All Forum Posts by: Anthony McDougle

@Clay Manship -

Thanks! I didn't realize that -- I thought the lease was a contract with the owner. A lot of properties I've looked at say on the listing "tenants would like to stay if possible" which reinforced that idea, but maybe they were month-to-month?

Hey all,

As I said on here before, I'm looking to hopefully buy a duplex in the Charlotte area where I can live in one unit and rent the other, but most of the duplexes I've seen for sale are already occupied.

Every time I talk about it to people I know, they always say "once you buy it, just kick them out." I feel like this would be a huge dick move, especially since the listings say some of these people have lived there for something like 30 years. When I voice this concern, people say I'm just overthinking it, I need to have balls if I'm gonna be a landlord, etc.

One suggestion I heard was just to increase the rent and see if they're willing to pay -- either I end up with a lot of cashflow or an open unit. This sounds... better, I guess? I still don't know how comfortable I feel about it.

What does everyone else think? Am I overthinking it or do you agree that it just seems morally wrong to do this sort of thing? What are the legal ramifications of upping rent to see if they move out?

Thanks!

Hey everyone!

I've been doing lots of research, and I'm going out to look at my first property that I may purchase (depending on... well, lots of things). I've read Ken McElroy's book and understand how to go about figuring out the ROI and how much to put down and all of that.... but when I go check out the property for the first time, what should I look for, specifically?

It's going to be an owner-occupant property, a duplex where I'll live in one unit and rent the other. I've never actually purchased a house before. What kind of things should I look for to make sure the property is physically up to snuff, or things I can point out as potential improvements that can help reduce the price, etc? Does anyone have any resources (articles, posts, etc) that might lay out this stuff? Obviously I expect to get better at it with practice, but I also don't want to just go in with no idea of what I'm doing!

Hopefully soon enough I can be one of the people giving advice here instead of just asking for it!

Hey @Account Closed !

I'm looking to do the same -- I need to move closer to my job, and I figure if I'm going to do that anyways, I should make it an investment, right? I plan on investing in real estate down the line anyways!

Unfortunately, I've noticed exactly the same thing you have -- duplexes and triplexes are in very undesirable areas of the city! I asked about it on here yesterday, and the advice I seem to be getting is that buying a duplex in Charlotte might not be an option -- Charlotte just doesn't seem to have build those kinds of properties in any of the nicer neighborhoods. I may have to fall back on my original plan -- to buy SFH and sit on it for a few years before moving elsewhere and renting it out -- or getting roommates to cover the monthly costs of owning it.

If you'd like, I can let you know if I find any other solutions!

Thanks everyone!

@Chris T. -- yep, that's exactly what I've noticed. I'm not in a rush to find something right now so I'll keep looking, but I may have to fall back on that plan, maybe sit on a SFH, possibly rent to roommates, until I have more money and then move somewhere else and rent that out or something?

@Morris Lucas I'm not sure what you're looking for exactly, (and I'm new to all of this too, so my advice might not be the best) but if you spread out to the towns just outside of Charlotte you may be able to find some better deals -- I know Huntersville has some areas worth looking at, and as @Bob Yon suggests there are more blue collar areas as you go further north.

@Chris T. you mention NoDa and Plaza-Midwood as good areas to live/invest -- and I know NoDa has that one very artsy strip, but everything I've read about the neighborhood itself mentions very shady things going on, such as drug deals in the middle of the street. Is this activity confined to a certain area? Am I looking at old/biased information or something?

Thanks for the help everyone!

@Bob Yon and @AJ Mida -- sent you PMs

@Andres Piedra that's the answer I was hoping I WOULDN'T get here, haha! Getting a SFH and a roommate was always a backup option, I just thought I'd see if there were any experts on here with some advice first.

@Jacqueline Mims that sounds great, do they have anything like that for software developers? I kid. Just out of curiosity though, what are the qualifications? Again, the issue I had searching for properties wasn't even my budget -- I couldn't even get that far! Any duplexes/triplexes I seem to find are in high-crime neighborhoods, and any other multi-family homes I see are huge apartment complexes!

Hey! Been a lurker for a while and I introduced myself in the Introductions forum earlier today. I'm wondering if anyone who knows the Charlotte area might have some advice for my situation --

I'm a recent college grad and I'm currently looking for somewhere to live. I figured a while back that, since I eventually want to own some rental units, instead of renting myself, I'd buy a property, live in it for a year or two, and rent it out later. Makes the most financial sense, right? Then, I found this site and read one of the posts that mentioned buying a duplex, living in one unit and renting out the other, and that seems to be even better, doesn't it?

I currently have about $10k for a down payment, but I think I could bump that up to $20k by mid-spring. I see a few duplexes available, but they all seem to be in very low-end neighborhoods full of crime -- not somewhere I'd want to live. Even when I do find something that might be liveable, it is already occupied, and I wouldn't feel very comfortable kicking out tenants just because I want to live there -- especially if they've been there for many years. Are there just not any decent duplexes in Charlotte? Am I looking in the wrong place? I've been searching online using listing sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. Is there a better way? Should I just use a different strategy?

Thanks!

Hey! I wanna say thanks to all here -- this place is great!

Been lurking here for a while, soaking up information, and thought it'd be a good idea to introduce myself in case I had any questions in the future, wouldn't it?

My name is Anthony, I'm a recent college grad just getting into the job market. I have a good job, but I'm hoping to get away from a 'career' in the long term and not only work for myself, but become wealthy doing so. I'm doing my own business (non-real estate related) in my free time, and once that stabilizes I plan to invest in buy-and-hold properties on the side to build up some extra passive income. That's all down the line though -- I don't wanna spread myself too thin -- I'm mostly just doing research for now!

I'm sure I'll come back for advice and to try and learn some things from the seasoned professionals here, as well as some things about the Charlotte market, but I wanted to say hey first!