All Forum Posts by: Mitch Davidson

Hi @Hunter Lawrence. Once you arrive here, we'd love to have you come out to one of our BP networking events in Asheville. We meet the 3rd and 4th Wednesday of the month. And before then I'm happy to help you with ideas on brokerages to hang your hat at, things to do, investment strategies that people are using here, etc. 

Hi @Sara Timko. I agree with @Jared Rine that you'd likely have to consider a Non-QM program, meaning not traditional like Conventional or FHA, meaning a much higher rate, etc. Non-QM lenders are the same lenders we broker out to for DSCR loans. Due to their rates being high, due to the reputation of many of these firms being lousy, and due to the fact that it's harder to get an offer accepted when your financing type is "other" (instead of cash, conventional, or even FHA or VA), I'd probably wait to buy rather than going that route.

Regarding your driving, it's technically "self-employment" in our world, and as such indeed cannot be counted until you have two years of such. Likewise, income from tips has to be treated the same as bonus, commission, and overtime, meaning we can't count it until you have a two year history. 

One solution would be to find a coborrower, even one that won't live in the property with you. Another option would be start a new job where most or all of the pay is salary or hourly, in which case we could count all of that income right away. And if that new income is still too low to qualify you for a purchase in our pricey market, you could buy a 2-4 unit property, as a primary residence, and count potential rental income from the other units. For this approach, you'd want to use FHA because the down payment requirement would be 3.5% rather than the 15% or 20% that Conventional would require. To be clear, this needs to be truly multi-family, not just kind of. Meaning, even if the basement apartment has separate utilities, private entry, etc., the appraiser is going to say the "highest and best use" is single family, and that'll kill the opportunity to use rental income to help you qualify. Perhaps you've already seen, but we have very few 2-4 unit properties here, so you'd perhaps need to include border communities in your search.

Hope this helps some.

@Kelly Olson. I have an STR and MTR in the market you're targeting. I'm happy to provide some insight, and likewise to connect you to anyone you might want to know here. I'll message you.

Hi @Linda TANG. I live and invest near Black Mountain. I'm happy to share some thoughts, and to connect you to some local resources as well, if you want to setup a call. I'll message you.

Thanks for sharing, @Chris Davidson. It seems really common in REI for us to not put a dollar value on our time, to let some properties suck up way too much of it, etc. Thus I appreciate the reminder.

Hi friends. Most of what we hear is how well some model or approach is working for someone, and often with some hype. What could be really instructional is to hear about what failed for you, and why. For example, my MTR in Asheville has done great for 5 years now, but several of my local friends have tried MTR lately and haven't had success. There are lessons to be learned there, such as property type, size, location, etc. Maybe you tried glamping, flipping, renting by the room, STR, LTR, multi-family, build to rent, you name it, and it failed. Perhaps it's painful to have to explain, but we could all learn from stories of what hasn't worked well for you. And hopefully the comments that members make in response won't be condescending.

Hi @Alex Nebe. We have several great venues for comradery, networking, opportunities, etc. Some more casual and open forum, others more presentation style. I'll send you some details.

I think you've read my posts about MTR lately, and thus probably see that after 5 years of operating one inside Asheville city limits, I'm not bullish on the opportunity. Asheville is a small market regarding population, and the MTR opportunity is rather small and finite, and sometimes fickle/wavering, in any market. Regarding single family LTR here, the consensus among friends is that the PITIA will exceed the monthly rent for just about any property, unless you buy a fixer and renovate. STR is great in this general region...IF your home is special in some ways, and IF you're awesome at customer service, small details, etc. We seem to have a glut of underperforming STR's in the market right now, some of which are hitting the market for sale now or soon. I'm not sure how much cashflow matters to you compared to appreciation (which has been great here for a while now), but some alternatives that come to mind are small-multi LTR (although we have a very small supply of such homes), building a new home or cabin by way of modular (i.e., faster, cheaper, and easier to finance), converting a fixer SFR into a multi-unit, pad splitting (i.e., rent by the room), buying land and installing doublewides (then selling or renting out), etc. Hope this helps. Talk to you soon.

Hey @Bonnie Low. We sure are! Just had another great meetup yesterday. April 19 and 26 are our next gatherings. We're currently meeting at Hi-Wire on Lyman St (they have multiple locations) at 6PM for the first meeting, and at Citizen Vinyl at 9AM for the second meeting. 

@Jason Merchey. Totally agree that our approach to crime is miserable failure. For me though, there are many positives that outweigh that issue. 

@Nick Causa: If you can afford the higher payment I'd pursue the new loan for sake of a rate that's both lower and fixed. Beware that these type of loans often come with prepayment penalties though, but that some states (like NC) disallow such.