All Forum Posts by: Lucas Dalton

Have you pulled any records for the listing/sale of properties comparable to yours both with and without finished basement apartments? That's what will tell you how much equity you could potentially build with the project. Maybe someone familiar with the Nashville market will chime in with specific advice, but I'd just start by pulling some comps and seeing if there's any evidence that the project would add value beyond its own cost within your particular area.

Do you have a Statement of Work that goes with the initial contract? If he's now saying it will cost substantially more, then I would think there should be a written Change Order getting generated to document exactly what alterations to the original SOW are being requested (ie increases to labor/materials for X task in Y room). That should let you highlight what projected costs have gone up by comparing the new document to the original SOW. Did he ever supply something detailed, or was the contract bid on with just a ballpark number?

Not bad. The process looks less complicated than I would have imagined. I may have to keep this in mind for when I hang up the camouflaged hat in a few years.

That's an interesting idea for using that benefit. Do you know what the approval process will look like in terms of getting an industry partner on board as an eligible place to intern with?

If your wife is a realtor, then I would imagine she has a solid idea of value in your area, but I would ask if you have any manufactured houses on the market to use for your pricing data? The markets I've looked at tend to have manufactured housing selling at a significant discount in comparison to site built homes even when both are modern and have similar square footage and room counts. Even brand new manufactured houses on private lots seem to sell for only about what it would cost someone to buy/place them. Is your area significantly different?

I'm glad to hear good things about NC and Fayetteville. I should be moving there this summer, so I've been reading everything I can about the market conditions in the area with an eye toward investment opportunities.

@Jose Clavijo - Thanks for the insight. My target is going to be properties I can buy, rehab, and hold long term, so it sounds like I'm coming to the right place. Do you find your properties mostly off market? I have seen a few distressed properties come across the MLS lately that looked like they might be viable rehab projects, but I can only assume that the stuff getting listed is just the tip of the iceberg.

That might be a standard lease, but the wording doesn’t look great in terms of preventing conflict. My first thought looking at “If pests infestation occurs due to Tenant’s negligence” is that no tenant is ever going to admit to “negligence” for the simple fact that most people don’t think of themselves as negligent. No one will want to accept that label, so I would expect any attempt to require someone to pay for pest control based on this is going to result in arguments. I'd much rather have something with a concrete, non-debatable standard for determining who pays for what.

Please do let us know if you figure out what "adequate considerations" is supposed to mean in this context. Is she just talking about giving sufficient notice to a tenant prior to inspecting the property or performing maintenance?

That sounds pretty good. Your conservative numbers would still let you pull all your cash out on the refinance if you get your asking price.

Is the property one of those brick 3/2 buildings from the 70’s? Those are mainly what I’m seeing in that price range, bed/bath configuration, and square footage in the Fayetteville area. If it is, then your 90k sounds reasonable for one that requires up to 20k of repairs.

And no, I didn’t start stalking the area just because of your post, in case you wondered. Hah. I am waiting on orders to move down to Fort Bragg around July (I guess it will be Fort Liberty by then), so I’ve been spending a lot of time scrolling through listings of houses in and around Fayetteville to get an idea of what that market is like for investment properties.

That is an awesome success story @Patrick Eldridge It’s a great counterpoint to the people saying contract everything out, hire people, systematize, scale, etc. Thirty-two doors in two years is a result that cannot be argued with.

It would be great to hear more about your process. Reading through the replies, it looks like you said you did some multi unit properties at some point. That makes sense, given your rate of growth. Did you start with multi units or were your initial forays single family? Which do you prefer now?

Also, can you share whether you do anything special to find your deals? Given that you’re rehabbing more than a house each month and doing most of your own labor, you must have come up with some pretty efficient techniques for identifying distressed properties that are in your “buy box.”

Ask other investors in your area for references. You could also probably find some in the forums here or by checking any Facebook group for real estate investors in the area you're looking to buy in. Some of the FB forums seem to be spammy with wholesalers soliciting business. For that matter, you could probably just call the numbers on your local "Cash for Houses!" bandit signs. The person's probably either a wholesaler or a fellow investor who might be someone you could establish a relationship with.

I'm curious how you decided on duplexes as your focus. Do you see a lot of distressed duplexes in the areas you're looking at? Or are you trying to house hack and do kind of a slow motion BRRRR that way?