All Forum Posts by: Pat Lulewicz

@Chris London can you let me know who that insurance provider is? Mine's at least double for that price property. Doesn't move the needle on your calc (which I agree with), but I'd love to have that resource!

Everything depends on the capital you have available, what kind of ROI you want, whether you're open to a speculative appreciation play, and your lendability. Charlotte and Raleigh can definitely work if you can afford the downpayment. To @Adam Schneider's point, townhomes will have HOA dues of $60+/m (and that's the low end, up to $300/m depending on whats included) and those will errode cash flow quickly.

If this is your first rental property or you need a lowe entry point, I'd also take Adam's advice and look at secondary markets - Greensboro/High Point/Winston Salem (where I invest heavily), Fuquay/Holly Springs, Fayetteville, Burlington/Graham/Mebane, Rocky Mount just to name a few.

If your DTI can support it and you have the equity to make it work, consider taking a HELOC on your primary to use a downpayment for NC instead of refi. I live in Raleigh, NC and my home appreciated astronomically over the last 18 months. My original lender let me take a HELOC for 90% LTV. The HELOC is a 30-yr fixed w/ no prepayment penalty at 3.5%. Worst than gov't backed loan, but better than investor loans. I will also be moving out of this home to rent it (similar to your strategy) so pulled the HELOC before I moved out. None of the loan docs require me to stay in it after I met the 12 month live-in requirement of the original loan/purchase.

When you look to buy in NC, only caveat for your next purchase on the lending side will be that you get your Phoenix home rented out to cover your mortgage. That way, your DTI won't be impacted by the Phoenix mortgage. Any time you're trying to get a gov't backed loan, your mortgage originator can count 75% of the rent for the Phoenix house against the Phoenix mortgage so would be good to get rent 33% higher than your Phoenix mortgage so that NONE of that mortgage payment counts against you in underwriting.

Where in NC are you moving to?

If you have a "high income" from your day job, I would recommend buying in appreciating markets before prices continue to rise and thereby your downpayment continues to rise. There could come a time where you get priced out of the market. I'm in Raleigh, NC and we have a neighboring city of Morrisville in the Raleigh MSA where properties have appreciated 25%-30% YoY with no plans to stop. So take your reasonable cash flow and appreciation potential now while that trend continues. In addition, there are many lenders who will cash-out refi you within 6-12 months so you could get some/all of your downpayment out assuming it'll still cash flow.

To clarify "high income", something where y'all could comfortably buy 2+ more properties off cash-flow alone this year. You'll find that in appreciating markets like you're referencing, that $250K could be gone within 3-5 purchases.

Reach out if you want to talk NC. We're seeing some of the strongest appreciation and rent growth in the county and I work with a handful of out-of-state investors who've been able to get in on some great rentals.

If you know and trust anyone in your closer circle who's an investor or flipping houses, see if they need private money. Don't charge them crazy terms, but in exchange, ask to be included on every email or decision point. If you're local enough, walk properties with them that they're working on, etc. You'll get paid plus get an education. It's priceless. Keep it relatively short-term (no more than 6 months). You might even find you prefer to be the bank.

Otherwise, a lot of people are right on these posts. Look out of market. With your income level, might want to focus on appreciating markets (Austin, Raleigh [where I'm at], and even in your backyard) where you cash flow enough for unknowns/unexpecteds. Take this opportunity as an educational period. The first one doesn't have to be a homerun; base hits win games too.

Welcome and good luck David. what market in NC are you in?

Look for other like-minded people - realtors, wholesalers, etc - who know what you need and pay them a flat fee or a cut of the deal. like any other business. focus on the high $$ items and outsource the rest.

Hey Marco - investor and agent in both the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/CH) and the Triad (Greensboro/HIgh Point/Winston). I do a lot of investment volume in the Triad for folks in the Triangle and out-of-state. Shoot me a message with the criteria and kind of numbers you're looking to achieve; would love to discuss and provide my experiences so far. In addition, I have some hard money lenders I use and recommend regularly who can help you stretch your capital WAY farther.

@Jay Wang I can only speak for the Raleigh market, but we've had a 15% appreciation Y-o-Y and I work with homeowners in the $600K-$1M price point who haven't slowed down their offering. There isn't a lot of land within the city limits and so appreciation is extremely prevalent. We are getting an Apple HQ over the next few years so you'll see continued job and wage growth.

I also work with a handful of out-state-investors in both the Raleigh/Durham and Greensboro markets on purchasing rental properties with great success to take advantage of the aforementioned appreciation, great ROI on rental rates, and continued rent growth with the limited housing inventory and incredible demand.

You can't go wrong buying in this market especially with the amount of capital you have and what I can only assume to be a strong DTI based on your original post.

My mentality from the start was to find something with some meat on the bone, acquire it, and then use that as an opportunity to get contractors out on a legit project, be able to meet them and get to know them, and use that as a good basis for learning costs and creating a bullpen. I've found it very challenging to get contractors out and take me seriously with just conceptual questions/quotes.

In general - if you buy it, they will come.