All Forum Posts by: Nate McGee

Hello BP!

I'm currently living in Virginia where I am house hacking a duplex that I bought in March of 2017 with an FHA loan. What I'm trying to do is move myself and my family down to NC where I can continue to expand my real estate portfolio. The area I plan to relocate to is somewhere around Research Triangle Park/Raleigh/Durham (or any of the outlying cities). The investments I'm looking for are small multi-family properties (2-4 units) and I'm investing for cash flow. I hope that covers the basic info needed.

What I'm trying to understand is my financing options. What I would like to do is do another FHA so that I can house-hack again. I've read that if you are moving more then 100 miles away from your current residence then you can get another FHA if you are relocating/have relocated for an employment related reason. Is this rule still applicable today in 2019 or has there been any changes? What does employment related reason entail? Does my company have to request that I relocate? Can I be interviewing for another job in NC and consider that as an employment related reason (even if I haven't gotten the job yet)?

To be clear, I'm not trying the be deceptive with getting another FHA, I'm just trying to know how I could get another one (if possible). If I can't get another FHA, what other options are there for me in order to be able to purchase small multi-family properties with a small down payment? Is there a first time home owner loan in NC that can be used for someone moving into NC, or do you have to be a resident already? Are there other low down payment options where I can purchase multi-family properties with? If anyone has this information handy, that would be great. But if you don't and you know a mortgage broker or someone else who might, I would appreciate the referral. If you have any questions for me, please let me know. Thank you much!

@Theodore Kyriopoulos I can also confirm what many others have said about Doud Realty Services Inc. They are a wonderful property management company. @Lisa Doud and @Eric Doud are always willing to give their insights and knowledge of the area, or any other questions that you have.  I've called them up at odd hours to have some of my questions answered and they were willing to spend the time to help me. When it comes to doing property showings, reporting etc. they are ahead of the curve. They use many technologies that help the investor have an efficiently ran property.

Doud Realty Services. You can find the owners on here. PM me if you want more information.

Understanding a neighborhood is important information to have, that's for sure. Personally, what I do first is look online at crime reports for the area. Site's like https://spotcrime.com/ or https://www.crimereports.com/ are a good place to start. A lot of neighborhoods have crime happen; but some crimes need to be weighted differently, at least for me. If I see any burglary, robbery or assault in the neighborhood, I avoid it. If I see crimes like domestic disputes or vandalism, I don't typically pay them mind; however, this could be different for you (i.e., what if your property get's vandalized).

Other good sources of information are http://www.city-data.com/ and https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/. Be sure to also check the city website for where the property is located; oftentimes these websites have crime information posted or can point you to the police website for more information.

The next thing I do is visit the neighborhood at different times of the day and different days of the week to get an idea of the mix of people, noise issues etc. If I drive through a neighborhood at 11 AM on a Tuesday morning and see a lot of individuals or groups of people outside, it makes you wonder why they are outside and not working.

The last thing you can do is then maybe walk the neighborhood and ask around about the neighborhood. Ask people if they like the neighborhood, is it safe, are there any community events etc. This should give you a good idea of the area or at least serve as a good starting point. 

Let me just offer a little piece of advice that helped me when I first started out. You need to become comfortable with only knowing 60-70% of the information that you want. I missed many deals in the past because I was trying to get 100% of the information I wanted. By doing this, I found that I was giving myself an excuse to not pull the trigger on a deal. Once I started to become comfortable with the unknown and became confident that I could salvage/fix any of the issues that arise from the unknown, things became much easier and started to close deals.

Hope this helps get you started a bit.

It's not just you @Eric M.. I looked around for over a year to find a multi that had good numbers and I finally have one under contract and we are set to close on the 15th of this month. That being said, I did put offers on 11 multi's over the last year. These multi's had good numbers that I could work with, the market is just very competitive. I "lost" 3 properties by a margin of an hour.

I'm also house hacking with an FHA. I thought that over the last year I should really consider changing my investment criteria because it seemed my numbers could never be achieved. As I was speaking to my mentor, he actually commended me for sticking to me criteria and not changing due to not finding a property in a "reasonable" time. I have to agree with him, despite how depressing it was at times. Don't get me wrong, I could've bought many multi's over the last year; however, those purchases would've been an emotional decision, not an investing decision.

My advice would be that if you are going to buy a duplex, be more "understanding" with your numbers, especially if you are going to be living in 1 unit. You may not be able to rent the other unit at a good enough rate to cover your mortgage entirely. If you have a $800/mo mortgage but can only rent the unit at $600, you are still short the $200. If your current rent at the apartment is $1,250 a month but this multi purchase will cost you $200 a month (not included other expenses obviously), you are still making out because you are reducing your housing expenses by $1,050. It may not be ideal but it's not to bad, right? 

So I would say run your numbers 2 ways; run them with you living in one unit, then run them with you not living in a unit. Naturally, the numbers start to look better when you aren't living in one side. With 3-4 units, it's a little easier to cover your mortgage and operating expenses than it is with a duplex. I'm sure you already know these things, but I figured I would at least offer the friendly reminder to keep you motivated and to continue moving forward. Best of luck to you!

PS. Oceanview could be another area to look in. Just be aware of possible flood insurance for some areas.

Welcome to BP @Quentin Forbes. I'm also in the Hampton Roads area. Best of luck to you! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I'm not sure how long of a time frame you looked at for your analysis, but I would make sure you are examining a large enough window in order to make a more accurate assessment (maybe 5 - 10 years). If you are looking at only 1 years worth of data, things may seem to be linear but if you then look at a 5 - 10 year window you may see something completely different.

That being said (and without performing any analysis myself), I would say that Virginia Beach is more Cyclical/Hybrid than it is linear. Most coastal markets (east and west coast) are very cyclical - California is a good example of a cyclical market. Linear markets tend to be more in the mid-west as there isn't much change with the economy and population growth remains pretty normal. If there aren't jobs being created and/or a reason for people to move to an area, property values, rents etc. remain pretty linear.

A hybrid market has somewhat linear growth for a bit, then it may have a "boom" of sorts; however, the boom wouldn't be comparable to say the California market. Thinking back to the housing crisis in 2008, although all markets were effected someway, the markets that were effected the most were the coastal markets due to there cyclical nature. The reason I say Virginia Beach is Cyclical/Hybrid is because we are an economic hub of sorts but we aren't big as say California. Virginia Beach has modest appreciation but not as much as Washington D.C. and not as little as North Carolina. Perhaps someone with more experience can comment further. I'd like to know myself.

Hope this helps!

Welcome to BP @Nicholas Ferraro! I live in the Hampton Roads area (Chesapeake in particular) and I invest in MF properties. I can't speak much about the student housing as I've never done it but I have been told it does pose more landlording challenges as you have said. Buying near bases would probably be your best bet but you don't need to limit yourself to that. The Hampton Roads economy is quite diverse and people are always moving in and out, so there are a lot of renters. Focusing on blue collar neighborhoods would be something I would recommend you focus on.

As for investing afar, you can get in touch with some local investors and just ask them for some of the best neighborhoods in area, or even some of the neighborhoods they invest in. Better yet, ask them which neighborhoods to avoid. As for viewing properties, you could post an ad on Craigslist for someone to view/film the property and pay them $10-$50 bucks. There was also a web service (I forget the name) where you could hire people to view properties for you and they would report back with a detailed summary.

I wish you the best of luck. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

I would look into Bitrix24. It's a great little CRM that is free and packed full of features. I currently use it for running my whole real estate business. You can input leads, contacts, invoices etc.

You can add me to the list.