All Forum Posts by: Ray Ellen

Hey John. Congrats on moving into the area. How soon are you heading this way? The market is still great for rental income. Our taxes are low, the laws are landlord friendly, & prices are very fair compared to the rest of the coutntry so it's lower initial capital investment. The rental market is strong here. With a great acquisition team & good property manager, you should be able to do very well. 

I am not sure if this would apply but you can also purchase a multifamily property (2-4 units) with the FHA loan (3.5% down) if you live in one of the units. Your lender will have details on the rules that come with that loan type. It might be a great way to get started investing in multifamily and to make the move.

Good luck to you.

wellll, Carlisle is outside of just about everything except Carlisle. You might try property management companies in Lonoke or Scott or maybe event Clarendon? If you don't find one, I'll message you a long shot with some caveats. 

I would suggest more populated areas for future investments with a higher cashflow and rent appreciation with a larger pool of property managers to choose from. 

@Chase Coley hey Chase. Shoot me a message if you are still on the hunt for an investor friendly agent.

Thanks for your service and good work! 

Hey Tyler. I would be remiss if I didn’t ask, but what about listing it with an agent? A GREAT agent? 

I think you have two options: 

1. The agent who has sold half of the lake and can put a call into any builder in the area and has a phenomenal reputation for dealing fairly and honestly (watch out for the “good ole boy” types who will try to dump it to a builder for cheap and then you find out later that they were part “investor” in the home that was built on that lot and sold for massive profit).  

2. The other type of agent is one who creates a lot of content around the property using various forms of media (professional photographer, videographers, drones, street renders, etc) and then they take that content and use effective marketing strategies to target specific buyers who may be looking for that property in or out of that area (watch out for the agents with good looking photos and videos but have no idea what to do with it when they get it). I think those two options are likely your best bets and should provide far more value to you and your family than they cost. If not, you got the wrong agent.

I’ve spent the better part of my 14 years in the biz developing client, investor, and potential client lists divided by types of properties they are interested in and where they are searching in our state. We have over 30,000 people now. We can divide out that list by the types of properties they have searched for and break it down by lake properties in that area THEN we target “look alike” audiences all over the country. We also have very seasoned and curated audiences on all social media platforms and search sites that we pay to get our clients properties in front of. Not to mention the connections around the country with tens of thousands of agents that I trade information with on a daily basis. 

It’s hard to beat an actual pro at the “exposure” game in my humble opinion but if you choose not to go that route I do wish you luck and please DM me the details in case it is a match for one of our clients. :) 

@Jacob Stokes pro Realtor here. I’ll be brief:

Only reasons why cash makes a diff:

• No appraisal (for an offer over list or beating out multi offers this is key. For a “low ball” cash offer or a “lower” cash offer it doesn’t matter if the property is in good condition)

• No “approval” necessary (assuming cash is actual liquid cash available now)

• Close fast (does not matter and might hurt if the sellers are not in a hurry or have no where to go)

So yea, it could make a difference but in most cases, the money gets to the seller the same way and it may not matter at all.

Hey everyone! I am a bit bias, but I love Little Rock! Central Arkansas is a great place to invest! 

To the OP, @Jefferson Kim as a Realtor, I would say that both Schools and Churches have a positive impact on the overall community, but both Schools and Churches have a negative impact on surrounding property value (if residential) & taxes. Both of these issues however can be addressed with great city planning and community involvement. The town with 51 churches in Texas sounds like they have had poor city planning in the past. The new church buildings should increase surrounding property value for special use or commercial use if planned and developed correctly which should increase the tax base. Maybe they have had trouble attracting businesses to their town. Not sure.  The same can be said for Schools. Everyone wants fantastic schools but no one wants the traffic congestion in their neighborhood or their backyard to back up to the school and the property used for the school is a strain on the tax payers. And what do you do with "bad schools"?? However, a well run, beautiful, nice, well placed school should increase property values overall which increases the taxes taken in by the cities long term.

Keeping in mind that sometimes "positive cashflow" for a city is "money out" of the citizens pocket when viewed through the lens of scarcity of resources. As a capitalist, I tend to believe that money can be created through small business, entrepreneurs, investors, and even faith based non-profits (e.g. Churches) or other non-profits who work to improve the community. As a Christian, I have to note that if we believers were all doing what we are supposed to be doing then we could all save our cities money by getting rid of the social programs because the Churches would be taking care of those in need and cities would welcome them with open arms, but that is a soapbox discussion for another forum. For now, I'll just do my part.

In summary, I have clients who move into our area and decide on where to live based on churches and schools so the net effect is positive.

& @Kristi Patton  Woo Pig Sooie!! 

Just a general note on pesky REALTOR® commissions:

In most states, the agreement for commission is between the seller and the broker. The broker pays the agent. If there happens to be a buying agent, the broker will pay their broker, and then the buying agent will get paid. If there does not happen to be a buying agent, the commission is split as stated in the listing agreement.

If you would like to have a "buyers agent" you can hire one. You can pay them or they can take whatever the listing broker gives them (that is usually the case). 

Just like any profession (plumbers, contractors, lenders, & even investors), some Realtors are not great. Some will just put a sign in the yard and pray for a buyer. He may be one of those agents. OR, he may be spending thousands of dollars every month on marketing listings (like me) and you don't necessarily "see" everything he is doing to market and sell the property. Either way, you are dealing with a contract that you have no control over. It is between the seller and the broker.

You have a lot of questions and many of them would probably be answered by a GOOD Realtor and they might find a way to get the deal done. Getting this property under contract is one thing ... getting it to close is a totally different issue. 

Why don't you buy it at auction??

If the home doesn't sell at auction, maybe you can try a shortsale and get a better deal than the "subject to". If the seller is already being foreclosed on, then a shortsale might be a better option for both of you. It affects his credit for 3 years instead of the 7 years that a foreclosure hurts. Find a Realtor with shortsale experience and bank connections and they may be able to get it done (for free to you). I don't think you will be able to go the shortsale route if the bank is a few days away from the auction, but if it doesn't sell, initiate the process by submitting an offer in which the payout to the seller is much lower than what he is owed. Hopefully the listing agent with prove worth his salt and will be able to get it done for you. We have recently done this with a property that went to auction and didn't sell. Now we are in talks with the bank and have an offer on the table.

Talking with the bank: 

If I read right above, you are going to Owner Occupy this home? If that is the case, I don't see any concern about telling them that you would like to buy the property and stop the foreclosure process. You will probably have to get a 3rd party authorization. They would probably welcome the buyer, but they do NOT like talking to investors. 

After fees, closing costs, title, etc etc, the seller may be coming out of pocket (to save the 3 year shortsale credit hit) or you would have to go through the shortsale process. Again, maybe I am missing something, but I don't see the sub2 working in this case. It's just my opinion. 

Good luck either way and let us know how tomorrow goes!!

As a Realtor, I can tell you that Zillow is + or - 10K to 20K consistently ... So, I would say it is very inaccurate. We have access to an automated valuation system similar to what banks use to monitor their loan portfolios. It is more accurate than Zillow, but the best way is to have a full CMA done by a great Realtor who is familiar with the area. For my investors, I will do a "quick and dirty" which is a comp based on beds/baths/sqft sold within 6 months and will let them know the average $/sqft. It takes 5 minutes but provides a basis for them to know how far apart they may be. If they want more info I will do a full CMA, but that usually requires a little more work and eyes on the property to make sure it is done right.

Be careful with your "ARV"s. I see a lot of investors overestimating the ARV and underestimated the cost of repairs and that is a recipe for break even, or loss.

Good luck!

Hey @Cory Gibson ! 

Welcome from a fellow Arkansan and ???? ???? Woo Pig Sooie!! I live, work, and play in the central Arkansas area and would be happy to connect with you.

Here are a few things about us locally: 

We have an "REI" group called Central ARkansas Real Estate Investor Association (CARREIA). We meet the 2nd Thursday of every month and bring in National and Local speakers and some nights we just talk about deals we have in the works and creative ways to get them together. We would love to have you join us. @Geoffrey Lessel is El Presidente and another good person to connect with.

Little Rock, North Little Rock and the surrounding area are very BUY/HOLD and landlord friendly and are a more stable than some of the larger real estate markets. FLIPers are doing well here too due to the steady well planned growth in the cities. I would suggest targeted FLIPS in areas that we know the cities are starting to focus on. 

Financing is key [Lenders, Private Money, & Cash]. It will be important for you to have members of your team who can finance "unique" situations. Do that and you will have great success in our market. 

Hit me up and we can grab a cup of coffee and shoot the breeze about real estate and what is going on in Arkansas.