All Forum Posts by: Michele Z.

What a creative solution for an area that's difficult to find multi-family properties in. How is everything going three months later? Happy Holidays!

I had to give up my career several years ago to marry my active duty husband and pursue having a family. I've looked ahead and I don't like the future as a one income military family. We already planned to teach our son to think out of the box because the current educational systems aren't going to prepare his generation for anything. What better way than to walk the walk from his earliest memories? 

I'd also like my husband to have the option of doing this full time after he hits 20 years instead of just doing a revolving door into a gov't or contractor job. He wants to actually be able to spend some time with our son before he goes out on his own and achieving FF could allow him to do that. 

There's so much I'd like us to do out in the world as a family, if we had the freedom to do so. I'm tired of the life I've lived where there are never vacations or time for experiences because you're always trying to make rent or pay bills or set aside money for retirement. Life is too short.

@Paul Rush We will definitely be looking to attend once we move down there. But that's not until next June/July. Until then we have to do everything remotely. :)

@Jason Denny - Yes, I'm looking to spend less than $150k for a SFH actually, so good to know my instincts were correct there.

I've not done much research for North Augusta yet. Figured the chances of getting military renters across that border would be on the low side, but it could be a possibility for cyber folks. I'll add it to my research list. Thanks for your reply.

@Anthoney Hanks Thanks!  We've already attended 3 webinars and I try to watch one of the youtube podcast interviews every other day or so.

@John Teachout I hope your son is enjoying Virginia. It's my home state, but NoVa was my stomping ground.

Happy Holidays to you both!

@Zack Karp It's definitely food for thought. I'll absorb your information and see how it changes the way I'm thinking. I hadn't considered ending up with more than one door in 2020. But you're right, if we just think I little bit more creatively, maybe that could be possible, especially since houses are dirt cheap in the other areas we're interested in... but don't want to actually live in because they're not geared for families. I need to mull that over. Thanks! I have so much to learn.

@Winn Merwin I am very interested in those areas and in anything that would help revitalize communities. But I’m not sure those areas are an appropriate move to live in for a year. I find the lack of grocery stores in the medical district to be worrisome. Trying to find a balance between our needs as a family with a 3 year old and the needs of our potential renters is proving challenging. So for this first purchase in this very specific situation, I’m trying to focus on the areas mentioned in my initial post, even though they don’t seem to cash flow nearly as well. 

@Zack Karp Would you still recommend 3% down if you knew It would prevent getting a positive cash flow?

Hello! New to BP and just starting to figure out the forums. I'm recapping this discussion here after posting in the Starting Out forum because I'm searching for the opinions of people who know this specific market - and I just found ya'll!

My research tells me Augusta, GA could be a great market for a rental property and perhaps even ongoing investments.

We're a USMC family coming to the area next PCS season. We'll likely do a brief trip end of March to physically see the area before moving down in June. We are first time home buyers. We have a 3yo and a 65lb dog so house hacking isn't in the cards for us.

Unlike most military families, we'll only be in Augusta for about a year before we convert to a rental. We're thinking about our situation as a slower BRRRR as we want to have cash flow. We are looking for a SFH (3/4+2) around 2000sf-ish that needs updating. We want to aim for a $1500 rental price + pet rental which we hope is achievable with our specific rental market.

According to online portals my husband and I have low 800 credit scores so we hope to use a conventional w/ 20% down to avoid mortgage insurance and increase our equity. We're not planning on using the VA Loan as we need to save the entitlement for a likely much more expensive market (DC) in 2021.

Our main focus is on Evans/Martinez because of proximity to the Ft. Gordon -AND- the new cyber developments downtown, plus access to amenities that we think will be attractive to the incoming workforce. That said, we are very worried about internet access in those older, more established areas after some quick searches and hope to not be pushed into Grovetown as it seems like it would only appeal to families. New construction in Grovetown isn't going to get us the cash flow we want right out of the gate.

What are your thoughts about starting out with lower than $200/mo cash flow in an appreciating area? We've been searching the consumer available MLS and realize that there's not a lot out there at the moment (that we can see) that meets our needs.

Eager to speak with those who are actively investing in this market since we can't physically get out to any meet-ups before we move to the area. Also very interested in finding out about the wholesale market - not exactly sure how that works yet, but it seems the way to go to ensure cashflow.

I appreciate any comments/suggestions as we're on a short timeline and want to learn as much as we can, as quickly as possible. Thanks!

@Solomon Morris assuming you meant to at me and not that other Michele who spells her name correctly.  ;)

The issue is not using the VA loan twice, it's choosing to have the entire allotment available for one of the most expensive markets in the county. It's also about hoping to cash flow a property as soon as we start renting it, and I can barely make a decent cashflow work with 20% down, I don't know how it would be remotely possible if we went no money down. This is why we're considering 20% down because we don't have room to factor for mortgage insurance as we run the numbers on the properties we find on the MLS.