Yesterday I wrote about why this is a good time to investigate investing in rental real estate. Notice I’m talking about investing in rental property, not buying and flipping. In the buy and flip scenario, there are equally good deals out there on the buying side, but the problem is, you can’t profit from it unless you sell it, and that’s a tougher thing to accomplish now than renting a property and getting relatively quick return on your investment.
If you think you might like to generate some income from rental properties, I’d suggest the next step is to do some reading on the subject. Amazon.com lists literally several hundred books on the subject (search for Rental Property Investment), so I’m not about to go into the details. The point here is that before you look at property, educate yourself on what it takes to make it a paying proposition. As a REALTOR, I can help you find a suitable property and buy it at the best price available. I can’t guarantee that you will make money with it. That is dependent on many variables that are unique to your financial situation. A visit with your tax advisor is also useful so that you understand how to handle the specific laws about real estate rental income and expenses.
If you find the right properties at the right price and are willing to do what’s necessary to keep paying tenants in the property, rentals can be a good long-term investment. If you want to handle the finances but not the management, you can call on a property manager to help you keep it rented and take those midnight calls when the heat goes out in the middle of winter. If you’d like to know more about the benefits and costs of property management, call CENTURY 21 Hecht’s Mooresville Property Manager, Rod Kerley at 704-502-1679 or see more about rentals at our website HERE.
If you’d like to investigate properties that are good candidates for rentals, let me know. Often, they already have tenants who want to stay in the property so you have instant cash flow. Just do the homework first so that we can make best use of the time you have to look at properties.
specifically to the MLS and the computer systems we use. Last year, I was asked to be one of the folks running against able competition for the Iredell seat on the CRRA board. Fortunately I won that election, and as it turned out started immediately when the previous Iredell rep decided she needed to resign for personal reasons. So, for several months I’ve been meeting with both the MLS and the CRRA boards- the better part of a day a month plus preparation time. In the meantime, I was also asked by the CRRA President to agree to be one of our delegation from Region 8 of NCAR, the largest region in the state, which represents all CRRA members (Mecklenburg and Iredell Counties).
The outlying shopping centers that have sprung up near interstates and bypasses have done continual damage to these downtown businesses, and now the economic downturn has added to the difficulty of these businesses trying to stay afloat.
We’ve had our first real snowfall in the Lake Norman area. We woke up with weathermen on television running around excitedly like little kids. That’s normal for our area. We happen to be often right on the border of frozen winter storms, and the poor weather forecasters catch the dickens for predicting snow (or ice) then seeing nothing or at least just cold rain. When the subject turns to snow and how much we get, we have to say, “it depends.” Some winters we have a number of significant snows. Others not so much. It also depends on the track of the storm. Our storms usually come up from the southwest as if they were traveling I-85. If it’s a large storm, we can get a significant amount of snow on either side of I-85. Other times, like it did this time, it may go under or south of us. You just can’t assume that the further north you are here, the more freezing stuff you’ll get. This time, Lake Norman got little, and Charlotte got a fairly good snow (we consider 2 inches or more a “fairly good snow”). Don’t get me wrong. In years past, we’ve had snows over a foot deep, but usually it is maybe 6 inches and is gone by the third day. We rarely get snow after snow. My idea of a good snow is here to day, gone tomorrow! 
