All Forum Posts by: Ethan Cole

Any recommendations on where else to check for deals?

I am wanting to get into STR's near Gatlinburg. I have experience with LTR's, but this seems to be a different ballgame. The market I'm in has a significantly lower cost of entry, consequently it brings lower returns than a market like Gatlinburg. My biggest hurdle for moving quickly is the amount the down payment would need to buy to buy in this market. What are some creative ways you have used to come up with large sums of money quickly?

Currently my biggest challenge is working through a slight plateau. We want to continue scaling, but our momentum has slowed some. We don't have the disposable cash to continue buying at the rate we started at, so I would like to find a way to quickly come up with down payments to continue expanding. 

@Charles A. Kayuha,

I invest nearby in Clarksburg, WV. This is a nice duplex! We typically set aside 10% for maintenance and capex, but we self manage so we save on that expense. In this area you will not have any expense for a realtor as the buyer. I'm not sure what your goals are with this property, but we have used a couple of commercial lenders. Rates right now are around 6.5% on a 20 year note. The commercial lenders we've dealt with treat the 20 year as standard, and they require 15% rather than 20% down. Needless to say, if you're buying this under your name, there are a lot more options. We just liked the security of owning our properties under an entity. Your numbers for property management look good for the area based on a couple of the local managers I've spoken with. I can also say your vacancy numbers are good. We have 16 units, and they are almost always filled. The only time a unit misses a month, it's because I'm in the process of filling it. Hope this helps, feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any questions about local specifics (lenders, realtors, contractors, management companies, etc.). 

Ethan

Seeing this late, but my wife is an agent serving from Huntington to Morgantown. She likes her brokerage, and we've bought 5 investment properties over a year and a half. Feel free to shoot me a PM and I may be able to give you a little more info.

It's pretty normal unfortunately. I may know a contractor that could help you, though I'm not sure he would be a large enough outfit depending on the size of the building/scope of work. I've used him several times, and he has excellent customer service. 

@Alex Case, my wife is the realtor that I prefer to use! She serves all the way from Huntington to Morgantown. Basically the whole state. She has found us 5 multifamily properties over the last year and a half. Send me a PM, and I would be happy to connect you with her!

Hey @Alex Case,

I am also from WV. Originally from southern WV, but my wife and I currently live in north central WV. We have been building a nice portfolio in the greater Clarksburg area over the last year and a half. We enjoy investing here for some of the previously mentioned reasons, and also because it is an area of WV that is growing rapidly due to jobs, and it's proximity to Morgantown and Pittsburgh. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about investing here, and would also go through some of the specifics of our deals. We currently sit at 5 properties, with 16 total units. Love the point that @JonPaul Kessinger made about Fayetteville. Gorgeous area adjacent to the New River Gorge National Park. Plenty to do in town as well. My wife and I have talked about an STR in the future there.

We may just have to forgo the goodwill offer of letting her move no strings attached then and just file the eviction

Thanks for the responses. Further details: She moved in 4 days ago. She passed credit and background check, we did a walkthrough, went through the lease with her, and she signed and moved in. The very next day the problems started. She violated her lease several different ways, and I warned her that if it continued we would have to terminate her lease. Now she is threatening us and the other tenants. We offered to allow her to just move out of her own free will, and we would just give back her security deposit (if she left it whole) as well as her prorated rent. We explained that she was in violation of her lease, and if she chose not to move, we would move forward with the eviction process through the court system. A process we are familiar with. She agreed to move, but is continuing to threaten us, and has made statements that I won't go into detail about that cause us to feel unsafe going without local law enforcement. Hope that clears things up some.