States: North Carolina
Counties: Pitt and Surrounding Counties
Cities and Towns: Greenville, Winterville, Farmville, Ayden, Grifton, Kinston, Washington, and Tarboro
Licensed Since: 2006 | NC License # 238955
My wife and I moved to Greenville, NC in 1978 when I was appointed district manager for Northwestern Mutual. In 2005 I obtained my General Contractors license and in February 2007 I obtained my Real Estate license. In June 2006 I left my insurance career after 31 years and began my construction business as Fleming Builders, LLC. and began building homes in Greenville and Winterville, NC. The recession came in 2007 and fortunately I finished my last home in November 2007 and began selling real estate full time. In 2006 and 2007 I built 12 duplexes but was not able to sell 4 of them so I leased them. In addition, I built an office building in 1984 for my insurance agency and when I left the insurance business in 2006 I started leasing my office building. Because the real estate market was so slow in 2008 many people could not sell there home so I became a property manager and started leasing their homes for them as Fleming Builders, LLC dba Fleming Property Management. I currently managed over 40 properties for others and 5 for myself. Some of the properties I manage are for investors that have purchased the homes for investment purposes and some of the homes I manage are for people that could not sell them for the price they wanted so I manage them for a few years until the market value goes up and their mortgage goes down. Over the years I have renovated a few home for my investors. Some of them we have sold and some of them we continue to own and lease. I offer my clients a wealth of knowledge through of my experience as a contractor, property manager and Realtor.
Greenville, North Carolina has been a great place to own real estate for me and my clients. The city is growing and currently has over 91,000 residents and Pitt county has over 180,000. East Carolina University, the third largest in the state, has over 29,000 students and is located in the middle of Greenville. Pitt Community College has over 20,000 students and is located on the southwestern edge of Greenville in Winterville. Our largest employer is Vidant Health with over 7,000 employees. The university has a medical and dental school and one of the largest schools of allied health in the country. Young people migrate to Greenville for schooling and jobs and older citizens come to Greenville for the health care and entertainment offer by the university. Greenville is only 84 miles east of Raleigh and 91 miles to RDU International airport and our nearest beach is only 85 miles to the south.
The median home price sold in 2020 in Greenville was around 185,00 and currently there are very few home available under 100,000 on the market. An investor in Greenville should have a goal of obtaining 1,000/month gross rent if they buy a home for 100,000 but probably 1,800-1,900 if they invest 200,000. I currently have a few homes valued at over 300,000 but monthly rents are only 1,800-2,300 so your rate of returns goes down when you get a property that cost over 200,000. However, I do not like to own or manage property that rents for less than 1,000/month because it is very difficult to find qualifies tenants. So I would say the ideal residential, investment property in Greenville would be between 100-200k. If you are buying property to flip you need to make sure you know your numbers; how much will it cost, how much will if cost to renovate it and how much can you sell it for when you are finished. I have seen to many people spend to much money and not be able to sell it for what they have invested. However, the downside risk is that you can rent it if you cant sell it for what you want.
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