All Forum Posts by: Spencer Sutton

Hey @Adam Hobson - there are a lot of great investors in Birmingham who you should get to know. You can visit the local REI meetings and also reach out individually here to make connections. I know most of the Homevestor guys here in town and they might be a good resource for you (experience + deals).

I work in the same office as @Bryan Miles and he's been investing in Birmingham the past 20 years...a great guy to know.

Best of luck and if there's anything I can do for you, let me know!

Hey Daniel,

Yes, @Wilson Lee is correct. There are many D class properties in Centerpoint and it can vary from street to street. You will also need to consider your prospective tenant and their willingness to pay premium rent for a nicer house. Nicer C class can command close to $1,000 in rent, but your pool of solid prospective tenants shrinks as well. 

It's best if you actually walk the house and see the street for yourself. The last thing you want to do is to purchase a nice turnkey on a street that is deteriorating. 

Best of luck to you!

Spencer

Hey @Alexandru C. - Would be happy to connect with you here in Birmingham. We manage over 1,000 houses here in Birmingham and routinely meet with investors about solid areas to buy properties. We don't sell houses but I have connections with a lot of great wholesalers and turnkey guys here in town. I would be happy to connect you with any of the people I know.

Hey @Tae Kim there are several investor friendly realtors that I know. The first one that comes to mind is @Bryan Miles who has been a Birmingham investor for the past 15-20 years.

I would start with him and then he can probably point you in the right direction.

I hope that helps!

Spencer

Hey Adam,

Good to meet you! I believe you'll find several people on here from Birmingham willing to help. I've bought and sold a lot SFR in Birmingham and only one small apartment complex.

I'd be happy to have a conversation with you, but most of my experience is with single family.

I know several other great investors in the city that would be good to know.

Hey Raeshelle,

I have lived in Birmingham my whole life and have been buying/selling/renting houses since 2003.

My advice is to be very careful. Assuming you will have $200+ cash flow on a turnkey for the first couple of years can be a bit dangerous.

I would be as conservative as possible with your numbers and do plenty of homework on the ZIP, area, immediate neighborhood, and street. 

Finding tenants is easy...but finding great tenants is more difficult and takes a disciplined process. Make sure your TK provider has done a good job of underwriting potential tenants.

Best of luck to you and let me know if you ever have any questions!

Spencer

This is going to be a D neighborhood, in my opinion.

From our experience, you can rent a house in these neighborhoods fairly quickly (average 3/4 weeks) as long as you don't have a product or price issue.

Product - your house needs to be in good condition

Price - you should be asking for market rent

If either one of these is off, you will either have little to no showings (price issue), or you will have people look but not fill out applications (product issue).

Best of luck to you!

Hey Wade,

There are plenty of property managers in Birmingham who charge between 8-10%. Our company (gkhouses) just switched to a flat fee with three different options.

The bigger issue is not your PM, but the neighborhoods where you buy rentals. We encourage any/all investors to do a lot of homework before buying in Birmingham.

Best of luck!

Not sure people know enough about your goals to make a recommendation...so I would encourage you to read both of them!

Hey @Shawn Ackermanit was great speaking with you too!

Best of luck with your properties and let us know if we can do anything to help. We also have some great investor videos on our site that you can watch that may help you pick your areas for investment.