One thing I see as a lender is that any kind of owner-occupied loan with a low down payment will not allow you to build enough equity to refinance out of it, even when you are forcing equity with a rehab.

My partner handles maintenance and repairs and a lot of the actual renovation, as well as assists in other areas.For those investors with experience, what things most helped you scale?

Oftentimes when municipalities ban STRs they will grandfather in existing operators, but if you are mid build when they do that you’re screwed  Once you’ve identified a list of “safe” markets, compare them on Airdna to see where you can likely charge the most (I’m assuming building costs will be more or less similar, so you might as well pick the area where you can earn more revenue)Also, in this market you may be able to pick up land with seller financing instead of having to buy in cash or traditional financing … potentially low or no money down, and won’t affect your personal DTI.

When you are dealing with markets with low rents, having fees like this are pretty typical.

I think the Greenville/West Side area gives you the best of worlds: socio-economic diversity, big lot sizes, proximity to new developments and low taxes.

The house was newly remodeled so I don't expect there to be any maintenance issues for a while.

I highly recommend finding a market that is landlord friendly, cash flowing, doesn't have regular catastrophic events, property taxes are low, insurance rates are under control and you like the area.

Unlike the midwest, our inventory in Raleigh is very very low and highly competitive because of that.

 - the rent control will require paying tenants to rehab but that is fairly low cost in the scheme of the rehab value add and sell

One of the best strategies if you are so inclined is to move from property to property every 1-2 years and you can do this with single family homes up to 4 unit multis and get low down payment loans on them of only 3.5-5% down payment owner occupied as opposed to most of the investment loans that require a 20% down payment.