companies but Martel turnkey sends out the email intro for you - which was one less thing off my plate as an investor.
Before I got in contact with Antoine there was a property I wanted to buy on his website but it had been listed as “sold” on the day I was scheduled to speak with him. He told me the contract wasn’t signed and that it was first come first serve essentially. So I was happy he provided me with an opportunity to buy the property without him going to a list of an internal list of preferred buyers which would have counted against me as a first time investor.
I signed the purchase agreement then ordered an inspection report so I could perform extra due diligence as an investor. After forwarding MartelTurnkey the report, they addressed the issues right away within a ~2 week period. The issues on the inspection report were few and mainly related to safety which speaks to the quality of the rehab that was done (e.g. no expensive CapEx items).
From there it was fairly smooth sailing. Closing had to be pushed out a month later since the initial appraised value for the home came out to be lower than the agreed purchase price and MartelTurnkey proceeded to dispute that. Afterwards the bank updated me and stated the appraised value was changed back to the original purchase price. It would have been nice to pay lower for the property but from what I can see from the appraisal, the appraiser took into account properties with similar rent values which brought the appraised value back up the second time around.
In closing, I had a positive experience working with MartelTurnkey. I thought Antoine and Angelica from his team were helpful and I loved how the property already came with a tenant so I didn't have to pay the prop. manager one month's rent fee! I am considering buying my second turnkey from them when I'm ready to do this again early Spring 2020.
I've documented the rest of my experience on my blog and will write a more thorough review of the company when I can.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions!
