All Forum Posts by: John Blanton

Working on a potential opportunity in a flood zone

Should buying in a flood zone be a non-starter? 

Not sure the elevation certificate, but according to the flood zone map the flood zone is AE. The property did flood just last year which left it currently uninhabitable

Seller is currently delinquent on property taxes and unwilling to make repairs on the property which is motivating them to consider very aggressive offers. The building is relatively good size (20+ units) and could handle a decent amount of capex cost ($200-300k) if the purchase price was low enough. The property was fully occupied previously prior to the flood damage.

Business plan is to perform needed structural and unit rehabs, lease up/ stabilize and look to exit the property to an investor

Wasn't sure investor appetite for buying properties in flood zones on exit

Can't make this one, but love to attend in the future @Igor S.

Deaton is the go to for Triangle and that deal size. T Furlow is your man. 

Haven't seen much less than $150k/dr in Raleigh or Durham lately even in C areas, lots of demand for the area

Good luck!

Not arguing the cost Isn't steep but even 1/90 or a 1.1% hit rate would more than cover the initial outlay. 

Even if they weren't desiring to sell directly to you, you could work to refer the listing to a broker and work out a 'market research fee' to recoup your costs (hopefully more).

Trying to think creatively!

I have worked with Kevin Israel at Venture Law before in Raleigh. As previously mentioned there are a lot of strong out of state options as well if desired. 

Curious what your success rate has been so far? Considered but never followed through on direct mail

Brokers I speak with around here have been mailing monthly for years so I would try to see what would differentiate your message leading to a response. 

Sterling White has some pretty unique ideas of what to add along with the postcard to grab the owner's attention. 

If you really wanted to go all out maybe a $25 gift card added with a note saying it is to cover the lunch you will be taking them out on. Then I would follow up with a call. 

Really depends how aggressive you want to be and how much you are willing to risk in outlay. 

Hey Aviv, welcome to investing in NC! Durham and the greater Triangle have gotten quite competitive, but there are still deals to be had if you can get creative.

I have had good success with @Tiffany Alexy for an investment broker, she is an investor herself and is very knowledgable on the market. 
 

For a local PM I use Kristi Woerner at Abare Property management and have been pleased.

Best of luck!  

As you mentioned the return rate on effort can be very low, but just getting 1-2 deals could make your year so only you can determine what your effort/ labor is worth

Researching each seller can be time consuming and potentially a waste of time if they don't want to sell. I would look at the parameters you are targeting. What would motivate them to sell (especially off market)?

How long have they held the property? Do they have debt on it? How did they acquire the property? Can you see any deferred maintenance on Google Street view? Then you can have a smaller list to start from for a higher hit rate. 

I have had good success myself, but the amount of effort required is a lot. Brokers are calling me now asking for leads as I am having such good traction speaking to sellers. Majority of sellers are too sophisticated to pick up anything at a huge discount, but we have been able to do that at times.

I like the Synthesis Deal Analyzer from Chris Jackson at Sharpline Equity. Many folks really like the Syndication Deal Analyzer from Michael Blank. Depending on your equity structure you can play with the GP/LP equity. If you are just looking to purchase solo take all the fees to 0% and LP equity % to 0 as well.

Good luck!

You really feel people that are going to the effort to look up owner details, aren't willing to go the extra step to skip trace? Skip tracing is so simple and cheap nowadays, I'm not sure if I totally agree with that.

I don't look at deeds unless there seems to be some issue with the property or to confirm the level/ lack there of the owner has of debt on the property. 

I haven't found a service yet that aggregates this data, so I am in the same boat as you. For now manually going through records to find desired information. I have also found many services that offer some amount of this data can be unreliable and you end up calling the wrong person (not the owner).