All Forum Posts by: Ben A Snyder

We've done well in the northern side of Richmond, but anything near monument or University of Richmond can be very pricey and very sought after.  There are some cheaper neighborhoods, but they're very tough to retain good tenants in or resell for a good profit.

@Minnae Chabwera my wife and I currently live in Richmond and we've flipped two properties, but as Bill mention it's very competitive. Our last house sold $20k above asking price with 12 bids in 2 days which is awesome but shows you how crazy things are. We're actually just building our nest egg currently so we can invest heavy in our localized Richmond area once prices finally come down a bit.

I've heard good things about Norfolk and know of a few folks having success out that way.

@Eric Michaels yes as you mentioned, I should seek out an attorney for this reason and a few others! I've got a LLC for a different personal business, however as you stated it would be best to setup a separate LLC for purely real estate. Thank you!

I was wondering what the advantages or disadvantages were to creating a LLC business to purchase all your properties under or even further an LLC for each property your properties. I'm trying to figure out if this would make sense to do so and scenarios that would be more relevant.

@Mike Dymski that makes perfect sense now thinking about it. Thanks for the insight!

@J Scott this is perfect I'll take a read through. Thanks so much!

With the market being so hot and lucrative in so many areas, I'm very inclined to save and not buy in an overpriced market. So many people are trying to predict when the bubble will burst, but I'm more interested in how to respond to a recession.

I'd love to hear from those who capitalized on the downturn of 2008. Obviously real estate would be cheaper, however how did you find buyers or renters when people were fiscally strapped and there was less market competition for your properties?

Thanks!

-Ben

Thanks all for the support!  John Pierce to answer your question, the home above is in the northside of Richmond technically defined as Ginter Park area. There are a bunch of older colonial style homes in this area with large growth trees along the streets.  Similar to the older landscape of Richmond.

Investment Info:

other investment in Ruther Glen.

Purchase price: $60,000

Cash invested: $15,000

Land purchase for Christmas Trees

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Looking to establish a Christmas Tree farm in Virginia after starting a small operation in Pennsylvania.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found this property through the LandWatch website, however we scoured the entire state for 3 months before finding what we wanted for the right price.  They were asking $75k and told us there was "suddenly" another cash offer on the table at the same time we offered after the property had been on the market for 14 months.  We held to our asking price of $60k and the deal went through....bluff called!

How did you finance this deal?

The deal was financed through Farm Credit which is a lender for farmers across the US.

My fiance and I purchased a 10-acre piece of land north of Richmond, VA roughly a year ago (February 2018). We bought the land to start a Christmas Tree farm and planted 3,000 Christmas trees last spring. We'll plant roughly another 1,500 this spring as well. With that said our trees will not be sell-able for roughly 8 years and I'd like to figure out additional ways to generate income off of the property. Keep in mind we'll be getting a well drilled this year as well as electric run to a pole barn we'll be building for the business. We've considered several different options which I've listed below:

1. Building a small A-frame home to rent or AirBnB
2. Build a small residential home (<1,000 sq.ft) & rent out
3. Build a moderate residential home (1,500-2,500 sq. ft.) & rent out

Recently in talking to a friend of mine that has been in real estate for about 7 years now, he suggested building a moderate residential home to increase the overall value of the property in the event we ever wanted to sell or upgrade to another location.  I'm just not sure of my options and wanted to hear some feedback given its somewhat of a unique situation. 

Thank you,

-Ben