All Forum Posts by: Jason E. Smith

Hey Russell, I get a weekly message from meetup with the upcoming events. I'll include the latest below which should point out various meetups that might have a meeting the week of Thanksgiving. @Dan Handford hosts one from time to time.  I'm not sure if  @Kevin Stringari hosts a meetups but I'm sure he would know options for them.  And IMS headquarters is in Charlotte, https://www.investormanagement...  so they may be holding meetups that week or they might be an option to visit while you're in town.  Let us know if there's anything else we can help with!  

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Multifamily Monday - Networking and Educational Event Multifamily Investor Nation - Charlotte, NC Monday, 6:00 PM Nov 4 19 going This is a regularly scheduled monthly Monday meeting for networking and educational content. This month's topic: Finding Multifamily Investments NOTE: We are actively seeking co-organizers... Save your spot

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Wholesaling Newbies - How to work w/ Investor-friendly Agent Charlotte WIRE network Saturday, 9:30 AM Nov 2 16 going Building your Power Team is an important step in any business! Come & hear from one of our Investor-friendly Agents, Reese Scales with KW! Learn how to select and partner successfully... Save your spot

4	Trick || Treat Charlotte Devs Wednesday, 6:30 PM Oct 30 61 going CLT Devs is collaborating with QC Bytes to bring you Trick || Treat! Come hangout as we show off our costumes, eat, drink, and get sp00ky. We've rented out the Tap Room in the back... Save your spot

5	Volcano Tour Skookum Tech Talks Thursday, 12:00 PM Oct 31 15 going Welcome! Once a month at the Skookum Charlotte offices, the curious and the hungry are cordially invited to an open tour of the office where participants will get a peek at the technology... Save your spot

Jeff, Thank you for your service!  I haven't read through every response so my apologies if some of this is redundant.  Tony Robbins says people do things for two reasons: to avoid pain or to seek pleasure.  And they typically put more effort into avoiding pain.  Being nobody in your family has ever owned a real estate portfolio it sounds they are just trying to protect you from what they don't know.  My question is, where do you want to be in 30 years.  You sound young and you have time on your side.  So find someone who's accomplished what you want to accomplish and seek their wisdom and guidance.  If you have a family member that is where you want to be at their age then consult them.  Otherwise, find someone outside your family.  I will say this, as your grow in knowledge and capacity in the real estate space you'll see what opportunities are there.  It's not hard to create more wealth on one real estate deal than most work for in their entire life exchanging time for money.  Best of luck.  Feel free to message if you have any more question.  

Jason E. Smith

Edward Management Group

Greensboro NC 

Hey Erin,  We hope you have safe travels to the Carolinas.  It's definitely a great area for investing for plenty of reasons.  We are based in Greensboro NC, let us know the dates you'll be in town and we'll help however we can.  Also a few other folks to touch base with: @Kevin Stringari with Bottom Line Realty based in Charlotte NC and can provide support to surrounding areas.  Also Dan Hanford with multifamily investor nation would be a great option.  

Hey Michael, I'm glad your goal is to simplify financing and operations because I don't know that I could help you make it more complex! Is this an actual real world issue? I would call the corporate attorney used to setup the LLC's and speak to them. And were they all purchased as the same time with one lender? Either way I imagine the lender(s) will want to know ownership is changing. And in the case of 50/50 ownership, are both active or is one passive? If either are passive, then you'll need a SEC attorney because technically you're selling a security. I think a lot of people think about buying single family under an LLC thinking it gives asset protection but it's over kill in my opinion. Buying a single family and just holding it in your personal name you'll get residential financing (you have to use commercial financing buying in an LLC) and with good insurance it will cover the majority of situations. If you're still concerned you can add an umbrella policy for just a few hundred dollars per year that will cover multiple properties, after which you can get additional umbrella policies to cover additional homes. All of that structure is sufficient up to 10 residential loans and would be much more simple for financing and operations. You can easily sell individual properties when structured like that, whereas under an LLC you'll need to have specific carve outs written in to determine how to sell individual properties out of the LLC and how that impacts loan balances with the lender, etc.

Hey Richard, Hope you're doing well. Your research is pointing you in the right direction. From a job growth, population growth and long term hold stand point, Charlotte and RDU areas are both good investments. They have better long term potential than most other North Carolina cities. I would consider North Carolina landlord friendly as well. So I agree both areas are good for investments. The next part I'll break into two sections. First residential: There is no special website for residential multi family properties here. Through pocket listings and relationships there could be some off market deals still taking place, but it's no secret the market is heavily seller favored and selling at premium prices. Therefor an agent would reduce their commission by selling off market at intrinsic value compared to listing it on the MLS and letting multiple offers push the price, and their commission, as high as possible. And I don't know the exact quantity of 2-4 unit properties built in those areas but I agree it does seem to be less than some other cities in the US. So a combination of seller market, fewer total properties and where we are at in the capital cycle, there is very few available options in both markets today.

Second is commercial: Yes there is a special method of finding deals in this manner.  The last handful of properties I've been requested to offer on never made it on loopnet.  In a particular area where you have say 50,000 residential realtors, you'll only have about 50 commercial agents.  It's a relationship business and very different from residential.  To find these listing you'll need to get on the brokerage mailing list.  Hope that helps, feel free to message me if you have any further questions.  Thank you!  

Hey Brandon

First of all congratulations on getting your first property!  And even more so on having if fully rented!  Setting up a corporation can be a great way to get tax breaks, so that's one question to ask any experts you talk about.  I looked into purchasing H&R Block locations at one point and took their intense tax class.  That class taught me enough that I can easily add a duplex financials onto my schedule E at the end of the year with the year end financial data my property manager would send me.  Even if you don't want to do your own, I still recommend the class to learn a lot about taxes, it's very much worth the investment and I still use that knowledge today.  There are two folks I would recommend talking to.  Reach out to @Brandon Hall who specializes in taxes for real estate investors and he's here in NC.  And you can also try Diane Gardner https://www.taxcoach4you.com .   I haven't personally used either but I've heard great things about both.  Have fun!  

Chinyere, I would google Greensboro property management and pick a few with a 4 star or greater rating and at least a dozen reviews. Call each of them and pick the one you like the most. You can ask them a series of questions but my experience of interviewing property managers is they will give you the politically correct answer during interviews. You'll find out how they really operate once they begin managing the property. Since Google is open to the public for review, it's proven to be very accurate of my overall experience with management companies. The AMO (accredited management organization) designation has only proven to me that the company has a lot of paperwork and doesn't reflect anything on customer service, so I wouldn't give any credit to AMO designation. And I would not use The Home river group, I've personally rented from them and they are horrible. Have fun!

Hey Aris, It's a great day to discuss the location, location, location subject as Carl Icahn just announced he (and all his employees) will be leaving high tax NY for low tax Florida. I'm not a tax expert but from what I've read his $17 billion estate would have been taxed about sixty cents on the dollar had he stayed in New York and Florida has no estate tax so as the real estate guys would say "do the math and the math will tell you what to do." I think considering Henderson vs Raleigh over a ten year period maybe they're will be a small percentage difference in rent growth, population growth, appreciation, etc. But I think the bigger examples like the population migration to Florida and Texas are critical when considering where to invest and more impactful in the location, location, location statement. I think it's important because real estate isn't like stocks, you can't sit at your computer and sell Detroit property and a minute later buy Dallas property. It takes time to build your team, buy the property, find great management and it's less liquid so you marry the market you chose. So folks who invested the same amount of capital in Detroit twenty years ago as others invested the same amount of capital in Dallas I imagine have a much different balance sheet today. Those would be my examples of the importance of location, not so much one town vs another town within an hour of each other. I'm curious of your calculation of netting $1,000 getting the 2% rule. Have you allocated enough monthly CapEx for HVAC, paint, carpet, bathrooms, plumbing, appliances, etc? What's your vacancy rate? Many people today are using too aggressive of a vacancy rate (2-5%) because they haven't been through a recession and haven't seen what it does to occupancy levels. Hope all that helps. Feel free to message me if you want to share greater details for review in a non-public message. Have a great weekend!

I was in your same shoes in 2005. I had several flips mid-project when we entered the last recession. I watched equity quickly erode till I just had to rent the properties to keep my head above water. I’m not trying to be doom and gloom but I would just have excessive equity if you buy into any flips today. There’s plenty of flips out there that will prove too risky once we enter our next recession. It’s not a bad thing as long as you’re positioned to capitalize on it. So rather than saying do or don’t do flips this late in the cycle I’d recommend allocating a conservative portion of capital towards flips and keep a heavier portion of capital liquid to capitalize on phenomenal deals as they become more prevalent. Not sure if it’s the exact answer you were hoping for but nonetheless hope it’s helpful.  

Brunno,  how long have you been investing?  And what are you trying to accomplish (ie cash flow, tax savings, retirement income, etc)?  Some more details would help give better guidance. Thank you!