Posted by Bruce Lawson on June 07, 2002 at 07:45:24:
Hi Carrie,
My wife is from Espanola which is about 40 minutes south of Taos. I have been in contact with one investor from Albquerque later I will email you his name email address and telephone number I do not have it in front of me.
Sincerely,
Bruce Lawson
Anyone in Northern New Mexico? - Posted by Carrie-NM
Posted by Carrie-NM on June 06, 2002 at 18:24:32:
Hello Fellow CREI-ers!
I have just moved from Los Angeles to the small (8k) town of Taos in Northern New Mexico and am looking for folks to network with in the area. I am about 1.5 hours north of Santa Fe, 3 hrs from Abq.
While it’s great to be in a small town for lots of reasons, I am finding it a little disconcerting to start, as LA seemed full of opportunities in all different nooks and crannies (I was just beginning my education when we left the area…) and I know I’ll need to think differently in a smaller town. Fear not, however, as I am actively reading the posts here and searching the archives, but just hoping for some closeby support!
Thanks for any responses and / or input!
Sincerely,
Carrie-NM
Re: Anyone in Northern New Mexico? - Posted by Earl
Posted by Earl on June 07, 2002 at 09:30:56:
I’ve bought and sold both in big towns and small towns before. (In fact I’spent a summer in Taos once. Beautiful place!) Here is just my $0.02 worth:
Do an archive keyword search here for ‘small towns’.
While big towns have more opportunities, small towns may have some unique opportunities. In one small town I spent a lot of time meeting the bank loan officers and met a couple of private lenders who were pretty flexible on lending and terms. More flexible I think than big institutional lenders. For example, one small town lender I knew not only was not strict about his own due on sale clauses in the mortgages he let out but he actively let me work around them as I bought property and then sold it with seller carrybacks. His only request in turn was that I let his people do the escrow services (administration of the payments for a very small fee) I’m sure so he could keep track of what was going on. That certainly seemed reasonable to me. So I bought and sold three properties that way. Also even when a rental market is slow in a small town flipping, lease-options and seller carrybacks may work because you’re likely looking for a buyer who intends to be a long-term resident vs. a short-term tenant.
Although I didn’t do this, I heard of another small-town guy who routinely could get 90% and even 100% financing with good terms from a small-town lender who had fewer rules as to how he operated.
I also think investers tend to think too narrowly about location - they should consider more diversifying by location. I own properties all around the country. Don’t rule out big towns within 2-3 hours (Albuquerque? Colorado Springs?) that you could make a weekend trip to inspect properties and carefully search for GOOD property mgmt and check up on them from time to time. Greater use of the Internet also makes that somewhat easier.
Good luck!