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All Forum Posts by: Keren Threlfall

Keren Threlfall has started 6 posts and replied 21 times.

Post: Two for the Price of One AirBnb Deal!

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Greenville.

Purchase price: $233,860

Two for the Price of One AirBnb

This property caught my eye as I was wanting to launch another AirBnb. Instead, I launched 2 more, in less than a month. (We moved overseas temporarily less than a month after closing date.) The house sold for a similar asking price to single family homes in the property (technically this is also a SFH) with no additional units. This came as a 3BR, 1BA and 2BR, 1BA, both with full laundry and kitchens.

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

The price
The condition of the property (allowed me to mostly just stage and furnish the house)
Two properties in one
Location

Post: Spartanburg, SC | REHAB INVESTOR SPECIAL SERIOUS BUYERS ONLY

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

Hi Diana, I'd love to connect with you, as well. I'm interested in Greenville, SC (upstate), Asheville, NC, and Marietta, Ohio. 

Post: Property Management Recommendations in Greer, SC

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

We have @Brian Walsh managing over 10 of our properties. I can't say enough good things about his management and https://www.propgreenville.com/, as well. 

Post: Lender Recommendation in Greenville, SC

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

@Matt Friede, I also recommend Bank of Travelers Rest (try a personal meeting first) and SC Telco (they are a bit outdated in some ways, but gave us some great rates!) We've also use GrandSouth in the past. I've only used them for single family rentals, but it should still fit into the 1-4 property category. 

Post: Greenville Ranch Personal Residence to Buy and Hold

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Greenville.

Purchase price: $94,000
Cash invested: $30,000

We strategically purchased this brick ranch as a personal residence with plans to rent when we moved overseas. (Instead we moved locally, but still turned it into a rental.) It's a 3BR, 2BA brick ranch with a partially finished basement, good lot, and carport. Due to the basement, we're able to get a bit higher rent.

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

With some staging and paint, we were able to sell our previous personal residence at a small profit, and use the profit to leverage 3 more properties: 2 as investments, and one as our (downsized) personal residence at the time. The big appeal was that I could leverage my profit even further by putting a little less down on a personal residence.

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

This deal was sitting for a while. Right before the Greenville, SC market took off, there was usually some dormancy in the fall. That allowed me to negotiate, as well. The house had solid bones, but we negotiated on some of the negatives: it had been sitting on the market, it was dated inside, and it had a potential foundation issue (completely checked out prior to closing).

How did you finance this deal?

I financed this as a conventional mortgage for a personal residence. Still with one foot into listening to Dave Ramsey, I did a 20 year mortgage instead of a 30, which initially reduced my potential cashflow. (Later did a cashout refinance.)

How did you add value to the deal?

Creating cosmetic appeal, staging, and buying it knowing the value would increase.

What was the outcome?

This was my highest monthly rental for a while, and it's served us well as a buy-and-hold. I was also able to tap into it later to pull out some equity.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I would have worked to negotiate less cash into the deal, because it had instant equity. I would have also done the cosmetic fixes on the front end so we could enjoy while living there. I only regret...not buying more properties like this when the market was lower. :)

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

Tom Glass, Prime Lending (different lender at the time), and Bob Massing of Keller Williams. This was an MLS listing .

Post: Greenville, SC, $38,500 less than 10 years ago

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

Thanks, @Brandon Frulla!

Post: Greenville, SC, $38,500 less than 10 years ago

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $38,000
Cash invested: $12,000

Contributors:
Daniel Threlfall

Probably my best deal in the Greenville, SC market, as it was one of our earlier investment properties and in excellent condition at the time of purchase, albeit it needs updated. We have retained the same and quality tenant without raising his rates exorbitantly. (Rent and sale price have both grown exponentially in this area.) New construction and total rehabs nearby are going for $200,000+. I have utilized a cash-out refinance strategy to obtain some additional funds for other projects.

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

I knew the market was going to increase in this area, but at the time, even spending that much was a lot for me!

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

It was an estate sale, and I wrote a letter to the seller and also pointed out some of the property's weaknesses relative to other properties in the area.

How did you finance this deal?

Crazily, I did finance this one. Mostly with cash from the sale of another home, but also with financing with Lima One at the time.

How did you add value to the deal?

I held onto it, and also updated paint colors. Found a quality tenant, used excellent management, and have made repairs quickly. When current tenant is ready to move on, or after several years we may do a complete rehab. Depending on the local market, we will retain or continue to hold. I

What was the outcome?

This has worked well as a buy-and-hold. Personally, I'd love to keep the house and fix it up down the road.

It also helped the snowball effect in realizing the power of combining monthly profit from multiple properties.

had an eye for the market early on, but sadly didn't know how to find capital (still my bottleneck to going as fast as I want). But seeing the value increase by this much also reminded me to trust my intuition.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

You'll never regret starting and trying. Looking back, taking this step (not our first rental, but our first 1-5) was huge, and our income wasn't that high. I was a stay-at-home mom of 4 (3 kids, at that time), but I was hooked on real estate after this deal.

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

Not on this deal, but I highly recommend Tom Glass of Prime Lending for any conventional mortgages.

Post: Greenville, SC, $38,500 less than 10 years ago

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $38,000
Cash invested: $12,000

Contributors:
Daniel Threlfall

Probably my best deal in the Greenville, SC market, as it was one of our earlier investment properties and in excellent condition at the time of purchase, albeit it needs updated. We have retained the same and quality tenant without raising his rates exorbitantly. (Rent and sale price have both grown exponentially in this area.) New construction and total rehabs nearby are going for $200,000+. I have utilized a cashout refinance strategy to obtain some additional funds for other projects. When current tenant is ready to move on, or after several years we may do a complete rehab. Depending on the local market, we will retain or continue to hold.

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

I knew the market was going to increase in this area, but at the time, even spending that much was a lot for me!

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

It was an estate sale, and I wrote a letter to the seller and also pointed out some of the property's weaknesses relative to other properties in the area.

How did you finance this deal?

Crazily, I did finance this one. Mostly with cash from the sale of another home, but also with financing with Lima One at the time.

How did you add value to the deal?

I held onto it, and also updated paint colors. Found a quality tenant, used excellent management, and have made repairs quickly.

What was the outcome?

This has worked well as a buy-and-hold. Personally, I'd love to keep the house and fix it up down the road.

It also helped the snowball effect in realizing the power of combining monthly profit from multiple properties.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

You'll never regret starting and trying. Looking back, taking this step (not our first rental, but our first 1-5) was huge, and our income wasn't that high. I was a stay-at-home mom of 4 (3 kids, at that time), but I was hooked on real estate after this deal.

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

Not on this deal, but I highly recommend Tom Glass of Prime Lending for any conventional mortgages.

Post: What Do You Expect from Your Real Estate Agent?

Keren ThrelfallPosted
  • self-employed
  • Greenville, SC
  • Posts 24
  • Votes 7

I just lost a deal on an MLS-listed pproperty, and I am curious as to whether or not I'm expecting too much from my agent or if I should search for a new agent.

Although this was actually a property that we planned to use as a residence and then turn into a rental, we have lost other deals on investment properties with his same realtor. Actually, this makes #7 lost in the last 2 years, either because our offer wasn't high or fast enough. 

I have a sense that our agent is not really aware of the true hotness of our market right now, or of what areas are going to rapidly appreciate in the future. (He's suggested I go low/under asking price in several occasions when it called for much higher offers to win the bid.)

I originally connected with him because he also owns rental properties, and my previous agent didn't have much experience or knowledge of that field. 

For today's offer, it took 3 hours from the time I gave him our offer (offer, percentage down, etc...) to have him submit it. Is that normal? It was all done via online interface. He was also asking questions like, "Are you sure you want to use so-and-so for your closing agent," and I'm like, "Just get the offer in!!!" :)

For an offer I lost last year, it took him an extra day to show me a property, and then he took his time getting the offer in, and we lost it to a better offer. Ours would have been the only one had he moved quickly.

While we have lost 7 properties, we've also purchased 5 properties through this agent. However, of all these purchases, I've been the one to find the properties.  Four were investment properties (under 100k), and one was our new-construction residence (over 300k). 

If you use a buyer's agent to find MLS-listed investment properties, do you expect them to find good properties? Or do you do most of the work on that end? 

After a disappointing loss last year, he did apologize while pointing out ways that we had also slowed down the process. But he promised to be faster with showings.

So, since then, he has done a good job of showing me properties within 24 hours of my bringing them to his attention/asking for a showing.

I do hustle when I find a property that fits, and I realize if I had my real estate license that I could have viewed this property last night and gotten an offer in even sooner. But maybe I'm expecting too much with that type of hustle? I mean, should he really be "on call" to show me properties within hours? :)

I also feel like I have to constantly remind myself to ignore his remarks on properties and to trust my gut, because I 1) it can be emotionally draining when I try to compare his considerations with mine and 2) I have lost every property where I've ignored my instinct and gone with his advice. I'm not an argumentative person by nature, so I think that if I don't speak up first, it can be easier for me to accept his "advice" as such.

Sadly, as he was having us sign our offer today, he also had us sign a contract to work with him through May 28! (We had one last year, too, but didn't renew it.) It didn't sit well then, but we were in a hurry to get our offer in and signed it (electronically) with everything else. Thankfully, it's only for properties within the $200k to $400k range, so that means I can work with someone else for investment properties or personal residence above that range. But still...

Pardon my rant mingled in with the rest, but I'd love input on what you look for and expect from a buyer's agent. 

Congrats and great work @Pancham G.! This is inspirational.

While I haven't thought of a scenario quite like yours, my hope is to get a downtown condo in our area and rent for events.