All Forum Posts by: Levi Bennett

Comb google and line up at least 3-5 cleaners, also go ahead and tell them you'll pay more to get some motivation. You can always renegotiate or find a new one, but getting one lined up is critical to getting occupancy up in the interim. Also, try to network with other owners in your area, often times they will offer up their contacts. 

There's several "heavy-hitters" in the area that are committed to helping new people invest in Charlotte. One of them hosts a meet-up group every month, and they have what's called "office hours" at their central Charlotte location (plaza), they've extremely connected and can hook you up with a lot of contacts depending on your goals. There are several other meet ups that are extremely valuable for making connections. That's how I got started when I moved back and several clients and investors I've worked with were from those groups. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll set up an introduction. My background is helping investors with on and off market acquisitions around Charlotte MSA and short term rental homes around CLT and Western NC mountains. So I've got a lot of connections too if you want to pick my brain. Good luck, and welcome to Charlotte. 

Hey guys, I appreciate the interest.. this deal is currently dead. However, the partners involved would be willing to get started on something new if there was serious financial backing as construction prices have begun to settle a little bit in the region. If this is something anyone wants to do, we have the entire team in place, but financing has been our biggest challenge. 

Hey Ernesto, I work almost exclusively with investors from California. @Samara Huntley would be a good option for you. As you look around for a team, with 1-2 houses per year (that's actually pretty low volume) it would be advisable for you to piggy-back off of someone who already has teams in place rather than try to build your own team from scratch. That might be worth it at 10 or more acquisitions per year, but at this stage, I would recommend going with someone who already has everything in place, it would be well worth the full real estate commission because, I promise you, you will save much more in the long run by paying someone who is ready to go. 

Good luck and welcome!

@Christian Latimer nailed it with Facebook market and Nextdoor! I would maybe look at "Hotpads.com" or zillow, sometimes homeowners make an account and post rental stuff there (but you'll find the agencies post there too, so just look for that). 

Hey Ava, I'll try and give you a realistic assessment. 

I grew up just north of Charlotte and lived in uptown for a time, I've been practicing some form of real estate for the last 7 years, whether a licensed agent, rehabbing, wholesaling, or developing. 

Charlotte suburbs have been red-hot pretty much since the 90s (with the brief exception of the nation-wide downturn).

In my opinion, the "investor-havens" like Belmont, Kannapolis, parts of Union County, Rock Hill are a little over-rated. Granted, they usually provide reliable returns, but the problem is that the word has been out on these areas for quite some time. The number of eyes that are on "the Charlotte metro" market from out-of-state and out-of-town investors is extraordinary. There are literally thousands of new investors every month, wanting to buy in the Charlotte area that have never actually been here. I'm not implying that's a bad thing, but the problem (for them) is that when they ask in forums like this, or on the phone, the casual investor will tell them, "Gastonia, Kannapolis, Belmont, etc.." but, everything is certainly picked over, and the competition to get property in those exact areas is outrageous. Everything is trading wayyy high in what I call, "the investor havens".

However, there is good news for the out-of-town investor, which is find those "unpopular" suburbs that people don't talk about, but are still growing like crazy. If you're an agent, you can isolate on the MLS towns, neighborhoods and zip codes and see for yourself the skyrocketing numbers for appreciation and median sales price, and the plummeting numbers of inventory and days on market. People from out of town think they need to hit a hot spot. They do not. I can almost guarantee you will over-pay if you try and buy in these popular areas. There are so many other great areas around Charlotte, that are performing very well and have huge potential, search the areas that are accessible to Uptown, but people don't talk about, and then test the numbers. You'll notice prices and inventory are much more friendly.

There is so much more to this conversation, but if you want, feel free to reach out, otherwise I hope this helps. I hope you find success in Charlotte like so many other people have, and that you get the help you need!

I've been attending meetings for the last 4 years, and by far, the best networking group is "The Exchange: Real Estate Networking Meetup"

The best part is, it's free. I could go on and on why it's the best, but just trust me as I've been to scores of them and this is the one that I have learned the most and made the most valuable relationships at.

@Charles Eng hey man, yeah no problem. I network with several decent wholesalers, and my wife and I work as a team (she's a broker) to source properties for investors and that's probably the most aggressive strategy that we've seen work. It prevents quite a bit of headache. I definitely think that's an advantageous route for you. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat more about it. 

Hey Johnny, I live in the LKN community and I know a few people that do it, generally speaking, this community is one of the most expensive in NC, and lakefront land is massively expensive to make an airbnb work. It's certainly possible, but you'd have to have some unique parameters, because usually these lots are scooped up with cash buyers that build primary residences. 

If I were you, I would go to airbnb, search for the kind of house you want, write down street names, and look for homes for sale in those neighborhoods and then crunch your numbers from there. I've spoken with a few people who have inherited homes, or have some kind of weird situation where they are able to airbnb where neighbors can't, and they cash flow extremely well, but as a general rule, I don't think many people do it because it's hard to be competitive with the market the way it is around the Lake. 

Hey Eugene. By "house-hacking" do you mean renting by the rooms? I just helped a client purchase a home (he closes today actually) and it's SFH and he's had overwhelming interest in renting out rooms. He actually bought the house because it had multiple masters and a large basement that he was going to convert into a shared office and target students and work-from home tenants.

If you're wanting small multi-family, just keep in mind that they're the most desirable competitive real estate commodity on the market, and they're very rare. They way to get one is to reach out directly to the owners on the tax record for ones that are not for sale, and make them a written offer (they get verbal offers 10x week from investors and will not take them seriously). If you're going to live in one of the units and use a loan, I would offer FULL retail price, and maybe a little more, and you'll get one. It may take some time, but I've talked to many owners of these types of properties, and they're not ignorant to what they're worth, most just don't want to go through the hassle of selling it and getting lowballed 10x/week, so you have to make it as easy as possible. It may be tricky doing this if you've never done it, I would suggest working with a broker experienced in small MF and who has experience writing offers for off-market deals (most brokers don't/won't do this). 

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about this.