All Forum Posts by: Laura Shinkle

Are you in Western NC or central? I wouldn't say Charlotte or the triangle area are local to Western NC. 

@Andres Ruiz to build a team, you just need to start talking to people. I'd start with those that have commented on this post, and then search for people in those markets and talk to them. Like what was mentioned, word of mouth is the best referral source, so start talking to people and the team will grow. 

As far as anyone willing to network, that is literally what this site is all about. Keep reading and learning, search the key words, and build your team :) 

Would it be possible for you to leave some of your money in the property as equity to lower the mortgage payment on the other side. Just because the goal is to take all the money out doesn't mean that it has to be done that way. 

A lot of places have seen so much appreciation that the rental market hasn't caught up to yet. Perhaps it will soon, but your instinct is right, don't get into something that you have to pay into every month. 

Hi @Yogesh M sayanakar. That's an interesting question. Like Stony mentioned, investing is a personal decision. I work with investors that all have very different criteria from the others. 

That said, if you can't at least break even on a property in some way, then that seems very risky to me and not an investment. An investment, by definition, is your money working for you. If you're putting in money every month, that doesn't make much sense to me. 

Yes, appreciation is fantastic and where a lot of gains come from, not the few hundreds in cash flow per month. That said, if you're counting on that appreciation for the investment to make sense, and the market depreciates, then you're left with an asset that you're under water on, and paying every month. 

Don't get me wrong, a lot of people have made a lot of money with appreciation the last few years. But the housing market is cyclical and does goes down, while overall trending up, just like the stock market. Unless you're prepared to be putting money into your investment every month indefinitely, waiting for the uptick in rent and appreciation, I think you'd be better off looking for another property. 

We usually use Envision Photography for all our sales. Alex is super helpful and good at what he does. There are two other photographers that are part of the team so they have a decent appointment times available. 

https://envisionphotography.ne...

@Chris Mason that's a great summary and breakdown of what this will actually mean in real life. Big banks and their PR departments really sell certain things, but honestly I don't know that it'll mean unqualified people will be getting loans. To your point, people with terrible credit got there because they aren't making regular payments, etc. And of course they're not doing this out of the goodness of their wallet. It comes down to what they have to do. Perhaps if the down payment assistance programs weren't so dang tricky to navigate and take longer, the sellers wouldn't have a bias against them. 

 Depends. Here in Charlotte, a lot of HOAs are putting restrictions on the amount of properties one person/entity can own in the neighborhood. Invitation Homes is unloading quite a few right now in the Charlotte area. Hopefully that gives the little people more of a chance!

@Jack Delligatti I never thought I'd be excited by 1.5 months worth of inventory but here we are! Under contracts were up from May to June, so buyers are still buying. And we have increased listings, but still far from a buyer's market. 

What is it that they say? There's money to be made when markets turn. No matter how many times history repeats itself, people forget that markets are cyclical and what goes up must come down. You need multiple exit strategies. 

From what I'm seeing in Charlotte, NC, sellers are still thinking they can ask whatever they want. Buyers are pushing back. 

There are lots of price decreases from sellers who still think its 2021, and listing agents who will take the listing and price it wherever the seller wants to. 

Move in ready, well cared for homes are still selling like hotcakes with multiple offers. Homes that need work, really the ones that have minimal cosmetic work are actually the ones that are sitting the longest. There's not enough meat on the deal to entice investors and regular homebuyers don't want a project after paying 6% interest rates. 

Just my two cents!

inventory is climbing, and at the same time our demand has not gone down that much compared to other markets because the reasons for Charlotte growth are organic. It's not inflated. We're not a huge second/vacation home market. Honestly, of all the places in CLT to be concerned, I'm not worried about Lake Norman at all. The infrastructure is there to support the homes and families living there. It's other far out towns that worry me more since you drive out there and there's nothing but new subdivisions. The shopping/restaurants/businesses haven't grown with the residential development. That's not true of Lake Norman IMO. 

CLT does have a large banking sector, but that is not the biggest employer in the area, I don't even think it's top 5. Charlotte has done a lot of work attracting other industries to the area, including manufacturing, IT, etc. Tech jobs have grown 68% since 2010. Take a look at https://charlotteregion.com/in... which has a ton of data on the growth of industries and business in the CLT area. Charlotte learned a lot from the 2008 recession and has worked hard to diversify to prevent another huge hit to our economy. 

From what I've seen, there are a lot of price reductions. Buyers are pickier than they were a year ago. We're going back to strong seller's market, reduced from a gangbusters, ridiculous seller's market. Remember back when buyers wanted updated, move in ready homes? We're back to that. If a flip is done well and priced correctly, it will likely still get multiple offers. I'd say the time when cutting corners on flips is over. Do it right the first time, and there is still profit to be made. There's no data to support the assumption that prices will drop overall. In fact, the median price is still climbing.