All Forum Posts by: Laura Tokgozoglu

Why did you look only at 5 Br...those would seem to be a small amount of the rental pool...why not try 3br and 4br and see what happens? Most families will be wanting 3 or 4 br and if the house you are renting is 5br you could possible make an  adjustment...

Lived there for 20 years, moved to SC, but moving back this summer!

Austin, I dont know of any meetups as I am an out of State Investor...I agree with Jake Jernigan that a good property manager can be a good source of information. One reason we invested in Capstone area was that the guys at Priority One told me that there is always a waitlist for tenants...very popular place to rent.

I  have 2 condos in Capstone area. But you and I may have differing goals and resources as far as investing goes...I wanted turnkey and it was ok if it hardly cashflowed...we are investing for tax purposes and make money on that end...but think about who you want to be your tenant...do you want students? Do you want to buy a 3br townhouse and rent out each br for 400 or do you want a family ? Then think about where that person want to live. My daughters loved Capstone so that is where we bought.  The fact that there is free bus service to Liberty is a huge plus. There are some "sketchy"areas for sure in Lynchburg. I always buy where I would like to live myself or would feel comfortable having my daughter live. There might be some nice little place in the historic downtown...that seems like it might be an up and coming neighborhood. I like condos because there is very low maintenance. They do have HOAs but that is fine....I dont have to worry about replacing the roof someday. But that is just me, we are all different. The latest bigger pockets episode was one of my favorites ..he talked about how everyone is always thinking they need to find a great deal, but how that is actually pretty hard. If you are in it for the long haul you will be ok...now if you are looking for fix and flips it is another story of courese, then you might need that good deal. 

I like Priority One for property management and Mickey Hertzing for Agent. Mickey is an investor and can most likely help you focus on the right area for you.

Hi Jacob,

You should attend this Real Estate meet up

https://www.facebook.com/reiaofaugusta/

There is a lot of growth around Fort Gordon right now...I think it is ripe for some great opportunities. They are expanding there Cyber Security department and lots of high  jobs are heading to that area. There will most likely be some good growth and appreciation in Martinez, Evans, Grovetown and those areas.

Laura T.

We lived in the area for 20 years. You might want to look for a  rancher in Ellicott City, something that you can update. Good schools in Howard County. You might also consider Savage...still in Howard County, schools arent as good, however I think it is an up and coming area. The Savage Mill is a wonderful old Mill that has some nice shops and The Rams Head Tavern. If we were going to move back, which we might, I think we would consider Savage. It has a lot of older homes that would be good projects. You might look at Glenelg and Glenwood however it might be very hard to find a home in your price range. There is a ton of growth going on in the North Laurel area. If you need a great Realtor I would highly recommend Greg Kinnear, he is amazing. I would also add that if you can find something in Western Howard County( might be hard given your budget) to fix up, you will have no trouble selling it. In my opinion Western Howard County( Clarksville, Dayton, West Friendship, Ellicott City, Glenelg, Glenwood, Fulton, Highland) is the best and safest area to live with some of the best schools in the Country. River Hill school district is highly sought after. Hope this helps!

Hi Samuel,

Welcome to the community! My daughters go to Liberty and we love the community. We are closing on our second property next month.We dont live in Lynchburg, however we like investing there. It seems like a place that is going to grow. We like to buy condos and rent the rooms out to students or young professionals. We really like the Cornerstone area. Our investment strategy is buying condos in excellent locations, in excellent condition and then using a property management company. We are taking out 10 year fixed so they dont really cash flow( we break about even) But we are  looking for properties that wont cause us too many headaches. Good luck with your endeavors!

Laura T.

Welcome to BP! We lived in MD for 20 + years and I was a total Real Estate Junkie while there. Have since moved to SC but may move back. You might want to see if there is something in Northern Howard County...Savage and North Laurel come to mind. There seems to be a lot of improvement going on there. Great location, lots of Fort Meade folks live there. Good luck!

Hi Robert,

We are closing on our second property in Lynchburg next month. We live in South Carolina but our daughters go to school at Liberty. We like that there are opportunities to buy a 2 or 3br condo or townhouse and rent out each room to a student. The students are for the most part very responsible and good tenents, a little different from some college towns. We are not cash flowing as much as we would prefer because our priorities when looking were turnkey properties and we use a property management company ( Priority One) We break even after depreciation and also we took out a 15 year and 10 year mortgage as we are in our lat 50s and want to have the condos paid off sooner. If we had 30 year fixed and managed them ourselves we would defineately cash flow. Our Realtor is Mickey Hertzing and he is also an investor, very knowledgeable about the area. I also sell on Ebay to help fund our Real Estate purchases and I am grossing aver $4000.00 per month doing that. Netting about 2500.00. I  started doing Ebay about 4 months ago. Lynchburg seems to be growing and they are fixing up the downtown. I think it is a good solid place to invest and Liberty University is not going anywhere. I also think Lynchburg is a solid place to do Airbnb. There are never enough rooms for Liberty Graduation or other big events. Also several online students need short term (2 week-whole summer) rentals for practicums. If you even have a spare bedroom in your house that is something you could consider. We do Airbnb here in Aiken and get a nice side income on that too. Hope some of these ideas help!