All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

1 to vinyl click lock planking.  They've got some out there that has a very believable faux wood finish that is darn near bomb proof.  Just did a 1400 Sq ft house with it and it turned out great. And I also thought it was very easy to install even though it was my first installation. And it's cheap!  Don't get the engineered stuff because if you puncture the veneer and moisture gets in it, it will buckle and swell. The vinyl is waterproof.  Good luck!

Hey there and welcome to the area.  Nigel's right: there's a lot of stiff competition, but if you keep at it you can do quite well.  You just have to be persistent and always ready to make a move.  And sometimes you have to change your strategy based on what's available.  I would caution that flipping might be very difficult in this area if done part time.  Most of the on-market deals get snapped up pretty quickly (or sold for too much) but you might do well with off-market deals.

Do you work at LP?  We do some work there from time to time.  Welcome to BP and Wilmington!

All the time.  Always looking for something good.

Thats where I am from, where I live, and where I invest. It's pretty good for investing, but the competition is steep. There aren't a lot of runaway steals out there, and when the odd one comes up it's usually under contract almost immediately. I've seen houses go for a few thousand d under ARV despite needing 20-30k worth of work. But there are deals, they just take a lot of work to find. As a landlord though, I think it's great.

Hey, Louise and welcome to the area! I also live and invest in Wilmington, NC; it's a great area. I had the same issue in terms of finding a REI. There's one locally, but I had hoped to talk to someone who was more familiar with it first to see if it was worthwhile or just a bunch of sales and pitches. What are you looking to invest in here in Wilmington?

J just missed a perfect chance to plug his book, so I'll help him out.

Buy and read J Scott's book "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs"  I bought it and read it and I highly recommend it.  It's available through BP.   That will give you a good idea of a price range for repairs and you can work from there.

I am under contract on a property right now that appraised for 132k last week.  Zillow claims it is worth ~162k.  That makes me laugh every time I think about it.  Thankfully I wasn't trusting anything Zillow said other than rent.   I feel like they have a pretty good pulse on that, but I still check rentrange, rentometer, and the mls.  But as for the Zestimate? Worthless.

Hello from the other side of the state!  Like @David Lee  said, it's great to see other people from NC on the site.

Welcome to the site, Robert.  You could cut my envy with a knife that you live in Portland.  It's one of my favorite cities.  Good luck out there and go have a beer at Cascade for me!

Thanks for the vote of solidarity!  I definitely intend to go forward with it.