I'm curious if BRRRR ("fix & rent") works in the Virginia Beach / Norfolk / Chesapeake / Tidewater metro area. Essentially, the ability to have your purchase price + rehab costs less than 70% of the ARV, so after you rehab you can find tenants & then refinance to get all of your cash back. I'm sure there must be some areas / neighborhoods where this works? Of course, the other requirement is that the rental income is enough to cover your mortgage + expenses on the back-end. So this tends to work best in middle class neighborhoods.

Are there any licensed real estate brokers / agents who can help me find such properties? Not interested in Turnkey btw - I'd rather buy pre-renovation (not post-renovation) to capture the equity myself.

Hello Eric! My name is Amberle Farthing with Keller Williams Realty out of Hampton Roads. I am also an investor and there are many properties that would work for fix and hold rentals. I work with other investors that do the same thing.
Direct message me with your criteria and price range and I can send you some on and off market properties that may work for you!
Look forward to hearing from you.

I purchased a town home in zip 23452 and made it work. 99k purchase price with 20% down. HUD purchase and it only needed 5k in rehab. Rented for 1195, waited the 6 months and did a cash out refi 75%LTV.

Was able to pull out all of my money and move on to the next deal. 

It's hard to find a 3/2 around 100k with little rehab anymore in Virginia Beach but I see them pop up every once in a while.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.  I have a great realtor and lender and I'm happy with my property manger. 

It can be done!

@Elizabeth O. Would love to connect sometime! Im in Virginia Beach looking to invest in a duplex or triplex.

Originally posted by @Eric P. :

I'm curious if BRRRR ("fix & rent") works in the Virginia Beach / Norfolk / Chesapeake / Tidewater metro area. Essentially, the ability to have your purchase price + rehab costs less than 70% of the ARV, so after you rehab you can find tenants & then refinance to get all of your cash back. I'm sure there must be some areas / neighborhoods where this works? Of course, the other requirement is that the rental income is enough to cover your mortgage + expenses on the back-end. So this tends to work best in middle class neighborhoods.

Are there any licensed real estate brokers / agents who can help me find such properties? Not interested in Turnkey btw - I'd rather buy pre-renovation (not post-renovation) to capture the equity myself.

 Yes, Hampton Roads is very investor friendly!  I'm a local Realtor that actually started in the investor side prior to getting my license.  Now, I successfully get others into profitable real estate transactions.  I negotiate traditional purchases along with creative purchases such as owner financing.  It's all in the numbers!

@Eric P.

I recently purchased a single family home, 4 bed, 1 bath, in Portsmouth for $40k. Did about $9k in rehab and my cash-out refi appraisal came in at $97k. House will rent for around 1200.

Very difficult to get that kind of return in Virginia Beach because homes are much more expensive. You can do it in Norfolk and some areas of Chesapeake.

@Eric P.

It is getting harder to find good deals in Virginia beach as Jason and others have mentioned, you may find one or two every now and then but it's too few and far in between. I have been looking farther out to Newport News and Hampton for the below $50K price range, and you may find some in Portsmouth and Norfolk as well.  You can still look in Va beach but you just have to be quick to get it under contract once you find one, since the market is getting hot.

Originally posted by @Jason Runkle :

@Eric P.

I recently purchased a single family home, 4 bed, 1 bath, in Portsmouth for $40k. Did about $9k in rehab and my cash-out refi appraisal came in at $97k. House will rent for around 1200.

Very difficult to get that kind of return in Virginia Beach because homes are much more expensive. You can do it in Norfolk and some areas of Chesapeake.

I definitely agree that Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are very competitive on the investor side and retail side. The MLS generally isn't the best place to get the numbers you want in those areas. Overall budget (at least to start with) will be the main factor in getting the results you want. The "cheaper" your money and the accessibility of those funds will greatly affect the negotiations.

A lot of people have told me this is working for them in Norfolk and Portsmouth, and not so much in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Can anyone provide addresses in Hampton Roads where BRRRR has worked for them?

My general location criteria is "more banks than check cashing stores" - I find that safe, "working poor" blue collar areas still tend to have banks, whereas the less desirable low income areas tend to have check cashing / payday loans places. What do you think? Any good BRRRR opportunities in Hampton Roads in areas with more banks than check cashing places?

Hey Eric. I'm late to the party, but I have 4 successful rentals, that are all in VB. However, none of them are single-family homes. As mentioned in a previous post, it's very difficult for a SFH in VB to satisfy the 1% rule. The only deals I seem to find where the numbers work are lower-end condos. On average, you can at times find a 2-BR condo with 1-2 bath in the 50k-60k range that will rent for 1k - 1.2k, with about 10k in average rehab costs. With condo fees in the $200 range, that's an avg of $900 net rent vs a total investment of about $70k. With that said, i do stay away from anything west of Independence and north of VB Blvd. However, a lot of investors tend to shy away from condos in general, and a lot of that has to do with being at the mercy of the HOA. I have two in one complex and am now the vice president on that board to help gain some leeway.

I am new to real estate in the Hampton roads area of Virginia. I am in the Navy and looking for a way to use my VA Loan to purchase a multi-family home by using the BRRRR strategy so I can house hack. Is this a good strategy?

I am trying to purchase my first property. I am planning on living in it while rehabbing it but I need a little help. Ive found a place that could use some work and would give me a good amount of equity once renovated. However, I am seeing some mold in the shower ceiling and a little under the master bathroom on the first floor. I dont want to get too in over my head and I know mold could turn out to be costly to repair. Do you have any suggestions. It is a short sale property in a highly sought after neighborhood. It is listed at 140k, comps are around 180-190k and it could rent for 1500. It is a 3/2 townhome. I submitted an offer but seller is requesting to have the repair cap section of the contract taken out, where if the inspector finds any termite, mold damage etc they would not pay the 1% of the repair. In addition the seller countered with the request that the inspection be done up front as oppose to after bank approval. What are your thoughts? Should I offer less, do the inspection and maybe use a 203k for any major repairs? Thank you!

@Noelle Yarn Did to you end up buying that 3/2 townhouse? If so,I'm curious how it's working out.

@Doug Van Liew We live in Hampton Roads and are looking for some great multifamily (4 unit and up) investment properties to buy and rent out. Can you suggest the best, up and coming areas and the areas to avoid? We have experience buying single family homes but this would be our first time purchasing MF -are commercial loans usually higher interest rate and where should we start when getting a commercial loan?

@Doug Van Liew We live in Hampton Roads and are looking for some great multifa mily (4 unit and up) investment properties to buy and rent out. Can you suggest the best, up and coming areas and the areas to avoid? We have experience buying single family homes but this would be our first time purchasing MF -are commercial loans usually higher interest rate and where should we start when getting a commercial loan?

@ernestgrindle
I was out bid by an investor with cash. Im having trouble finding something in Virginia Beach as most people have mentioned. The other issue is I am also looking for a place for myself as well.

@Eric P. - That is the strategy I have used and I own in all 7 of our cities. I was fortunate to start buying my portfolio in the market trough - 2008. We are at another peak, so it is the toughest time to buy. With financing options still being awesome, you can justify the higher price. As others have said, you won't buy in VB at 70% of ARV, and it's getting hard to buy in any of our cities at that ratio, certainly not in a bank vs. check cashier neighborhood. Most of our newer investors are closer to the rule of wanting the rent to meet or exceed 1% of the purchase price. To get better than that you generally need to be generating a lot of advertising to attract sellers directly or be connected to the wholesaler community. It's better to up your buy number than not buy at all. :)

@Patti Robertson that's excellent! I have two questions for you:

#1. What is your general contractor selection process?

#2. Does your company offer real estate investment classes?

@Romar Watson - My husband usually oversees the subs so don't have a general. For question #2, that depends on which company you are asking about.  HomeVestors does, but only for our franchisees.  Tidewater Homes doesn't but I do teach often at our local investor clubs. If you haven't joined the Hampton Roads Landlord Assoc you should.  It's free and we share a lot of info.  If you are interested in flipping or wholesaling the Tidewater Real Estate Investors Group is great too.  That club has a small annual fee, but it is totally worth the price to get local education and learn from the real deals and not some guru who lives in another market.

@Patti Robertson thanks Patti. I'll look further into the clubs, God Bless.

@Patti Robertson Would you mind passing along some of your subs that you have been successful with.

I have BRRR'd 3 properties in Ocean View. They were 2 REOs that I bought, and one was a short sale. I targeted 23503 area code, and it worked pretty well. Market is a lot hotter now than it was in the past, but I believe deals are still out there.

@Brian Mcmenamin - SO sorry for the delay.  I haven’t been on BP in a bit.  We keep our subs busy full time between our rentals and our flips. I share a lot of things, but that’s one thing I just can’t.  Finding good contractors who remain good contractors is the hardest part of this RE game, behind only finding good properties.  We should call ourselves Hunters instead of investors.  ;)

@Patti Robertson It was worth a shot-hahaha. You are absolutely right. Some of the hardest people to find are good contractors. Makes sense why you keep that info close.