All Forum Posts by: Raquel Blue

We are just starting out so me and my company are looking to rent many properties in the Virginia Beach and Norfolk area for our services. If you have properties for rent or know any owners with properties for rent I would love to connect! We are hoping to exchange use of the property for long-term occupancy and freedom form tenant management. 

If this sounds interesting to you I'd love to go into a deeper conversation via PM or you could continue it here. :) I will send you a connection request!

I decided to rent vs own because, while buying a home and building equity is very attractive, I'm just not interested in rehabbing properties, dealing with bankers and appraisers, the due diligence you need when buying a property, etc. Finding potentially lucrative properties and turning them into attractive spaces is just more fun for me. Basically, I align more with the finding homes and customer service side of rental properties which is a lot of what AirBnB is! If I cut out buying a property of my own I can focus more on the parts that I enjoy the most while still being able to create relationships with investors in my area.

And I'd love to connect with you and talk more! I will send you a PM.

Hello everyone!

As the title states, I am looking for current or future rental property investors in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach area that may be interested in doing business with me. I'm looking to invest in short term rentals in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, however, instead of buying property I am looking to rent property from someone who currently owns property for rent. The properties that I rent would be fully furnished and then listed on short term rental sites such as AirBnb, HomeAway, VRBO, etc. as available spaces for travellers using these platforms. I am focusing my strategy around at least month long stays for the guests that book, but I can't guarantee that guests won't stay for less time. As part of the lease terms we would need to sign a corporate lease that allows us to advertise the spaces on AirBnB and include some concessions to allow us to get off the ground.

What's in it for you? We hit the ground running, so if we go into business together you would get immediate occupancy for your property (I am not afraid of slow season and am happy to sign during these cold months!) as well as a long-term lease that will guarantee you the steady income you're looking for from your investment property. All guest screening (background checks, meeting guests, etc.), security (cameras, noise detection, security policies, etc), cleaning and upkeep would be provided by me and my company for the duration of the lease. Keep in mind, for the listing on AirBnB to keep top marks we would need to provide a clean and well-maintained environment. This means that your property will be cleaned before, after, and sometimes during a guest's stay. Due to the constant upkeep, when you're ready to sell, your property will have much less wear and tear as you would normally expect from traditional long-term tenants. Of course, any damages that are caused by me or the guests will be paid for by me.

Since we would create a long-term lease (one year or more) and no additional contracts will be created, this would not violate Virginia Beach or Norfolk's new Short Term Rental regulations and would not require a CUP. Even so, I would prefer to keep close to requirements of the ordinances as possible when it comes to parking and occupancy as I believe those were made because there is a real concern in the community and this (in my opinion) is circumventing the rules enough as it is.

I hope this sounds like an interesting opportunity for many of you! I am just getting started and I'm excited to begin my investment journey with the Bigger Pockets community. Please, feel free to ask me any questions or clarify any misunderstandings for you.

Thank you for reading,

Raquel Blue

Thank you for your insight @Jason White! You definitely put some things on my plate I didn't consider. I reevaluated my numbers and it doesn't look like it would be worth it even with my modest estimate of what "needs rebuild" would entail. I may request some pictures out of curiosity to see what they mean, but it looks like it would be best not to pursue this one.

Thanks again! Hopefully I can get some pictures. Even if I don't going forward with it, it would be interesting just to analyze.

So I found what I think could be a potential good investment. I think I could get it for a low cost, but by the sounds of the description there may be extensive fire damage. No pictures just says "Fire damage, needs rebuild".

If I went for this house it would be my first purchase that I would attempt to rehab and turn into a rental property. Does anyone have any experience with fire damage? Would you recommend a first time investor take it on? I wanted to look for things that didn't need too much rehab, but I like the look of this house and neighborhood and the numbers look pretty good if I do it right. However, I'm scared of what I might see. This isn't a foreclosure so I could contact the lister and get a tour to see how bad the damage really is. If it's huge I estimated it would need 100k in repairs. The exterior doesn't look like it was damaged by the fire much if at all, but that's only by pictures.

What could I expect from a rehab like this? What should I look out for?

Thanks!

How do you guys typically assess whether or not a neighborhood has a good quality community (say B, or high C at the worst)? I have been using Trulia percentages and reviews for preliminary screening and looking at street view. I've also looked at what kind of stores are nearby to a property I may be interested in. I'm very new (no properties of my own) so it isn't so time consuming to do this, but I don't think this method would scale well especially since I am considering obtaining out of state properties in the future. What is your system?

Thanks!

Thanks @Paul Allen! I signed up for one of the meets you provided. :) Very exciting!

@Sierra Alderman Wow thank you! I honestly didn't expect to meet this many people in my area thinking of doing the same things! I'd definitely love to get any information you have. Thank you for the helpful links I will check them out.

@Tammy Francois Thank you! I wish you luck as well.

@Preslie Hicks I'm going to get that written down and check it out now. Thanks!

Wow! Yes we should definitely try to connect. I hadn't even fully considered seminars yet, but going to one with at least one in attendance I could put a name to would be awesome. Definitely PM me the details!

Hey everyone!

I'm Raquel and I just signed up to BP today! I have been really interested in Real Estate Investing for the past year or two and I started seriously looking into the ins and outs of REI this week! My ultimate goal is financial freedom so I can spend my days doing things that make me happy, excited, and motivated!

I am interested in starting REI using the BRRRR method to acquire properties for long-term rental or AirBnB. I currently live in Virginia Beach, but I would like to move back home to Sumter, SC. I would like to begin my investing career in Sumter or Columbia, but I am still considering Virginia Beach as a great place to begin!

I was the stereotypical broke college student who became more broke after moving up to Virginia. I will be using my time with BP to learn more about finding deals, loans and refinancing, low or no money down investments, and long distance investments. My short term goal is to make $3k a month and have 10 rentals in two states each (20 in total).

We'll see how it goes! Thank you for reading!