All Forum Posts by: Zac Caudell

@Jon Brown @Rod Joseph I just posted a SFR buy-and-hold in Gwinnett. It's not a multi-family, but I believe it would be a great candidate for BRRR. Here's the link if you're interested:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/412766-buy-and-hold-in-gwinnett-county---430-month-cash-flow

@Kasey Gourley I just posted an ad in the Marketplace for a buy-and-hold that meets your criteria. It's in Gwinnett County, which along with Cobb County is a difficult place to find investment properties because everyone wants to be in those school districts. Here is the link, check it out and let me know what you think:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/412766-buy-and-hold-in-gwinnett-county---430-month-cash-flow

Dude...we need to have lunch or something. I've been flipping for the last couple years. I can't tell you all of my secrets, but I can at least tell you a few, and then feed you a bunch of bull crap about the rest. And I've actually got a house I'm trying to wholesale right now that would make a decent flip in Snellville. It's in ye ol' alma matter's school district. Do you still have my number by chance? I deleted your's when we moved to VT (no offense) because I didn't expect to live in GA again.

Land is a great investment, but it comes with it's own unique set of challenges. Here's my two cents:

Pros: 1.) A very low chance of surprises. With houses and other structures you never know what you'll find behind the walls after you close. 2.) It's maintenance free. Land doesn't need painting, a new roof, or a new parking lot. And, there are no tenants to deal with. 3.) You don't have to inspect it. You definitely want to research it, but you don't have to do it in person. Most of your research can be done online and over the phone. 4.) It's the oldest investment. As a lot of people like to say "They aren't making it anymore."

Cons: 1.) It's very hard to determine the value of land. So many factors can affect a parcel's value including topography, soil quality, zoning, history, utility access, road access, shape, etc. I'm working on a parcel right now that has some old graves on it, is bordered on 3 sides by an old landfill, a sewage treatment plant, and a radioactive waste storage facility, and there are 2 homeless squatters who have been camping on it for 5 years. 2.) It doesn't cash flow. Since there are no tenants there is no one to pay rent. However, you can sell it with owner financing and make it cash flow if you want.

I agree with @Chris Simmons. A test kit is fairly cheap at Home Depot or Lowes. You're obligated as a landlord to disclose the existence of lead paint if you know about it, and you have to give the tenant an EPA pamphlet about lead if the house is pre-1978. If you don't know anything then technically you have nothing to disclose. But, as @Vincent Aiello said, transparency will help your reputation a lot as a landlord.

If I remember correctly, lead paint is only harmful if you ingest it. This could happen by breathing the dust from sanding and/or demo or by eating the paint chips. If it's just sitting on the walls then it's harmless. You aren't obligated to remove the paint from the walls, but if you decide to remove it then you have to hire a contractor licensed in lead paint removal.

Skimming with drywall mud and painting over can easily resolve the peeling issue if it's a small area, unless there is a larger root cause to the problem. However, you may be technically required to hire a lead paint specialist to come and remove the chips. Personally, if it was a small amount I would probably just vacuum them up myself, but don't tell the EPA I said that.

Look for bandit signs around town that are advertising "cash for your house" or "we buy any house, any condition" or something like that. These guys are wholesalers and if they're any good they have deals that are constantly coming through their pipeline. Be careful though, there are some great wholesalers out there, but there are a lot of crappy ones, too. Don't believe all the numbers they give you without double checking them yourself.

Also, check craigslist for the same type of ads. I have seen several wholesalers in Atlanta advertising their services on craigslist.

Of course, there is always the Bigger Pockets community. Plenty of people on here can help you find what you are looking for. Find them and talk with them.

I'm from Lilburn which is right next to Stone Mountain and I second @Justin Bundrick's remarks. In general, the schools are terrible and most of the homes are in C and D neighborhoods. In this area, school district is often king. If you come across a house with a Stone Mountain address that is in Gwinnett County (very small area) then your chances of success are greatly increased. Otherwise, I would be wary.

There are a couple of anomalies: Smoke Rise and Pine Lake. While the schools aren't any better, these two sections might be considered mostly B class areas with just a few A class streets mixed in.

Did you hear about this family giving away their 20 acre dairy goat farm just north of Huntsville for the best 200 word essay? It's a $150 entry fee and the farm comes with all of the buildings, equipment, a house, goats, $20,000, and a month of training. It sounds right up your alley, and it comes with a nice ROI: $150 for $345k worth of real estate.

http://www.goatdairyessay.com/home.html

@Kyle J.

@Jesse T.

All great stuff, guys. Thanks for your input. I have heard the pig vs. hog saying and it has a lot of merit. I don't intend to get greedy here by jacking up the price; I have enough profit built in already. There's no sense in putting that profit in jeopardy by trying to get more. That being said, if two people want to duke it out over price then I'm not gonna stop them, as long as there's a guaranteed winner.

My main concern is offering a fair fight to all interested parties. I don't want a buyer to miss out just because he called me 5 minutes later than the other guy, or just because the county took longer to process his soil test results. But then again, I guess that's just business, or just life, or however you want to say it.

I think the idea of getting them to sign something first is the way to go. I suppose I can just create a deadline, say midnight tomorrow, and then choose the best offer that comes in. This will be my first deal without my real estate agent (not enough profit to justify a commission) so that's one reason why I'm so nervous about everything. Thankfully, I do have a great attorney on my team who can help make sure that I don't get slaughtered.

I'm sorry if my generalization sounded a bit elitist. That was not my intention. What I meant was that most of my buyers don't consider real estate investing to be their full or part time job. With that, they are not immediately concerned with how much money they will profit after buying this land. They are more concerned with how they will use it, how its topography and other features will affect that use, and is the price worth it. In saying all of that, I was meaning to imply that their concern over the specifics of a due diligence clause might be less than that of someone who is doing due diligence on multiple properties at once, multiple times every month. But who knows, I could be totally wrong in that assumption anyways.

Each of these buyers are doing their own due diligence prior to making an offer. Due diligence verbiage is standard in a contract in GA, however, none of these buyers are using a buyer's agent and, as a result, their offers are not arriving in the form of contracts. Instead they are making verbal offers to me over the phone. I just take their offer price and contingencies and insert them into the contract form that I use for selling properties.

Thanks for confirming the part about keeping the offers secret. I was assuming that was best (and morally right), but I had a guy ask me what the other offer was and I was caught off guard and didn't know how to respond. Having never been in this position before didn't help either.