Charlotte and surrounding area questions from a new investor.
Hello everyone, I have a few questions about the Charlotte area I really would love input on because I do not live in Charlotte currently it is just the market I will be moving to invest in. With me not being in Charlotte currently, only having family friends live there, some questions may seem silly so I apologize for that.
I have been researching Charlotte the last few months for single family homes and I have not really been able to determine myself these few things for single family home investments, If you are looking to purchase a house as an owner occupant and rent out rooms in the house to start out, is it a wiser choice to have this house be closer to downtown charlotte? As opposed to the suburbs surrounding charlotte? (mint hill, concord, harrisburg).
Are separate rooms much harder to rent out the further away from downtown you are? The reason I ask this is when I have looked into the Charlotte area many of the homes that are in the price range for me in a nice area, are much farther from downtown charlotte, or generally outside of the 485 highway ring around the city. They are usually right near harrisburg or outside of it by concord. Is it even wise to invest in these suburbs? Are they too far away from charlotte to be a hot rental? The cashflow on them seems exactly where I would need it to be , but am i ignoring the fact its quite a distance from a largely populated area? Or is that not what I should ALWAYS be focused on? Or am I not thinking about this correctly?
Tons of questions sorry I am quite new and always wanting to learn more.
Any advice or help is really appreciated, thanks in advance!
2 areas with long term appreciation upcoming that I like:
River district
UNCC area/along blue line extension
Like anything, you need to know your market. I live just south of Harrisburg near Mint Hill (fair to good investment area). One exit North on 485 is often a very poor investment (huge foreclosure rates) because they were lower middle class homes built 2 feet from each other's door. They're poorly constructed vinyl homes that aren't aging well, and the buyers were tenuously qualified to buy them. Rough developments. But you'll think they're priced amazing well compared to stuff just a few miles away (there is a reason)
2-3 exits North are older communities. Larger lots and far more likely to stand the test of time. But it's far better east of the highway than west (toward Concord, as you suggested)
3 -5 exits North are the 28269 areas that suffer from the problems in paragraph 1. If you get past I-77 (roughly 10 -12 minutes north), you get back into some nice areas again (highland creek, mountain island area).
The exits 3-4 south of me are doing wonderful (south Mint Hill, Matthews, Indian Trail)
I think it would be very hard to invest without being here and seeing the areas for yourself. More important than any particular area may be the particular deal. For the right price, any house might be your best investment. But the neighborhood and details can matter, a lot
Daily rentals: I see a lot of these. A few years ago, AirBnB was the 'thing' and people were doing wonderful. Supply and capitalism has caught up to those. A quick search shows a 6-bedroom brick house renting for 64/night. One night minimum stay. I don't know how he's making $ after providing utilities....(i would guess he's trying to break even)
Which leads us to daily room rentals. I think the AirBnBs are making less money, so people switched those to daily room rentals, to try to get the same return that they once had.
I think we could all agree that the further you get from downtown, the more difficulty you'll have with daily room rentals. Charlotte has a large supply of temporary work-staff. IT Professionals and other semi-professional jobs on temporary contracts. The further from town you get, the less likely they'll be, to be looking for your place. Your niche would be a different sort of folks in those areas.
So, I think you're thinking about the right things.
Definitely, research is key! I had been looking at the area just outside 485 between both mint hill and harrisburg, just was not sure if most properties outside the 485 ring are too distant.
Funny enough I have seen just the type for sale you are describing!
I have definitely noticed that as well the more east to Concord the areas are quite nice. Is generally near harrisburg and concord a decent commute time to downtown or the surrounding colleges?
28269, I was observing this area a lot and noticed just that, decent prices but the homes are crammed with each other in okay neighborhoods. Until like you said you get north of 485.
It definitely is hard to invest somewhere out of state but I at least have a decent amount of time to really look into every possible area and narrow it down to certain ones to keep an eye out for an investment to jump on. I always make location the most important factor when looking, the numbers can be nice but if isnt a desirable location or area I will happily pass on it for a wiser choice. Not always looking specifically for appreciation but its much easier to assume your home will appreciate if the rest of the street is looking and doing well I suppose.
Sorry I dont think I clarified that specific portion very much, I wont be doing room nightly rentals for the home, ONLY the one that I currently live in will I rent out rooms in.
I agree the further from downtown it will be more difficult in general, but non daily room rentals just renting a room on a lease for 3-12 months do you think it will be too difficult to find any applicants for a roommate if you live more by harrisburg or indian trail and not extremely close to charlotte? I just ask because I would assume the ones needing an individual room would be more of college students or professionals/interns.
Your response was really helpful! Exactly what kinda feedback I was looking for to see what others opinions are on various areas and their ideas.
@Mike DeLong Hello! Thanks for the reply, these are new areas being constructed correct? Or has it actually already been completed? Not sure!
The commute in/around Charlotte is amazingly nice, compared to me moving here from up North. Their idea of a traffic jam down here, is the highway dropping from 70mph to 30-40mph (lake norman area is an exception, due to construction)
To get from downtown to Harrisburg is probably 30 minutes on a normal time. At worst, it could push an hour due to rush hour. An hour commute up North is good/reasonable. You'll learn to complain about it, if you move here :)
I think there's a market for room rentals wherever you are. There are always people getting divorced or moving into whatever area you're talking about: just more of them downtown. I don't think you'll have any trouble renting rooms.
I'd recommend joining a few of the Charlotte investor groups on Facebook: Hobby Millionaires or Charlotte Real Estate Investors. Plenty of discussion on all of these topics!
Well that is great to hear, probably hard to complain for me compared to the commute here in Sacramento ha!
Thank you so much for the information, it clears my mind a little because I was really unsure of some of the surrounding areas but you have definitely steered me in the right direction.
I have used craigslist and random other sites like roomster to see what room rentals go for in the area to calculate my expenses and income etc and to also see how much of a demand there is for single room rentals/roommates. There is quite a lot actually, they are always of course more frequent the closer to downtown or the plaza but there are definitely some quite a ways as well which with your information is a little reassuring.
That is a great idea, thanks for the recommendation!