All Forum Posts by: Matthew Burns

I currently have a deal under contract with a lady in High Point, NC. She has been living in the house for the past few years. The house was originally her father's, but he passed away a few years ago. He passed the house to her and her brother, but she had paid him for his share of the house. Although she "owns" the house, her name is not on the deed. 

Since I'm looking to purchase the property from her, how can I go about buying this place? Does it need to go through probate court? How long would that take?

There are plenty of lead sources available, but what has been getting you the best success rate? Probate, tax delinquent, driving for dollars, absentee owner, etc.?

In my market, I've been using tax delinquent since it's freely available, but it's clearly being used by several investors/wholesalers for that reason. I prefer cold calling to get directly in contact with sellers, but I'm looking for another good lead source. What lead sources do you recommend?

@Pat Lulewicz Appreciate it! The property is near the Blair Park Golf Course on the south end of High Point. This area worked well for me since it follows the 1% rule (the rent was actually at 1.2% of PP). 

It was built in 1948 but the previous owner renovated it substantially. Took about 6 weeks to rent, but looking back we should have set the rent a bit lower (most SFR in this area were around $775-800, so we were a bit high at $825). I'm using a property manager (Gate City) and they've been great to work with from my experience.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in High Point.

Purchase price: $68,500
Cash invested: $24,000

3 Bedroom 1 Bath, hardwood floors, granite countertops, rents for $825. Strategy on this one was a light rehab, buy & hold for my first rental property. Including down payment, closing costs, and rehab costs, I was all-in for about $24,000. Main rehab was replacing some fixtures (blinds, oven, fridge) and generally cleaning up the yard. Getting about a 12% cash on cash return for my efforts.

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

I just wanted to get my feet wet--this one was a solid base-hit, nothing too fancy. But it met my criteria of 12% COCROI, light rehab, and <$25,000 all in.

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

MLS! Per my agent. Listed at 75, offered 65, countered at 70, agreed on 68.5.

Interesting part: turns out the tenant was taking both the fridge and stove (valued at around $1100 total). We called the listing agent and he offered $200 to cover it. I refused to close until they gave a decent credit to cover it (we agreed on the $1100). Ended up buying a used fridge/stove for $450 total and pocketed the difference.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional mortgage-- 30 year, fixed, 5.25% APR, no points. Negotiated down from 5.75%.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Buying a used fridge came back to bite me... tenant was in there for 3 weeks and the freezer went out. Costed $270 to fix. Probably should have gone with a new fridge, since I'm expecting there will be more problems in the future.

Biggest lesson: it took me over a year to save up the down payment, not to mention sacrificing my lifestyle to cut expenses. Taking this same route means I'd have to keep waiting a full year in between purchases. Because of this, I'm looking to do a BRRRR deal next.

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

Mike Carter with KW was extremely helpful with the process. He was thorough and caught items that I missed (ex. making the seller give credit for the stove).

Go Green Plumbing was excellent--they fixed some minor plumbing issues and gave me great advice for maintaining the place. 5 star service.

Alcova Mortgage was great, very professional, on the ball, and great customer service. I'll be using them as much as I can.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in High Point.

Purchase price: $68,500
Cash invested: $24,000

3 Bedroom 1 Bath, hardwood floors, granite countertops, rents for $825. Strategy on this one was a light rehab, buy & hold for my first rental property. Including down payment, closing costs, and rehab costs, I was all-in for about $24,000. Main rehab was replacing some fixtures (blinds, oven, fridge) and generally cleaning up the yard. Getting about a 12% cash on cash return for my efforts.

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

I just wanted to get my feet wet--this one was a solid base-hit, nothing too fancy. But it met my criteria of 12% COCROI, light rehab, and

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

MLS! Per my agent. Listed at 75, offered 65, countered at 70, agreed on 68.5.

Interesting part: turns out the tenant was taking both the fridge and stove (valued at around $1100 total). We called the listing agent and he offered $200 to cover it. I refused to close until they gave a decent credit to cover it (we agreed on the $1100). Ended up buying a used fridge/stove for $450 total and pocketed the difference.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional mortgage-- 30 year, fixed, 5.25% APR, no points. Negotiated down from 5.75%.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Buying a used fridge came back to bite me... tenant was in there for 3 weeks and the freezer went out. Costed $270 to fix. Probably should have gone with a new fridge, since I'm expecting there will be more problems in the future.

Biggest lesson... it took me over a year to save up the down payment, not to mention sacrificing my lifestyle to cut expenses. Taking this same route means I'd have to keep waiting a full year in between purchases. Because of this, I'm looking to do a BRRRR deal next.

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

Mike Carter with KW was extremely helpful with the process. He was thorough and caught items that I missed (ex. making the seller give credit for the stove).

Go Green Plumbing was excellent--they fixed some minor plumbing issues and gave me great advice for maintaining the place. 5 star service.

Alcova Mortgage was great, very professional, on the ball, and great customer service. I'll be using them as much as I can.

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a rental property in High Point and I'm in need of an electrician and plumber for repairs. Do you know anyone who could help in the Triad area?

Thanks!

Matt Burns

@Cody Thomas I'm looking to acquire and rehab distressed properties and utilize the BRRRR method to set it up as a rental. However, I'm new to the game and I'm open to ideas and partnering.

If you think we might be a good fit, feel free to PM me!

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the Triad area and I'm looking to start investing in the Winston-Salem and Greensboro area. I'm looking for references to assemble a great team. Specifically, I'm looking for a realtor, attorney, property manager, and a GC, but if you know any other great people I'd love to hear.

If you'd ever like to meet up, feel free to shoot me a message!

Thanks, 

Matt

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the BiggerPockets community and I'm looking for some guidance getting started in REI. I'm 22, just graduated college and have been working as a manufacturing engineer for about 4 months now. I've been able to save up about $10k and I'm looking to get a game plan going forward in my real estate investing career.

The only problem is that I will be in a job rotation program for the next 2 years, meaning I'll be changing locations every 6 months. My potential locations are about 4-5 hours away from each other.

I've read a few books and I have the basic education down, but I'd like to get my feet wet with REI. Long-term, I'd like to buy and hold multi-family properties, but it seems that this route requires a lot of capital for a down payment. Short-term, I'm planning on working with single-family homes to build up some capital. I'm considering starting with flipping and/or wholesaling as well.

What do you think would be the best approach starting out, if I'm changing locations every 6 months: wait until I'm settled in one location and just save up cash for a down payment, or work a different method like flipping or wholesaling? Also, what would be the best way to start learning about a new market, seeing as I'll be moving every 6 months?