All Forum Posts by: Jason Carter

Awesome! Hope to see you there @Robert Reynolds! 

Welcome back everyone! We've found a great outdoor venue and the Happy Hour is back. Tuesday August 30th 6-8 PM at Alley Lounge in Culver City. Located just East of Washington and Centinela, directly behind FIN restaurant. Entrance is on the east side of FIN.

https://www.instagram.com/alle... 

Parking is on Washington Blvd or the side streets. Parking can get crowded so Lyft or Uber might be a good call.

All levels of real estate investors welcome! This is a casual, friendly and fun meetup. No speakers or boring presentations. No sales pitches! Come out and meet people who are actively investing and others who want to get in the game. Whether you're a buy and hold investor, airbnb'er, flipper, wholesaler, or just getting started you are welcome! All we ask is that you buy a drink or a food item to support the venue that supports us.

@Brianna Devons If I were just starting out I would house hack. Look at all the success people are having in the comments. I'm so jealous. :) I wish I had known about house hacking when I started. I feel like it's a no brainer. A friend did one in Inglewood. Rented out a room in the main house and then rented out the back house. Lives for free while owning an asset. He's already saved enough for his next house hack. Relatively quick route to a few million $ (in LA anyway)

My first deal was a SF 3/2 in Round Rock, Texas outside of Austin. A friend had traveled the country and picked Austin as his favorite market. This was 2007. I didn't know squat about RE but I loved Austin and always wanted to get in the RE game. He told me a friend of his was selling a house for 113K. I went to the bookstore, bought Real Estate for Dummies and I bought the house sight unseen in the next few days. 113K. I think I put 15K down. Started with a tenant paying $995. Not the best deal but it got me started. That tenant stayed 10 years until he disappeared one night. I had to pull 35K out to rehab it and use a little cash for personal stuff. Today it's worth at least 350K and the rent is now $1650 which is probably a little low, but I have had a retired couple in there since we rehabbed it in 2017. They never complain and pay on time every month. I am thinking of selling it in the next year or so to put the equity to work for me. 

I've worked with Antoine Martel and the crew over at Martel Turnkey. I've lended private money to him and seen his rehabs from start to finish. Overall I'd say he runs a top-notch operation. I've worked with some other turnkey providers, even bought 1 turnkey property years ago and MartelTurnkey is head and shoulders above the rest. That's why I chose to invest with them. They're professional, transparent and very communicative, which is key. 

My advice to anyone buying turnkey from anyone is to insist that your closing is contingent upon a paying tenant being in the property. Otherwise it's not turnkey. I've talked to several people who have bought turnkey properties and then watch them sit empty for months because the provider sold them promising a higher than market rent and thus an unrealistic return. Learn from their mistake. 

Also if it's a turnkey occupied with a Section 8 tenant be aware that Section 8 often pays higher than market rents. So if that Sec. 8 tenant has to leave for whatever reason there's a chance your next tenant may not be Section 8 and thus your rent could decrease. And there goes your returns. Some providers stick Sec. 8 tenants in there so they can project higher returns. 

@Cade Andersen You may want to post this request on the

Metro Grand Rapids Real Estate Investors Facebook Group page. Might get some more leads there. 

Hapeville is hot! If you find something, jump on it. 

I often tell people who are getting started to find a great property management company first. After 14 years of investing out of state, I'd say a great management company is more important than which city you invest in. 

I thought it might be cool to start a thread of preferred property managers and their locations. Please only post if your property manager has a proven track record with you and has impressed for whatever reasons. 

I'll start. 

United Properties of West Michigan. Grand Rapids MI. Top notch communication including regular video market reports and updates. Impressed with how they got in front of covid and pooled resources to help owners/tenants who had issues. Good tenant placement. Annual inspections. A bit pricey on repairs but you are going to pay for good management. It's worth it. 

Morris Green Properties - Austin, Texas. Great communication. Quick, quality tenant placement. Did a rehab through them and it went great. 

Thanks @Account Closed, an investor-friendly agent and all around good guy.  

I'd just say be careful with the cheaper 30-60K properties that have returns that look amazing on paper. They rarely play out like that in real life. If you're looking long-term, and you're buying out of state, buy in the best neighborhood possible and don't worry so much about cash flow right now. You may want to consider properties a little over 100K. You're more likely to see appreciation, rental increases, higher tenant quality and less crime in better neighborhoods. It may not be as exciting as those imaginary returns from a cheap house, but trust me, you're not going to see those kind of returns on a cheap house. I know because I ignored this advice soon after starting out. 

That said as someone else pointed out it's all about management. That is the single most important piece in my experience. I'd pick a crappier market with an excellent manager than a great market with mediocre management. You have to find the best. And it doesn't hurt to find some solid backups just in case. Otherwise you're going to have lots of headaches and losses. 

As far as appreciation, I wouldn't sleep on the California advice especially if you qualify for FHA. Appreciation beats the pants off cash flow most any day. Could be a huge buying opportunity coming up soon if the economy tanks.

One last tip - if you get serious with AL take a trip down there and check out B'ham and Huntsville. Huntsville is on pace to outgrow Birmingham FYI. I think it's a little more competitive but I like its chances for appreciation. And always good to see what you're going to buy. They often look a lot different in reality than they do in the listing photo. 

And I'd recommend buying a rental before trying to BRRRR just to get experience with all the processes.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions and good luck!  

Awesome advice @Tim Winter Thank you. We're asking a lot of questions right now but will dig deeper and never even thought of asking for closing costs! Appreciate it!