All Forum Posts by: Steve Barounis

I’m looking to buy land in Tennessee, but I live in New York and know nothing about what neighborhoods in Tennessee to look at and which to stay away from. I will be buying the land to keep for my family and eventually build a home on at a later date. How would you guys go about figuring out what’s what without making 1000 trips down there to drive around every neighborhood. I think I’m looking primarily in central Tennessee. Thanks in advance everyone.

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I’d love to get more information on the original poster’s question. I have the same outlook, in terms of if I can rent it 12 weeks Then I’ve paid the mortgage and put the rest in my pocket. Anything over 12 weeks would be icing on the cake.

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@Peter T.

Yes that makes perfect sense

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@Seth Ferguson

This is a great idea

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@Oren Pfeffermann

Absolutely appreciate the potential offer, I think that would be tough for me considering the distance it is from me.

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@Oren Pfeffermann

Great info definitely appreciate it, i don’t have “an area” just yet because this is all pre-investment just to get the most info possible before I pull the trigger. I live in New York and I plan to invest out of state because it’s too expensive to do so here, at least for me.

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Hey guys newbie here trying to gather as much info as possible for future investing. So my question is how do you vet out a property manager for a rental property? How do you decipher if they’re a good property manager and how do you know if they’ll scam you. My uncle has some rental property in Orlando, Florida and he was telling me so real horror stories. From the pool running low on water for over a week, to them renting his property and keeping the money for themselves and about everything in between. Also not an isolated incident, he was telling me that he went through 7 different companies before deciding to just manage it himself from a distance and just visiting Florida(from New York) here and there to check in.

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Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Hey guys I’m very new to bigger pockets and I love the content that the site and it’s forum users bring to the table. Lots of knowledge here for everyone so thank you guys for that. So I’m looking to get started in real estate with the objective of gaining passive income. I do not want to quit my job as crazy as it sounds because I love what I do. However I want to build as much wealth as possible to increase quality and comfortability of life. I live on Long Island in New York. As many probably know the market here and in pretty much all surrounding areas within the state are crazy expensive and not Conducive to investing for the guy who has a very small amount of start up cash. So my question is what market(area) do New York or even more specifically, Long Island investors work in? I’ve tried looking in parts of Delaware and New Jersey. As well as some of the closer areas in Pennsylvania. I’ve looked in to brrrr strategies as well as buy and hold rental and even short term vacation rental, more specifically in ocean city Maryland. I need to find an area where I can get started with a $25-30k investment. I will have at least one partner to start so altogether the start up money would be around $50-60k. Thank you guys for all advice.

Steve tons of investors on this site are in a similar position as yourself. Many of them turn to the turnkey markets. Note that you do not necessarily need to work with a turnkey provider but there are tons of turnkey markets out there. Many of these markets are very well represented by sellers & turnkey operators here on BiggerPockets. In no particular order I have listed some of the most popular markets for out of state investors

Cleveland, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Memphis, Tennessee
Birmingham, Alabama
Kansas City, Missouri
Saint Louis, Missouri
Indianapolis, Indiana
Detroit, Michigan
Erie, Pennsylvania
Louisville, Kentucky
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jackson, Mississippi

Each of these markets is popular with turnkey investors because of the low barrier to entry, high rental demand & high rent to price ratio. I recommend setting up keyword alerts for each area as they are discussed in the forums daily with advertisements posted in the BiggerPockets marketplace hourly.

One thing to note when looking at the individual markets, you can make or loose money in any market. Don't think that one particular out of state market will shoot you to success or abject failure. It's not really that complicated to buy out of state. It only becomes complicated when investors try to over complicate or over think everything. Whenever you are buying a property out of state you should do a few things to ensure it's as smooth as possible.

Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core. Pick a solid B-Class suburban area. Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.
Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home. The reports are 40-90 pages long and go through the entire house in great detail.
Get an appraisal. If your using financing the bank requires this. This is good. The bank isn't going to let you blow their money. They have more skin in the game then you do.
Make sure you get clear title. If using a lender this is a non issue. They will make you do this. It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.
Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.
Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it. If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

Wow there's a ton of great info in this post. So I have a follow up question in regards to the markets you've discussed. Do those markets lend themselves to any type of investment more than other. i.e. buy and hold, BRRRR. Short term vacation rental. I only ask because I have not decided what I would like to do for my first deal getting started. I like the idea of the BRRRR because I can take the money back out and use it again on a second deal. However there's a lot more variables involved in that than there are in say, a regular rental. I'm not opposed to any ideas just trying to pump myself full of knowledge before I pull the metaphorical trigger.

Doing a BRRRR deal which is essentially doing a flip that you refinance and hold as opposed to selling has got nothing to do with the market. That has everything to do with you and your skill set. To pull one of those deals off you need to be able to find distressed seller's who are willing to sell their property below market. This requires an in depth knowledge of the market.

Marketing skills.
Sales skills.
Negotiation skills.

From there you need to be able to

Accurately estimate rehab costs.
Accurately estimate after repair costs.
Understand how to manage a renovation budget and timeline.

That’s sounds like it’s sort of out of my wheelhouse at the moment. Since I have pretty limited knowledge of real estate basics let alone the market. Especially since I’m here asking which markets to even look at lol. What is you opinion on vacation rental vs long term rentals?

I am not in the vacation rental business. Seems like a horrible business to be in.

Really? Can you elaborate on that? Why do you say that?

Govt is coming down hard on short term rental operators.
Working in the hospitality industry is never something that interested me.
Market is essentially limited to destination locations.

Makes sense, thanks for all the info.

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Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Cleveland, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Memphis, Tennessee
Birmingham, Alabama
Kansas City, Missouri
Saint Louis, Missouri
Indianapolis, Indiana
Detroit, Michigan
Erie, Pennsylvania
Louisville, Kentucky
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jackson, Mississippi

Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core. Pick a solid B-Class suburban area. Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.
Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home. The reports are 40-90 pages long and go through the entire house in great detail.
Get an appraisal. If your using financing the bank requires this. This is good. The bank isn't going to let you blow their money. They have more skin in the game then you do.
Make sure you get clear title. If using a lender this is a non issue. They will make you do this. It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.
Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.
Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it. If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

Marketing skills.
Sales skills.
Negotiation skills.

From there you need to be able to

Accurately estimate rehab costs.
Accurately estimate after repair costs.
Understand how to manage a renovation budget and timeline.

I am not in the vacation rental business. Seems like a horrible business to be in.

Really? Can you elaborate on that? Why do you say that?

0 Votes

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Steve Barounis:

Cleveland, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Memphis, Tennessee
Birmingham, Alabama
Kansas City, Missouri
Saint Louis, Missouri
Indianapolis, Indiana
Detroit, Michigan
Erie, Pennsylvania
Louisville, Kentucky
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jackson, Mississippi

Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core. Pick a solid B-Class suburban area. Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.
Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home. The reports are 40-90 pages long and go through the entire house in great detail.
Get an appraisal. If your using financing the bank requires this. This is good. The bank isn't going to let you blow their money. They have more skin in the game then you do.
Make sure you get clear title. If using a lender this is a non issue. They will make you do this. It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.
Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.
Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it. If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

Marketing skills.
Sales skills.
Negotiation skills.

From there you need to be able to

Accurately estimate rehab costs.
Accurately estimate after repair costs.
Understand how to manage a renovation budget and timeline.

0 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Steve Barounis

Steve Barounis has started 4 posts and replied 17 times.

Post: Need help finding land in Tennessee

Post: Any Ocean City investors doing STRs?

Post: How to vet a property manager

Post: How to vet a property manager

Post: How to vet a property manager

Post: How to vet a property manager

Post: How to vet a property manager

Post: The right market for newbie living in New York

Post: The right market for newbie living in New York

Post: The right market for newbie living in New York