All Forum Posts by: Troy Gandee

@Eric Brust I assume you'll have a PM since you're out of state. Just make sure your PM is familiar with Sect 8. It's not really that difficult in SC. There's just a process to get into their system as a new landlord and a separate HAP contract to sign with the housing authority. Just make sure you have the contact info of the tenants' case worker at the appropriate housing authority so you can reach out directly to the source if you have any questions about her tenancy. They're also pretty receptive to increasing to market rents, but they are usually a little behind the private pay market. If they're below market rent at the moment, I would reach out to that case worker when the current lease expires and request it be increased to market rents to maximize that cash flow.

@Al Anderson It's really hard to say without seeing what you're working with. Material costs are also through the roof right now, so estimates are difficult. I would just try to get some contractor/builder quotes from a few different sources. If you're rebuilding the trusses, you should be able to choose the plan that would be the most cost effective since it will need completely re-engineered.

@Reid Matthews I believe you're correct. @Anthony Tonsoline I actually ended up helping OP here find the STR he eventually bought following this post. He got a pretty good deal on something with no HOA about 10 minutes from the beach. @Rene M. came close to missing the window getting the Mt P permit because the remaining permits went so fast. I'm sure he knows the times to apply and some tips on that process. The biggest challenge in Mt P (other than the permit itself) is avoiding neighborhoods with HOAs. They almost always shut it down. Most of Mt Pleasant is fairly young, so lots of HOAs. You also have to be very aware of your tax rate. If you do not occupy the property, your taxes will be pretty massive at 300-400k, so make sure you're accounting for that. You will be taxed at the commercial 6% rate as a non-owner occupant. I have an STR in a guesthouse at my house in Park Circle, but we do not currently have a permitting process in N Chas. We've brokered a lot of STRs/Airbnbs. I honestly do not always find them to be the best deals. They're expensive and the expenses are high. The cash flow can be nothing to write home about for the cost. COC returns can be pretty pitiful if it isn't the right deal. Of course, if the deal works, they can be great. I think @Rene M. has been very happy with his. FYI, rates on investment/2nd homes will be going up soon, so you may want to lock that up soon, if you're seriously shopping.

@Lucius Dibble If the DSCR is fair, I would personally suggest refinancing with a no doc HML while rates are low with them. Civic is offering 4.75% on ARMs for rentals. They will have to adjust that rate back up at some point, but if you don't have the W2 income, you're not gonna be able to refinance that for 1-2 years with traditional funds. While rates are low on the non-QM stuff, I would refi now. You could sell and cash out, but that doesn't seem to fit the long term goal. This market is tight, so you likely won't have a ton of luck reinvesting that capital into a stellar deal. Keep in mind that most HMLS are doing 70-75% LTV for cash out.

@Spencer Gray We're still usually seeing better than 3-5% in Charleston as a whole. I can see 4-5% downtown only or in the A/B markets, but we're still typically brokering and buying around the 1% rule. That usually translates to 6-8% here. I some times see 4-5% caps on large commercial properties, as well. When I started investing here, we were regularly seeing 12%+ caps at an average deal. Now that's a white whale. Our inventory is 73% lower than it should be at the moment. 

Hi @Sarah Giffin We use John Florence with Florence Law Firm for most legal matters and closings. Weeks & Irvine is also great. CPAs are super busy right now, but Justin Welch with AccountFin is who I recommend. In SC, an LLC is usually the recommended vessel for holding rentals. You should have separate business accounts for the property for accounting sake.

@Bobby Paquette Kelli Garrett with RehabWallet offers bridge financing for the purchase/rehab. She's local and lends for a lot of flips and BRRRs. You can then refinance with a longer term HML. Civic Financial has good no-income loans for longer term notes after you've rehabbed it.

@Jamie Morehead A lot of attorneys also own portfolios of properties here. I don't really want to put their business out there, but you could reach out to just about any RE attorney and definitely any of the personal injury lawyers to ask for some of their time. The bigger attorneys normally have a handful of commercial properties for their staff and other firms often lease from them in those buildings. I think a lot of them are cautious with residential stuff for liability sake because they would be held to a higher standard in court, but I think quite a few find themselves as capital partners, silent investors or limited partners in many properties. 

@Josh Deeden We're still netting around 40+ new residents per day here in Charleston, SC. We've had a net gain of 30-50 people per day for like 5 years now. It's good and bad, of course, but the biggest challenge at the moment is a severe lack of inventory for investors and retail buyers. 

@Tim Coakley You have some extra flexibility with this once since he owns it free and clear. He really should quit claim it to an LLC before getting started just for liability sake. It's only a couple hundred dollars. Since there's no lender, there's no reason not to do so in this case. Then you could be added as a member of the LLC or you could be a 1099 employee of that company with some kind of JV agreement in place specifying the arrangement. Either way, if you are going to move forward, you should try to ask an attorney for their opinion on how to best arrange it. If you quit claim it into an LLC, you'll want an attorney to do that anyways.