Huntsville, AL · Member since 2014 · 6 posts · 3 votes
Hello Huntsville. I'm rather new to investing in real estate, so I'm looking to bounce some ideas off of people in my area in order for me to try new things and eventually get my first deal.
Don't mind the quizzical nature of the questions. I'm just trying to get a discussion on deal finding started.
What processes have you followed to find deals and which of them works out for you the best? Why did they other processes not work so well? What do you want to try in the future?
Great to see another person from Huntsville on here. I found my first deal off market and used a business mortgage on the property, I would like to see about setting up an owner financed for my next deal.
Professional · Los Alamitos, CA · Member since 2017 · 3 posts · 4 votes
9y
@Daniel Harris What are you looking to do in Huntsville? Are you wholesaler? Flipping? Buy and hold? I love Huntsville, it is a great market. Properties are becoming hard to find there- we buy off market and then flip and sell turnkey. As long as the cash flow is there, the investors will come.
I'm looking to buy and hold in the long run. I don't have much equity at all right now, but I feel like finding a deal is possible once I know my angles. Are you local or do you invest from Los Alamitos?
Professional · Los Alamitos, CA · Member since 2017 · 3 posts · 4 votes
9y
@Daniel Harris I will PM you the inventory in Huntsville. Here are some facts about the Huntsville market in addition to being a hub for Boeing, Red Stone Arsenal, etc.
Nasa just got a $19B federal funding that was signed into law by President Trump. Huntsville is huge beneficiary of the money.
Also, FBI Headquarters moving there which is 4100 jobs.
Also, they are slated to receive $54Billion in funding money for Army Defense for Huntsville as part of Trumps Army Build up program.
Huntsville appreciated over 6% this last year, which is a lot for a cashflow market.
Investor · Huntsville, AL · Member since 2015 · 26 posts · 8 votes
9y
@Melissa Nash please send me any listing you may have for Huntsville. I am new to the area and so far I am really impressed with the market and the potential. Thank you everyone!!
Long Beach, CA · Member since 2017 · 11 posts · 1 vote
8y
Hello everyone,
I’m actively looking for single family homes in the Huntsville, AL market. AJ Cole just sent you an email. Haven’t closed a deal yet. About to make my first offer.
Good luck everyone!
Kash
Rental Property Investor · Madison, AL · Member since 2015 · 177 posts · 110 votes
8y
@Daniel Harris Nice to see other investors in the Huntsville Market on here. Huntsville is a great market to invest as @Mel Leishman has stated and it is expected to grow.
I primarily do buy and hold investing where I have found most of my deals off market. I have done this by attending the local REIAs, networking with wholesalers such as @AJ Cole, and even on craigslist. There are deals available but you must be prudent in finding them.
There are two real estate investment groups that I know of here:
Huntsville, AL · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 3 votes
8y
Hi guys, I also live in Huntsville and am looking to network with others. We have 1 rental property currently (we kept my wife's town house when she moved in with me). I've been addicted to the BP podcast since I discovered it about 6 months ago. We're currently getting our financial house in order (downsizing our primary residence because it is entirely too big and it will allow us to increase our savings rate substantially). With this, we'll be looking for a property as our new residence. Ideally this will be something we can add value to and then rent-out in a couple of years as we move on to a new live-in, value-add property.
Property Manager · Huntsville, AL · Member since 2015 · 251 posts · 129 votes
8y
@Steve Weihe when you are looking at SFR do you include condos and townhouses? Some people say SFR some SFH; I know they are different (kind of like squares and rectangles where one defines the other but not reverse) but sometimes the get used interchangeably so I was just curious.
@Robert Im, what kind of MF? Smaller 2-4 units or larger ones?
Zach, if I can find an experienced partner to work with on a deal out in Huntsville, I'd prefer to go as large as I can safely go. If I go solo or work with a relatively newer investor, like me, I'm thinking 8 doors or less.
Zachary, I would be open to a multi-family house hack, but I think my wife would would not be game since we have an infant and hope to have another in the next year or so. So for right now, single family, live-in --> value add --> rent. Then in the future, more of the same and maybe some multi-family investments. Who knows though, maybe it will grow on her more once we have more and more rentals.
Do you all ever see multi-family C+/B class or better opportunities come up at decent prices? From what I've seen, cap rates seem to be low on decent class properties or the properties are pretty bad. I had read on another post that larger investors have been in HSV for the last couple of years grabbing up many opportunities. I understand that the RE market as a whole is hot, yet there are always deals to be found off-market and new opportunities come up all the time, but was just wondering what your experiences have been.
Property Manager · Huntsville, AL · Member since 2015 · 251 posts · 129 votes
8y
@Robert Im if I run across anyone that does larger MF in the area I'll see if I can't get y'all in touch. I've only dealt with smaller MF and all my personal investments are SFH. I know the area pretty well so if I can ever help out just shoot me a message.
On a side note, as far as using this forum goes, it is advisable to put the @ sign in front of someones name so that they are notified that they were mentioned. This will make sure people know you talking to them; it's happened to me before where I went back to a forum long after my post only to see someone asked me a question but I never knew it. Hopefully that will help you get quicker responses to your questions and comments as you start taking advantage of the BP site.
Property Manager · Huntsville, AL · Member since 2015 · 251 posts · 129 votes
8y
@Daniel Weesner well she better be all about it or you better not risk it, you wouldn't want something like an investment that's supposed to make things better turn into a friction point. I've noticed that only smaller MF are in those neighborhoods, usually duplexes. Take the medical district for example, you'll see a few duplexes there esp along whitesburg. Anytime I've seen a price on one of those it doesn't look like the numbers will work. There may be some options to pulling it off though
wait till the market drops so the rent price makes sense
a couple over there are in disrepair but don't appear to be getting work done or offloading, maybe there is a chance to get a workable deal going if you can get them at the right price and can handle the repairs needed
this probably isn't an area where you can ignore appreciation and solely work off the cashflow
another area that might be worth looking is is the 5 points area, it might be able to find better numbers there. Regardless, there will be slim pickings so it might require moving fast
That's just my 2 cents though so take it for what it's worth.
Long Beach, CA · Member since 2017 · 11 posts · 1 vote
8y
@Zachary C. thanks for the good luck! My offer on a SFH just got accepted and I'm dealing with closing issues for the first time. This is my first potential real estate investment property. I used the Bigger Pockets rental calculator and used 10% vacancy, 10% repairs, 15% capex, at 10% property management. does this sound about right or is it a bit conservative?
@Robert Im Fellow SoCal person in Huntsville! I'm from Long Beach. What class of properties are you looking for? B, C?
Property Manager · Huntsville, AL · Member since 2015 · 251 posts · 129 votes
8y
@Kashyap Trivedi here's what I can say without any detailed knowledge of the property, because there are many factors. Vacancy will vary greatly based on the property and the neighborhood, but in general I would say our experience is most stay at or under that mark; time of year can also have an impact there. Looking at some of my own properties I see numbers a couple percent under that, however I had to make some adjustments for unnecessary repairs (upgrades) that I did, on one property I had a big issue from a storm that took a $1000 deductible which put it well over that mark but since it's not a typical cost I removed for this; so with that kind of stuff in mind know that you need to be prepared for greater and when I take these things off for this purpose I do not ignore them which is why I have a good reserve fund that I always hold for nontypical repairs (when I tap into that reserve I shift all cashflow into rebuilding it before I do something else with it). Because you have factored in 15% for capex, and in my opinion you can work those systems together as you get a feel for the needs of the property, you should average out fairly safe. Your property management fee is fairly standard for our area, where I would caution you is to check into any other fees that might be associated like repair vendor markup, placements, etc. I would also clarify if the 10% is of rent price or rent collected. Again it's hard to be more specific without knowing the property but hopefully this is a little helpful.