All Forum Posts by: Tim McGarvey

I agree with @Chris Levarek notes above here. I've followed a similar path as Chris and have BRRRR'd several projects in North Carolina while living in the Bay Area (though he's a bit further along on the journey). The most difficult part for me initially was solving the problem of having trustworthy partners/project managers/contractors/etc on the ground locally. I'm fortunate to have found local partners in Raleigh to help manage the day-to-day of the rehabs, showings, closings - and that's really become the "secret sauce" for us. It may take some time and headache, but if you can find good partners on the ground you'll be building a better system and habits to scale on in the long run. Versus doing the project management yourself and becoming constrained by your own time/capacity.

Hey William - welcome to BP! There's a great community of people here in the Raleigh-Durham market. And there are so many different investing strategies at play right now. What are some of your goals? 

I'd agree with @Arn Cenedella above that there are fundamental economic drivers due to the proximity, jobs overlap, general political climate, that tie the two market together. But there are still many differences in the the local planning regulation, history, neighborhoods, etc that affect how investors really niche down here.

From my experience (and generalized) - most investors interested in Raleigh are also interested in Durham. That probably wouldn't stand as true 5 years ago - Durham has really skyrocketed the last 2 years and has closed the gap in most housing metrics with appreciation.

It may be easier to begin by learning one market before the other. It will really depends what kinds of product, location, and price points you are targeting. 

@Michael Partin I’d be interested in joining. I have had success in the past with small masterminds and they really helped to jumpstart my investing career. I’m back and forth between CA and NC so could potentially do in-person or remote meetups in Raleigh-Durham.

Hey @Michael Douglas - welcome to the area! I'm primarily focused on value-add SFHs in Durham, but starting to learn Raleigh slowly but surely. I'm sure you've heard, but it's an exciting place to be investing right now. Feel free to reach out with any questions about local REI (or restaurants).

@Luke Fortner One Village Property Management has been great for us.

Hi everyone - resurrecting this old thread.

I've used Propstream for skiptracing the last year or two with relatively good success. Mostly for now-and-then cold seller reach outs for specific properties. Recently I've started ramping up my cold calling with a VA and have invested in an outbound dialer platform, Batch Dialer. I'd also heard that Batch Skip Tracing provided more accurate phone records, so it seemed like a perfect time to switch over to that service as well.

However, I'm having issues with my connection rate of the lists pulled from Batch Skip Tracing. The pickup rate is at about 16% versus some of my Propsteam list are above 30% hits. Which seems strange because I keep hearing feedback that Batch is more accurate than Propsteam. I'm trying to weed out all of the variables here. Right now my VA is spending too much time waiting for sellers to pick up and something seems off. Has anyone else run in to this sort of issue?

Hey @Wilfredo Alcantara - congrats on taking the leap! It's a fun time to be in this market for flips. Plenty of different strategies you can take. Good luck!

The Durham market is on fire right now which is making it very difficult to find anything on-market where the numbers pencil out. Many investors/flippers here are banking on appreciation and catching the wave of skyrocketing prices. But there is still a lot of upside if you can find the right property/price, in my opinion.

That being said, I’m still active in Durham but also shifting focus to some tertiary areas like Burlington, Mebane, Graham, etc where solid cash flowing properties are still available.

Hey @Terrell D., welcome to the area! My business partner and I invest in Durham as well. As stated above, MFHs priced appropriately is tough to find right now, but not impossible. Depending on neighborhood, we're still finding a lot of SFH that bring in decent cash flow and can work as BRRRRs. As with most areas (but especially Durham right now with so many knockdown/new builds), it's very block-to-block and neighborhoods are changing quickly. Getting your boots on the ground here will be very helpful for your underwriting and understanding areas with appreciation potential. Good luck - let's connect when you're in town!