Charlotte Area Real Estate Best Buys: April 2016

The link below will take you to the full MLS reports for the 10 properties on this month’s Charlotte real estate investor suggestion list. Properties continue to go under contract very quickly after they come onto the market. Better values continue to receive multiple offers shortly after they enter the market. It remains imperative to be positioned to act very quickly. Some investors bid on properties before even seeing them, and some get several properties under contract that way, while they only have the ability to close one of the contracts they have entered into. This causes a fair percentage of properties that go under contract to come back onto the market. The first three or four homes on this month’s list are such properties. I know that at least one of them was under contract with a less-than ethical “wholesaler” who never had any intention (or ability) to close unless they were able to “flip the contract” to a “real investor/buyer.” They were unable to find a buyer and defaulted on the contract a few days before scheduled closing. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: Beware of people who call themselves wholesalers. They generally try to step between the seller of a property and the end-buyer, and make a profit for “getting out of the way.” Most are not licensed and their only interest is their own profit. As inventories of resales contract, they tend to come out of the woodwork, tying up more properties they really don’t intend to purchase. This is really a larger problem for sellers than it is for buyers, but it makes sellers more difficult to deal with because institutional and other sellers who encounter this problem regularly become skeptical that an investor buyer truly intends to move forward to closing. Some have taken to requiring larger earnest money deposits and verifying funds are on deposit to enable a buyer to close.

The market itself has not changed a great deal from last month. Opportunities continue to exist. Buyers tend to clamor as they enter the market, but that can also work in favor of flippers who price their resales well.

A summary of the 10 properties on this month’s list follows:

#1 – MLS 3051261 – This is an Estate Sale that is back on the market. The home is a 3.578 sq.ft. 5 bedroom/3.5 bath on 1.14 acre in zip code 28213. It is priced at $229,900 with a tax value of $266,900.

#2 – 3135670 – 5 bedroom/3 bath REO built in 2004 with 2,783 sq.ft. of HLA in Concord. It is back on the market, and cumulative time on the market is now 102 days at the date of this publication. So the seller may be more motivated at this point. Listing price is $219,900. Tax value is $219,640. But if you remember previous investor lists, you may recall that the market has recovered well enough in many areas of metro Charlotte that tax value can be well below market value. The only way to know this is to research recent comparable sales. The days of using tax value as an indicator of market value are mostly behind us in the Charlotte area.

#3 - 3131363 – 3 or 4 bedroom/ 2 full bath home in very popular Madison Park, near light rail, Uptown, etc. This area is very popular with flippers because it is still possible to buy older homes at fair prices, update them and flip them for a decent profit. ARV on this one should be around $280,000. Listing price is $214,500. (This is the one tied up by wholesalers, as described above. It has recently come back onto the market.)

#4 – 3154067 – 3/2 Fannie Mae REO in zip code 28215. This one also recently came back onto the market. It is priced at $74,900 with a tax value of $85,500.

#5 – 3167433 – 5 Bedroom/5 Full Baths/3 half baths and a total of 8,881 sq.ft. of HLA off Carmel Road in zip code 28226. This REO is priced at $1,456,000 and has a tax value of $2,205,600. I don’t need to say more…

#6 – 3161787 – 3/2 REO in zip code 28213 priced at $114,900 with a tax value of $117,400.

#7 – 3166361 – Older (built in 1976) 4/2 REO with 2,064 sq.ft. in Mint Hill. Listing price is $111,100.

#8 – 3168454 – 4/2.5 HUD REO with 6 days on the market, but this one is available immediately to investors because HUD says it is not FHA insurable. That probably means it is not “habitable” in its current condition and therefore not marketable to owner occupants. It is priced at $110,000 with a tax value of $129,200.

#9 – 3168559 – 3/2 REO on .33 acre lot in Indian Trail. This one is listed at $94,900 and has a tax value of $115,500.

#10 – 3166007 – Built in 1930, this 3/2 REO in Kannapolis is priced at $63,900 and has a tax value of $94,980.

A link to the full MLS reports for all of these homes follows below:

Click the following link to view the Residential:
http://matrix.carolinamls.com/DE.asp?k=331377XSXZH&p=DE-22949451-623

As always, if you have any questions or would like to see any of these or any other properties, please don’t hesitate to contact me.