All Forum Posts by: Shera Gregory

Welcome to Richmond! Be sure to check out the Richmond area meetups for real estate. Richmond RING, Richmond REIA and THINK Richmond are all good venues for meeting the local investor community. Hope to see you there sometime! Oh, and there is also Richmond Apartment Owners meetup -- haven't been to that one myself.

Shera

Hi Eric,

I am also in Richmond. Welcome! There is so much information here on BP to dig through and digest. If you are interested in meeting local people there are several good meetup groups on meetup.com. Check out Richmond RING, Richmond REIA and THINK Richmond.

Best of luck! Shera

Hi Scott -- take a look at the "All Forums" section and check out the "Real Estate Strategies" section. The last forum listed there is 1031 Exchange. There is a sticky post at the top and tons of information there. Once you get a chance to review a lot of the posts there you can ask more specific questions in that forum.

Best of luck!

Shera

Hi ... I have 0% experience in Houston but saw your topic and thought I would throw this out there. One recommendation that I got which has been very helpful when looking for people in a particular trade is to call the materials suppliers to ask for the names of a few people they would recommend. Most likely they will know people who are steady, long-term contractors of a particular trade. In the case of flat roofing you may need to decide what type of solution you expect to get in order to know which materials supplier to look for. A high-end paint company may also deal in the 100% acrylic products that some companies use. But it's more likely that a specialty building materials company would have these sort of contractors as customers. Good luck!!

Hi Maura,

Welcome, welcome! Glad to hear from a fellow Richmond investor. There are two great local meetings for investors that you can find on meetup.com. There is Richmond REIA and Richmond RING. At either one you will meet people who are actively involved in making a business from real estate in the Richmond area. Hope to see you at one of these! Shera

Hi Valerie, I think that perhaps the people who responded so far did not look at the property you want to purchase. Given a property of that magnitude you will want to have a lawyer involved from the beginning. You might want to re-post the question with an indication of the general scope of the funds you want to borrow since this is not just a 3/2 fix & flip.

You can get an idea of what an assignment contract can include in the Resource section of BP under FilePlace. However, if you are going to be doing deals on your own you will certainly want to have a real estate attorney at some point. So this is a chance to use your current need to establish a relationship with an attorney. You can talk with several about what you are looking to do to find someone who seems like a good fit for you. As long as you really intend to pay at least one of these folks to help you out I think that's a fine way to get advice from several angles. When I was trying to find an attorney I spoke with several and met in person with one. I learned quite a bit from each conversation and made sure to keep the phone discussions short and focused (10 minutes max) so I was giving them a fair shot at my business but not milking it for free advice.

Hi Ryan -- welcome! I am not sure that I qualify as a "seasoned investor" but I have bought and sold a number of single family homes in my local market over the past 15 years. I think an important aspect in looking for a particular area is how it matches up to your own goals. Every area can be good for SOMEONE, just maybe not for you. Do you plan to buy and hold or flip? Do you plan to buy distressed properties and then take them to a top-of-the-market rehab? Do you plan to buy low cost properties for all cash and get a good monthly return? Any of those might send you looking in a different direction with different criteria. It sounds like you may be considering a longer term investment with renters in place and also looking for appreciation. If that's the case then you will do better in areas where tenants are more stable and won't be moving out every year or so. The cost for turning over a property every couple of years really adds up. So good school system, good shopping, etc all contribute to keeping your tenants longer. Not the full picture for sure but a few things to consider.

Best of luck!!
Shera

In my local market the private money lender that I have spoken with has a good bit of experience with getting deals done so he is a great resource for helping a newer investor know what's a good deal and what's just OK. Because he has worked on many projects he knew roughly what $/sq ft is typical to have to spend in a particular area. There are ways to bring value to the table besides just $ to lend. In addition, I wouldn't want to try to tap my contacts for the money so even the fact that he is "just a broker" means that he's made the contacts necessary to keep a steady flow of money coming for potential deals.

Hi -- sorry that no one has replied yet from the Tidewater area. I am in Richmond. We needed quite a few quotes last year on a project to be done quickly. I had pretty good luck with Craigslist when I looked for specific trades such as roofing, granite countertops, asphalt, painting, etc. I had also heard that it was a good idea to check with the local material suppliers for leads so we gave that a shot. We found a good, low-cost painter by calling a local Duron store and asking them for a couple of names. You could do the same for plumbing, etc by checking with the plumbing supply places in the area. Finding a good general contractor who will give you a top-to-bottom bid on the whole thing is quite a bit more difficult. For that you might have to ask some other investors who they work with. We found a good one by talking to an appraiser that we had used on several homes.

Best of luck!!

Shera