All Forum Posts by: Zachery Buffin

I suppose the climate has changed but I think there is still so much opportunity here, buy and hold may not be the best strategy for the deals out here but then again if you BRRRR out you can still find great deals if you have some liquid for the rehabs and closing.

That's totally fair, if you're not comfortable in a deal than its best to trust your gut I just feel that a lot of people say that to not look for any deals. It is an easy way for people to say they aren't ready to invest without admitting it to themselves. I promise if you look you will find it, but the point of this thread is to find something in another market. 

That being said I am going to throw in Tennessee in the ring again, haha, there are a ton of benefits to the market especially for a buy and hold investor. If you're looking for growth and stability look here!

My company has offices in Colorado and I will tell you that Denver isn't as tight as people make it sound. There are deals to be had anywhere if you can cast your net wide enough. We are the nation's largest wholesaler so we can cast a very wide net. I say that not to brag or anything but rather to explain that in my experience people with an interest in the market will tell all the newbies that the market is too tight when what they mean to say is the market requires creativity.

Wow I learned so much on Subject To's here, that was great, thanks! As to what you should do as an investor, well you might want to look for macro solutions to macro problems. If you are concerned that people are migrating I would look to see where they are migrating to and begin to size that market up for expansion. Texas has something crazy like 45%-50% of the total national internal migration numbers but if I were to look specifically at cook county I can tell you that there is a ton of migration away from there primarily to Arizona, California, and Florida. Thats not hypothetical that is census data so you might want to look into going one or all of those places. Another tact to take is to look at your one area of control, expense, and lessen it by investing to hold in states that are going to tax you the least. That is my two cents on the matter and without knowing you or your portfolio exactly we can only speak generally. Good luck!

https://flowsmapper.geo.census.gov/map.html   

Nashville is a little high for you but the surrounding suburban area is very doable in that price range. If you're looking for a high growth area look no further than middle Tennessee, Memphis is still a little behind but Nashville is booming and with it the surrounding areas up to 30-40 miles away are viable rentals. The property taxes are just above the very lowest in the whole country as well and there are a lot of "boots on the ground" as far as out-of-state infrastructure as well. I live here and I am telling you it is like Texas but a little less saturated/hot.  

As an agent myself, one who works in wholesale and with investors exclusively, I can tell you straight up you are focused on the wrong thing right now. BiggerPockets is a great place to start but you should not be asking how to spend 20k, you should be out there in person. Your business will be small and niche in the beginning. Decide what that niche will be and laser focus it until you succeed. I don't mean to be rude, seriously, text just comes across as more brash than I mean it. All I mean to say is that 20k can do a lot to cover closing costs, fees and the like for your first deal but not a whole lot more unless you are in a market of 50-70k properties. 

This month alone I have spent 5k on "call" lists and the like, about 2k on mailers and print, and more here and there on advertising odds and ends. I do this to grow my business and find maybe ten new investors a month but truth be told I have received so much more business from craigslist, BP, Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, and meet up events (tax auctions, REIN, etc.) which is the point of some of the posts above. Hold on to your money and use the internet to cheat a bit, as an old sergeant once told me, "if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin' " and I find in advertising that tends to be true. Use friends or acquaintance, tell people what you do every time you meet them. Make people sick of hearing it from you, that way as soon as they hear something you are literally the only person in their mind. You have to hustle, believe me I hate hearing it to, but real estate is like working out no one can really give it to you you just have to go in everyday and do it. This is the ultimate dues paying job I have ever worked in, you just do it and one day without you really noticing it people start asking you, then you know you made it. Before that you're just running around with your hair on fire wondering why you ever got started!

Best of luck buddy, I really wish you the best and hope you make it happen. Just stay with it, especially when you want to quit, just always get up and do it one more time. 

I just moved up to the Nashville area and I have to say I have been amazed what you can get into here on and off the MLS. Money here is also a bit cheaper than I had seen in Georgia and Alabama (where I was before) which is another bonus to investing here. I was just at a property that was ok, you could make it rent ready for a little under 15k but the great thing about it was all the exits you had for the asking price. For the price of the property you could actually have torn the whole structure down and done a lot play putting two houses on it!

It is just crazy the range of things I see out here everyday, high-rise million dollar apartments to hoarder hell-hole duplexes that need to be scrapped to undeveloped land. I am learning so much as an agent here that I feel brand new again, like I never even heard of real estate until now haha.

I will start this by saying I am relatively new to the market but I must be missing something because I never really see anyone at bigger pockets really talking about it. Nashville, indeed middle Tennessee as a whole, is a perfect market for investors. Sure we have all seen the fix and flip shows, we have seen the gurus talking about "easy" money but I have actually seen a good bit of success for flippers here first hand. In the past two weeks I have seen 5 houses move around 75% ARV after rehab. There are still really great deals out here, which only get better as you move out into the surrounding suburbs. The infrastructure of a great team is her as well, a lot of good contractors out here who know the game and private money to work with. I have even seen hard money lending at around 10% for people on the second loan they get. Tennessee has some of the absolute lowest property taxes in the United States of America overall, no state income tax for residents and a friendly-to-business tax system as well. Nashville has great tourism, great rental migration for work and appreciation generating property everywhere.

Maybe I have been missing the posts about middle Tennessee but if I haven't that means you might be missing the boat on great investments. What do you guys think? Is Nashville the promise land it seems to be or am I missing something? 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/calculators/shared/7...

This is just one deal I saw move over the weekend, they actually paid less than the calculator suggests you should to make 50k on the deal. they paid less than 190k for it which means they have more profit potential and/or more wiggle room for set backs.

Hey Elijah, when did you want to put this informal meet up together? I would love to meet up with people investing in the markets you indicated. If you're interested in a meet up PM me or you can call my number is in my profile. Look forward to talking to you soon!

I am incredibly new to all this so take what I am going to say with every grain of salt in the world. My experience is limited to analyzing deals, listening to the podcasts and lurking around the website until I get the financial position to invest in my first property. That all being said I live in the area and have been looking around at a few of the available multifamily properties all of which are on the MLS and are incredibly overpriced to make sense as investment properties.

It seems to me that the answers you have received thus far by more experienced and better sources will tell you that the math isn't as good as it appears to be. The thing to maybe consider here above all else is how experienced are you? How good is your team? Can you trim any of your expenses anywhere to make the math a bit better for yourself while still paying 160k? Can you add value anywhere? Maybe split one of the apartments and make that triplex a quad? Adding value in the form of increased cashflow potential will help force equity in the property and allow you to BRRR out quickly. Another thought is house hacking it for the FHA loan potential to free up some of your money for a second property or rehab costs, wherever it would do the most good, which might increase your cashflow as well. These are just some quick thoughts from the inexperienced but I would advise to learn from the professional mistake makers, joking here, and avoid losses where possible.

As a final thought I would also just point out that literally EVERY time I hear someone has inherited tenants they are terrible. Horror story generators, pay late, wreak the house, complain, etc. You never really want to walk into a property where the tenant was trained by a failing landlord or someone who is undervaluing their property as much as you seem to think this person is. The fewer old tenants you have the better your experience will be is the word from every experienced landlord on this site. MTSU is close by and as long as you can get the property closed on and renovated quickly you will have people coming in to rent from you. Nashville is close by and the Amazon centers in Murfreesboro, Lebanon and Nashville itself mean there is good solid renters available that you can screen, train and keep.