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In this episode, Tyson Schuetze & Ryan Widener from Auben Realty tell us what we should know about investing in the Augusta GA market. Learn about the particularities of the market, from both the real estate agent and property management perspective. Learn about the return metrics, who you are competing with and what makes this market special.

Augusta Presentation Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kLKtIshCvtPXbDgKKC7neH5zsmU72tT8/view?usp=sharing

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Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The remote real estate investor podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.

Pierre:

Hey Everyone, welcome to the remote real estate investor podcast. Today we have host Tom Schneider and Mark woodling, covering the real estate markets of Augusta, Georgia and South Carolina. Today we brought in two experts Auben Realty’s, Ryan Weidner and company founder Tyson Schuetzy. And they're going to be speaking to us about the markets from a real estate agent and property management perspective. So let's jump into the episode.

 

Tom:

Tyson and Ryan, welcome to the remote real estate investor. Great to have you guys on.

 

Tyson:

Thank you for having us. We appreciate it.

 

Tom:

Yeah, so we got a lot of great stuff to cover today, talking about the market. But let's go ahead and begin let's talk about a little bit about your experience, experience as an investor, as a property manager, as an agent, all that good stuff and how you guys got into it? Sure.

 

Tyson:

Well, I started off in in 2009, originally got into real estate around 2006, I was living in New York City and trying to get into investing there working as an agent. And one of the things I realized was the the market was going to be a tough nut to crack, you know, the minimum sort of cost of entry to get into any rental property was a million dollars. And so I was really struggling trying to figure out how I could become an investor and start investing in real estate.

 

And started actually investing in Syracuse, New York, it was one of the closest markets that I could find where I could find the the yields that I want the cap rates, good cash flow. But it was also a five hour drive further north. And I didn't feel like Syracuse had the best market dynamics in terms of future growth, job growth. It wasn't number one on the radar for where people were moving, you know, when everything I was hearing was about sort of Southeast and southwest migration.

 

So long story short, I had a friend who was a successful apartment complex owner investor in Augusta, Georgia, and offered me the opportunity to come down here and learn underneath him for a couple years. And so I moved down here, didn't know if I was going to be here, you know, a couple months, couple years, and ultimately really sort of fell in love with the market and the potential. And so that was in 2006. And so I was kind of practicing my craft primarily flipping houses initially, because this was the glory days when everybody was a genius. And you could slap a coat of paint on the house and sell for $10,000 more 2008 rolled around, and there was a kind of rude awakening of what we were going to do next. And what I was going to do next.

 

I was fortunate enough that most of my flips, were an entry level price points. And so I was able to transition them into rental properties.

 

Tom:

Did you have that in mind? I'm curious in doing your flips, you know, I've heard that story from a couple of people where you know, the roof falls out from pricing. Did you have that in mind going into like your flip business like that this could transition? Or was it just sort of organic as the the price to sell wasn't there? Okay, I'll hang on to this, I'd love to hear your kind of thought process in, in doing that flip businesses and transitioning.

 

Tyson:

I think ultimately, the mid and long term goal to flip business was always to buy, you know, rental properties, right? That was always kind of the objective was I wanted to create a scenario with passive income streams, right. But starting out, you know, when I didn't have a lot of capital, a lot of the flips, were just going into creating the business doing the next flip. And so it was something that was kind of always on the distant horizon, the market changes kind of forced my hand really, you know, because I had houses that I couldn't sell, or didn't want to sell at, at whatever sort of the market would dictate, you know, the sales price, so ended up holding on to them.

 

And what happened was I tried to use other property management companies in town, and I really was just frustrated with the results. It's It's funny, I've talked to other contemporaries and friends in other markets that add some of this sort of similar experience, but I felt like a lot of it was just kind of placing a sign in the yard and and waiting and so I decided to try managing a couple properties for Have myself really not knowing that much about the process, but just trying to figure it out on my own properties and sort of using my properties is a test case.

 

And we started to have some success. And what happened was, because we were trying to operate with a sort of investors mindset, limiting days on market, a lot of the people that I knew sort of in the community that had been flipping houses, or had been private money, and some of my deals or other deals started gravitating towards us, as more investor friendly property management company. And we just really started growing faster than we could keep up with in the early days, I mean, every year, we were sort of doubling in size. And we went from a property management company into adding in other divisions to ultimately help and get our investors profitable.

 

We had a basic sort of philosophy was, the more money our investors make, the more houses they'll buy, and it just is in everybody's best interest. So whenever we were kind of looking at fees, or ancillary sort of businesses, we were looking at and saying, Okay, how did how can we create a scenario where it's a good revenue stream and profit center for us at Auben, but it's also in the investors best interest. And I think I was very fortunate to be in a position that a lot of owners aren't generally with their companies is that I was both running the company, but also a client simultaneously. And so I could kind of shift the perspective around. I think the other good thing is there weren't a ton of sort of rules as to this is how you have to run a single family property management company, you know, it was that there are a lot of people out there, figuring it out. And there were a lot of places you could go to, for good conversations and dialogue. But the area was also ripe for innovation. You know, there was, there was not like industry standards.

 

And so, you know, as somebody that's sort of imagines himself to always sort of be internally, you know, and externally, and you are always curious, um, you know, I think it was a perfect kind of scenario for us to kind of say, Well, what if we could do this? What if we pivot over here and kind of try this would this be in our owners best interest. And so we did that for a number of years. And then ultimately, where we had our biggest breakthrough was working with some other clients from other markets that were well capitalized that saw the opportunity in Augusta, specifically, that some of the local investors didn’t, right. And so we had some people that were from Chattanooga, from Florida, from California from other markets that really came in.

 

And I think we're able to see that there were just some really good dynamics in the Augusta market, there will be good short term midterm and long term. And so that was really the big catalyst to it was investors that were, you know, savvy investors that invested in multiple markets in different countries, different cities, different states. But, you know, they weren't really used to the single family model. Augusta wasn't really on their radar until we had sort of built up a good relationship, rapport, and trust by showing them and exposing them the market dynamics right.

 

And I think that once they saw how favorable the Augusta market is, and was it really you know, most of the time that the market kind of sold itself right you know, the the opportunities to get the yields that they were getting the opportunities to buy replace below replacement costs that you know previously existed and still do i think is always what you know, has has drawn people to Augusta. It's it's not the most glamorous sexy market, people know it for the masters and really not more than that. But I think that the fact that it's been off the radar a little bit has served itself well to being extremely stable and strong market that still has a tremendous upside. So we've really enjoyed, you know, watching our investors returns over the past 10 or 15 years, and still are extremely bullish that the next 10 or 15 years will look like the previous so…

 

Tom:

Definitely a lot to unpack there. And I love the story, the the founder story where you're basically solving your own problem and realizing Wow, a lot of other people have this problem. And the other thing I like about it is You know, very specific to the remote investor. You know, you're on that super early in New York not seeing the type of yields that you want testing out in Syracuse, realizing just all the tail winds down for the southeast. There's a book we talked about an economist, John Burns, he wrote a book called Big shifts ahead, and it just talks about all the tail winds for the southeast. And the Augusta is a really great market that encapsulates a lot of those benefits of lower cost of living, and all of that good stuff.

 

We'll get into more details about the Augusta market in a minute. But let's hear a little bit. Let's hear a bit a little bit from Ryan.

 

Ryan:

Well, I'm born and raised here in Augusta, Georgia, and my father has been in real estate forever. And I, I was in Las Vegas in 2002. My father got real busy in the REI business. And I remember getting that call of son, can you leave Las Vegas and come help me in real estate? If it wasn't my first happiest moment in real estate.

 

Tom:

Was that always a family business? Well, previously, we had a hunting and fishing store growing up and then my father got into real estate. When I was maybe 15 years old. Like I said, he started a big Rei business, bank foreclosures. And, you know, they entail a lot of paperwork with a lot of detail. And that's when he when he called me and asked me to come back and help out in real estate.

 

Tyson:

The Windeners are well known for if you're looking for investment property, you went to Ryan's dad, and then now Ryan. So you know, it's one of those things, I think that the knowledge was there, through, you know, helping helping dads. Right. We got

 

Mark:

So how was the transition from the aureo market in Las Vegas to the aureo market in Augusta back then?

 

Ryan:

A lot more. That's for sure. That and that was that was one reason, just looking at the numbers and knowing the numbers back home and what I was looking at in the Las Vegas market, which at that time was the fastest growing city in the United States. And, you know, just really got to where if you didn't get in early there, then you weren't getting in. And I think again, back to what Tyson said earlier that Augusta not being the big glamorous city has made our market attainable, especially for out of state buyers. But I'm even here locally, with investors as well.

 

Mark:

So Tom, real quick. So the reason why we reached out to Tyson and Ryan to join the certified agent network was because Tyson had a name in the industry that Matt Thomas who works on the certified agent team. He knew he had heard of Tyson, he said, Hey, if there's somebody you need to talk to in Augusta that's growing their business significantly, and really an emerging company. He's a guy you need to talk to. So I talked to Tyson, he said, Listen, we have a growing business, but we're willing to grow more.

 

So not only did he bring on Ryan as the certified agent, but they became one of our preferred property managers. So I mean, they're doing a lot of business with us right now because as we've always seen in Augusta, it's just it's got that great price point. You know, there's there's a nice variety of homes because there are some beautiful homes near the Masters or Augusta National, all the way to, you know, C class areas that still have amazing returns for the right price point.

 

So it was great because Roofstock had done a lot of business and in Augusta already, but we were doing it was a different price point. So it's nice to bring in these properties are coming from MLS because it gives buyers a variety of different property types that they can really, you know, pick and choose and see the different return types. So anyways, that's a little backstory, from our perspective of how Tyson and Ryan came on board in so far. I think Ryan's closed well over 10 properties just in the last few months, and probably is on averaging about five closings a month at this point.

 

Tyson:

We got six under contract over the weekend. So those numbers are going up.

 

Mark:

I'd like to hear it

 

Tom:

For sure. The last question that I have about your guys's background before we start jumping into the market specifically is how did you guys get in touch to partner up?

 

Tyson:

So you know, I guess as a smaller community in terms of, you know, the especially the investors and and Ryan and I had known each other for a while we actually had some institutional experience working with a hedge fund based out of Charleston, in different capacities there. But I think ultimately when when Mark approached me with the opportunity, I wanted to make sure we had the right agent for this. And so I went and approached Ryan about specifically working on this book of business because I knew Ryan, you know, being an investor himself being an Augusta native, having worked with clients from other remote markets previously, you know, it would just be a sort of natural fit.

 

So I think ultimately, you know, that was a really good sort of connection or reconnection and we're able to make is, Ryan happened to be in a position where he was looking to make a change. And this opportunity came along at the right time, where we were able to put that together. And then ultimately, my goal, you know, with Ryan and the Roofstock buyers is then to ensure that the rest of our team is there to support the asset just so we can continue our philosophy of ensuring that the assets perform well, which lead the clients to purchase more so you know, but Ryan and I had some mutual friends, we've worked together on different deals, you know, we've worked together in different capacities, I did done deals with his father, so there was a there trust in history there too, you know, as far as knowing that he would be a good fit for this role. And I think he's really come in and excelled from day one, you know, and I think is the fact that he is an investor and he's seen the different market cycles and Augusta, I think the most exciting thing is right now, Augusta seems like it's really turning the corner.

 

You know, it's always kind of been slow and steady. But there's there's been a lot of sort of momentum with, with jobs, with investments with the revitalization of downtown, etc. That, I think, you know, causes us to be even more optimistic about the future.

 

Tom:

Perfect transition. And you know, I love that business model. You know, you make customers happy, they're going to come back and bring more business, perfect transition on the economy. So you know, as you said, everybody knows, in April, Jim Nance and all the golfers come in to Augusta. And what's happening economy wise, outside of those those few weekends in April, who are the big players? What's the big industry, let's learn about that.

 

Ryan:

Well, just recently with Amazon has come into our market, they just opened up a second building 270,000 square foot building in Appling, Georgia, which is close to Augusta, we've got five major hospitals here in Augusta. We have the medical and the dental school of Georgia here. So we have a lot of college kids, we we have the Savannah River site, and a Fort Gordon is here. And they just their Cyber Command Center that they're opening is bringing in roughly 30,000 people to Augusta over the next couple of years. So we really have a revolving market here, we've got a lot of people coming and going. And that's always good for real estate.

 

Tyson:

One of the, you know, for Gordon's always, I think been the kind of anchor here is as being the military base. And I think one of the concerns in the past was, what if the base would ever close what kind of impact that would have on a gust what we've seen over the past five or 10 years is Fort Gordon's really become the center of sort of cyber security, right. And in addition to the military presence there, there's been a large presence with the NSA, the National Security Agency has moved a bunch of their jobs and positions down here from Maryland and other parts of the country. And then also, we're seeing what happens sometimes, you know, when a automotive plant comes and puts their sort of flag down, you get all of these other satellite businesses around to support it.

 

We're seeing as Augusta becomes more and more of a Cyber Intelligence, you know, community and area with for Gordon, in the NSA, we're seeing a bunch of cyber startups, and we're seeing other tech companies that are coming in that are totally private sector organizations, but are coming here because there's a high quality of living, there's a good workforce, and there's a good sort of knowledge base and understanding about cutting edge technologies that are relevant there. So we're seeing more and more of that.

 

There's a new college downtown that's focused on, you know, educating the future of sort of cyber school, you know, so I think that, to me, also bodes really well for the future. You know, it's not just a military base that's likely to ramp up or scale down, in times a conflict, you know, intelligence, security, all those things are pretty much permanent things, regardless of the administration regardless is kind of what's going on globally, that will always be sort of a presence in need there. And I think that sort of a, you know, understanding is given people even more confidence in the market.

 

Tom:

That's great. Diversity is is really such a special thing that you know, when picking a market and going through military specifically, kind of future related military and cyber healthcare manufacturing with Amazon and distribution, education college. Amazing.

 

Next question just kind of market related. And this is something that probably is a little bit easier to look at home looking on Google Maps is how would you designate the different kind of pockets? If you were to look at a high level map? I see. You have 520, sort of the freeway circling around the city. If you had to kind of identify four or five kind of major pockets within the city, and what type of returns kind of at a very high level, would you mind kind of walking through some just general pockets within the city as someone's looking at investing?

 

Tyson:

I'll let our expert take this here. The route is roofstock, certified as speak to this better than anybody? Yeah.

 

Ryan:

Well, what I found recently, we were developing some new pockets in Augusta, as well as our traditional pockets. Columbia County for instances is growing drastically. A lot of the military people coming in and out are focused on Columbia County, I believe due to the good school rating systems and and Roofstock points that out it steering them a little more towards Columbia County with the newer homes and in those sentences. So we've Columbia County has been been kind of the top Roofstock market we we also have in Richmond County. We have what we call the Somerville, the hill area, some of the older more prestigious homes. And we're finding that with the market being a little limited lately, as far as listings, we're finding the prices have gone up, but the rents have gone up as well. So we're kind of balanced there.

 

And then we have some of our you know, I would say lower price range homes in South Augusta. We've just seen a tremendous growth in in the rest coming in. said we've really had a balanced market everywhere right now.

 

Tyson:

Yeah. And we're in the process of also turning on there's a there's a nother pocket in the gussto market the if you go beyond just the city of Augusta, the MSA of North Augusta, Aiken, just on the other side of the river in South Carolina, that we manage and interactive with, there's some great pockets over there as well. And then there's been some new industries that are are already there in the process there there's a couple more sort of manufacturing and facilities over on that side of the river. And it's literally Augusta is is divided from the Georgia and South Carolina side by the Savannah River. And so it's a, you know, five minute drive from downtown Augusta. So you'll have a lot of people that live in the South Carolina side but work in Augusta or vice versa.

 

And Generac, which is a a home generator company is opening a large facility over there. Firestone has a large facility over there. So there's, there's a lot of industry there and continues to come there a part of that is, is South Carolina is very business friendly, and is offering some some very attractive tax incentives to some of these larger corporations to bring them down. And then the employers like it, because, you know, they their employees gonna have a high quality of life with the wages that they're they're able to earn here, based on the lower cost of living.

 

You know, this whole area, compared to cities of its size nationally has a much lower cost of living, which is also driving a lot of the growth as well. And and retirees, we're getting people that you know, are are bypassing Florida or not making it all the way down to Florida and stopping in markets like Augusta because their money can go a lot further.

 

Tom:

It's cool being a border state city where you can kind of, you know, the best, most more business friendly, more, you know, living friendly, it's and just to kind of give some context people that are listening Columbia County that is in the West kind of North area. And I say I'm looking at my Google Maps just making sure that's right. When you were talking about that area, and Richmond County is a little bit further south of kind of central.

 

A question about the property management size. Where do you where which areas you guys manage the most amount of properties is it up on the south carolina side to the north or to the south? I'd love to hear where the majority of the inventory that you guys manage as rental properties.

 

Tyson:

So historically, I think that most of the investment opportunities were in Richmond. County, Richmond County, which includes South Augusta west Augusta, downtown central Augusta, you know, had some higher yields there, and homes that were more in need of repair and renovation. Larger you know renovations for people that were looking to sort of build in some sweat equity. What we're seeing more and more are is what Ryan alluded to earlier. Columbia County has a lot newer builds, right. And we're seeing people that want to come in and have an asset that's producing a return from day one goes straight to Columbia County and not look at Richmond County.

 

Also, Columbia County, there's a couple areas there that have some of the best and highest rated schools in the entire state of Georgia. And so, you know, there are a lot of people are migrating straight to that area.

 

Also, what we alluded to earlier with the military, with the medical communities, a lot of these jobs can be somewhat transient, and people will be here, they may be here for a couple years, but they don't necessarily want to buy, but they want a really nice home in a nice area. We want their kids to go to a good school, that's just continuing to drive the rental demand and Ryan was referencing earlier, the prices are rising in those areas. But the rents are rising in tandem with that.

 

And then when we talk about the prices rising, it's still at a responsible rate, that we're not concerned that there's going to be any major sort of crash at any point, even when, you know, we had the 2008. crash. Augusta, you know, had always been steady state. And so when the correction occurred, it wasn't like falling off a cliff, like some of these other markets, because it just been much more moderate growth. Right. And, and so I think that, you know, if an investor's coming in here with a long term perspective, I think that adds to sort of the confidence of the market dynamics.

 

Tom:

That's great.

 

Mark:

Hey, Tom, and let me sneak in real quick. So we are just about to open up in Aiken, South Carolina, or, you know, the town of as I always get confused, North Augusta but South Carolina, right. So that'll help you remember it, but we're getting the data feed there. So soon enough, Ryan will be underwriting properties and posting them to roof stock for the roof stock select properties. So get ready. So by the time the podcast comes out, we should be live with new properties in that market.

 

Ryan:

We're really looking forward to the Aiken county market, North Augusta, Aiken, Greenville. These are a lot of kind of, I don't want to say untouched pockets, but I think there's going to be a really big boom over there.

 

Tyson:

Yeah, and, and Tom, you'd referenced it earlier, but 520 got expanded in further over on the south carolina side that is allowed, you know, transit to be easier for people to commute to work on all parts of Georgia. So we're getting people that may work in a most western part of the Augusta market out in Columbia County, but live in Aiken. And I think that's a lot more feasible with some of the expansion that's gone on at 520. So and to Ryan's point, I think there's there's some areas a little bit off the radar over there where there's tremendous value in returns for our, for our Roofstock, clients.

 

Tom:

I love that in areas that haven't been as invested in is heavily it's, you know, there's just that much more opportunity. And that's, that's great to hear of that opening up.

 

I'd love to hear you know, kind of splitting on the the two different markets there in North Augusta which is on the south carolina versus the Georgia side. As an investor you know, what are your considerations between investing in Augusta on the south carolina side versus the Georgia size be property taxes is actually an interesting one, you know, between the two.

 

Ryan:

A little higher over on the south carolina side you'll find South Carolina and in putting a lot of money into their downtown, mid north and guest they've got the new baseball field there the green jackets baseball field a lot of new restaurants.

 

Tom:

Is that a triple A team or a double A team? The green jackets sure AAA changes a couple of it.

 

Tyson:

At one point I think it was single a for the San Francisco Giants now it's with the Atlanta Braves and I think it's single a and I believe it I think it's single A.

 

Tom:

I was just traveling with some friends and went to a minor league ballgame and man those things are just so fun. You know just right on top of the guys it's the best sorry Go ahead. Go ahead. I interrupted

 

Tyson:

The park is right on the river and it's it's it's beautiful setting to watch a game you're right on the field. Linux right in downtown. And as Ryan was saying, There's bars and restaurants around it. So it's been a big boost to North Augusta. One of the things about the South Carolina taxes is, there's different areas over there where if you're in the city limits, there can be a city tax, in addition to the you county tax, where if you go outside of the city limits, you can benefit that, you know, you won't have to pay that city tax.

 

But generally, you know, we look at all that within relation to the rents, there can be some pockets over there where there's some higher rent rates, because of just desirability to live over there. And there being less houses in general, on that side of the river.

 

From a property management perspective, Georgia has a little bit more friendly landlord, legislation. Georgia is one of the most landlord friendly states in the country, maybe the only state that's more friendly than Texas. You know, that's not surprising, because it's Texas. But South Carolina has friendly landlord legislation, but Georgia's really very favorable.

 

But you know, I think what I would tell you one of the cool things about Augusta is you have the ability to get some diversification even within the Augusta market. And I know quite a few people, myself included, that will have investments in each of these little markets with slightly different nuances. You may get a more, you know, a higher yield in Richmond County, more appreciation in Columbia County, and a balance of sort of the two in in Aiken. You know, it's kind of how I…

 

Ryan:

Yeah, I agree with that. Something like that.

 

Mark:

Yeah. And I think that's really useful, because our buyers are going to come in and look at the market and that level of detail right there where they get a choice between two different states, whether it's taxes, landlord, friendliness, the school, yeah, schools, I think that's so important in the unincorporated part, I think that's an interesting strategy where people do like a little more land these days. So, you know, as long as it's in a good school district, it's a little bit on the outskirts. I always think that's a great play. But my question for you guys, is we could talk about the rosy picture. But what are some of the common issues that you fall into that, you know, you see from the property management side, especially, you know, what do our buyers need to know about, you know, whether you see foundation issues, or there's just, you know, there's maybe, you know, unstable grounds, like the soil types are just interesting. Yeah, give us a little update on, you know, what you're seeing out there that are common for investing?

 

Ryan:

What's been easy with, with Roofstock is the, the inspections are very thorough, and it really outlines you know, during the purchase process, we're doing, you know, a lot of amendments to address concerns, we're putting some of these issues back on the cellar, due to the extensive inspections we're getting, which kind of heads off a lot of the problems.

 

Also, with property management here, and you take that, but it's really easy. And I've directed all my buyers to, you know, a lot of a lot of investors will want to, you know, try to find a contractor that may not, you know, maybe a little less expensive, but kind of cut the corners as to where we have a Roofstock inspection, and we have our own property management team. That is a very thorough inspection from the start. That kind of heads off a lot of the problems that can happen down the road. You know, roof leaks, busted pipes, things like that. Are the buyers are aware of everything from the start.

 

Tyson:

Yeah. And I think as far as the Augusta market, you know, you do have an older housing stock here. Right. So you just need to be aware in some of these neighborhoods, you know, especially some of these in Central West Augusta. You know, the Somerville area that Ryan alluded to earlier, you have houses that are 100 years old, right. And so making sure that the mechanical systems are good and strong.

 

We have some pockets where we can have some foundation issues, but yeah, Augusta most of the ground running, it's a it's a hard red clay. So assuming it was put in correctly, generally, there's not as many issues there. You know, we have the typical sort of southeastern market issues with high humidity, you know, ability for moisture content, if not managed appropriately. The HVAC units are going to run constantly from April to October so they better be functioning or, you know, it'll it'll definitely affect the tenant satisfaction, but I think in general, you know, Augusta has A lot of brick houses here that are well built, you know, a lot of houses on slab, the crawl spaces, you know, you do have to be mindful of the fact that, you know, it's very common to see houses that had previous termite infestation. I'm not sure I've ever bought a house that didn't have previous termite infestation, but you just want to make sure it doesn't have active infestation.

 

And so, you know, I think there's some some things there. The market continues to be extremely strong on the rental side. And one thing is because Augusta has always been off the radar. You know, we didn't have the major builders coming back in after the last collapse, you know, there, there weren't the major national builders, you know, we're bypassing Augusta and going to some of the markets that were close by Atlanta, Charlotte, you know, Greenville, Charleston, you know.

 

Augusta is within a couple of hours of a bunch of major markets that I think have always sort of overshadowed it. It's good for, you know, people that want to travel and go these other markets. But I think it's also kept the housing inventory from being a little bit always behind no matter sort of where the market cycle is. And so, yeah, the houses that Ryan's clients are buying through Roofstock, we're pushing rental rates, you know, we are pushing really top of the market. And we're still seeing extreme demand multiple, you know, approved application short days on market, and think that that will continue.

 

You know, I think that also we'll see how it plays out. But if there is more willingness for people to work remotely, Augusta has the ability to sort of siphon off people from a lot of the markets where people were having to go to Atlanta to get a good job, right, or having to live and work in Atlanta. And Augusta can provide a much better quality life, lower commute time, lower traffic time, to a lot of those neighboring markets that I think could could help as well. We'll just have to see how that sort of plays out.

 

Mark:

What about competition? I think that's what buyers want to know, who am I competing against? Are their ibuyers at a national level, like the Zillow is a red fins open door offer pad in your market? Or do you think there's a good number of institutional appetite out there? What do you see from that level?

 

Ryan:

We deal with it a little bit. I mean, we, you know, the hedge funds are coming in everywhere, but my Roofstock clients wanting the better schools and you know, the properties that are under $5,000 in repairs, so we're at a little higher price point than in a lot of the competition. So we are competing with some home buyers, you know, our offers are anywhere from, you know, three to 6% over list price. We're using some escalation clauses things like that to help protect, you know, my buyers but I think with the kind of turnkey homes that we're looking for, we do bypass a lot of that a lot of the new institutional buyers coming in.

 

Tyson:

I think also Mark here we benefited from a gust always you know, being off the radar a little bit that a lot of those funds went to Charlotte, Atlanta but didn't come to Augusta and and Alban's footprint, we're in other markets beyond Augusta, we're in Chattanooga, we're in Columbia, we're in the process of opening up Charleston, is we've always focused on secondary and tertiary markets, where we feel there's the best mix of existing cash flow and potential future appreciation, right. And we still feel all of these markets in the southeast, particularly the secondary and tertiary markets have those sort of dynamics of both a solid return right now, it's not speculative, but a good upside given, you know, future growth potential. And so I think that some of the funds are recognizing that and there are some here but I think there's funds in every market. From my understanding, talking to people in other markets, our institutional presence isn't nearly as large as some of our neighboring cities.

 

Mark:

And I echo that strategy is that that's something we're really trying to do is open it up in more secondary tertiary markets because we do notice the Atlanta's the Charlotte's, those major markets have so much competition. So you know, you may have a multiple offer scenario that has two or three offers versus a market like Atlanta where there are 10 20 30 plus property or offers coming in. So I do like that we give our buyers is a better chance in these markets for just as quality of inventory, maybe not as huge of an economy but still a very, a very stable economy where people typically stay for a long period of time, maybe not with the, you know, the the military base, but I think they're just more stable areas where they're truly communities for families. And, you know, people are going to stay there for a long time.

 

Tyson:

It's worth noting to mark that we're getting a lot of military, you know, people that come here and like the market so much that they're buying here, knowing that they're going to travel more, and then come you renting an out for a while and coming back and living here. So we've seen that quite a bit. We have quite a few clients that that's been the case, you know, they, they liked the market, they liked the investment, they know they're gonna leave, they'll run it out for a couple years, and then come back and live in.

 

Tom:

It's a great transition. We've got just got a few more minutes on today, but I feel like this episode could keep going for a long time on people, you know, coming back to the market, like what, as what's the draw in living here? You know, we talked about the green jackets, the AA game, you sit on the river, what's the other kind of like, you know, fun things to do in town, if I was to come come into Augusta and check it out.

 

Ryan:

I think I think the main draws the low cost of living, draws people back. You don't have I think our crime rates are a lot lower than a lot of the big cities. And we just we have a lot of new growth. You know, Top golf just showed up. Dave and Busters, you know, we just have a lot of a lot of new growth and a lot of new companies coming here.

 

Tyson:

I think also there's a you know, in addition to low cost of living, it's a high quality of life and what it mean more specifically by that, you know, we're on the Savannah River, there's a lot of activities there from boating, kayaking, canoeing, you know, there's, there's several lakes close by that people spend a lot of time at going out to lakes on the weekend, there's a good trail and park system with some greenways good running past biking trails, there's some good mountain biking trails here. You know, given its proximity to some of the larger markets, we're also able to draw off that in some positive ways, we'll see we'll get you know, musical artists that prior to real estate, I was in the music business and we get artists that are stopping by on a Wednesday or Thursday on a way to playing a Friday or Saturday show in Charlotte or Atlanta.

 

So, you know, there's a good arts community scene here as well. The downtown is experiencing a good bit of revitalization. You're seeing a lot of people coming down there and starting new businesses and really building in some community there. And I think that it's a it's an exciting time to be here. You know, I think that the biggest part I think is also you get some of the benefits of living in a larger city without some of the hassles or headaches.

 

You know, there's there's not major commute times traffic at its worst is very moderate and very manageable. Yeah, I moved away from Augusta in 2014 to Charleston and I think it It took… I love Charleston but it also made me appreciate a lot of things even more about a gusta you know and i think that there's a lot of new people here and new energy with people that are growing up in Augusta and electing not to leave and and shaping Augusta into what they would sort of like it to be you know, there's several theaters that have opened downtown new music venues. You know, lots of really exciting things I think going on.

 

Tom:

Love it. So my last question for today and I'll let Mark close if he has any any final ones is okay, so you have to and I want you guys both answer this questions that both answers question so there's two restaurants you're going to you're only in town for two days. One of the restaurants is oh man I need something you know kind of greasy I want something you know I want to get whatever my fingers dirty whatever. And the other one is fancy date night so two places to go eat at and Augusta putting putting you on the spot here.

 

Ryan:

Well, I would for the for the fancy fun dining. I would probably be downtown I'm Frog Hollow. Yeah, just fine dining great food. Little on the higher price point but you get what you pay for definitely.  And the Downham gritty meal would probably be the Waffle House. I know me at Waffle House.

 

Tom:

I know me a waffle house. Ilived in North Alabama for you know, eight months or so. So yeah, I love it.

 

Ryan:

That's right open any hour so…

 

Tyson:

Uh, yeah, I think I could I could name several here cuz I definitely liked dining out and whenever I come to town I Dine Out consistently Frog Hollow is phenomenal place. There's a there's an area of town called Suri center that has a variety of kind of, you know, different places, there's a place Italian place there is great called Olivia's. There's a, it's far as the down and dirty or budget friendly, I'm going to go off script and give three different spots because I can't can't limited to one.

 

Tom:

Sure.

 

Tyson:

But there's a phenomenal Korean place called Happy house that's got excellent Korean food. And then there's a famous or infamous burger center called sports center that is, is not to be missed. I mean, it's one of those places where they've been using the probably same burger grease for 50 60 years. And when you leave there, you'll smell like what you ate for the rest of the day. But it's well worth it.

 

And then my all time favorite is a little German deli place called Hilderbrands, it's been around for 100 years, that's probably it's a, it's an older woman that's been running the place forever. And it's you know, it sandwiches, but it's just, it's a it's a time warp, it's going back in history and seeing a sort of 100 year old deli. But you know, I could also name a couple more, but I already went well over my allotted, you know, requests.

 

Mark:

We'll have to add some more to the show notes. But just to make sure if anybody does come in town, they have the full map. But just on that note, you know, you guys did put a great presentation together. And we'll make that available for all the listeners in the show notes. So thanks. Thanks for doing that. But also my my last bit of advice, One question is buyers should make sure to go to the Augusta, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, learn about what's new, what's changing in the area, there's always good information there. So these gentlemen have provided us with some excellent information. So use them as the the local news and knowledge, you know, whenever it comes to real estate investing, but yeah, thank you guys for doing this.

 

My question is, if there's one thing that Ryan could tell buyers, that is just the most important one little nugget of information before investing in your market, what would that be Ryan?

 

Ryan:

I would say right now the most important thing is list price really isn't getting your offer. Just know that just like everywhere else right now where we are fighting for our contracts. And I would say probably being 3 to 5% above offer price. And, again, I've been using the escalation clause to help protect not overpaying. But you know, if you're doing all your homework and going through and clicking that button, that's the most important piece I could do right now.

 

Tyson:

And I would just add that, you know, as far as investing or being willing to sort of go over list price, I think we've had the benefit of being in market for you know, 15-20 years, we've seen what the Augusta market has done historically, I think and how it's written out recessions, corrections downturns, which you know, I think long term if you're an investor long term, the market is so fundamentally sort of sound and stable that it's it's just an excellent market. You know.

 

I invest in multiple markets that Auben is in and as a presence but the Augusta market is by far my favorite right and last piece of advice would be if you are coming to town and choose to try to come to town or on masters week, plan ahead. Whether you're going to those restaurants or trying to book a hotel, it's it's a different animal that time of year to be sure. all bets are off as far as getting in anywhere at any reasonable price. But there's plenty of other times that are good to come to a guest as well.

 

Tom:

for another episode, the vacation rental.

 

Ryan:

And to piggyback on that I just like to add if you're gonna spend say, a million dollars here in Augusta then $350 on a plane ticket. Yeah, come come look at the market. Let me let me show you what, what we're doing here and how things are just to give you a little better peace of mind of where you're putting your money.

 

Tyson:

We'd be happy to host anybody here we enjoy. meeting our owners face to face is definitely not a requirement. But you know, I feel it can be really good for continuing to build trust and relationships. So we're always open to doing that and we've got some furnished rental properties we keep open for our clients to come stay in too.

 

Tom:

That will lead to good good final final question is what's the best way to get in touch with you guys wanted to take you up on that offer?

 

Ryan:

I can be reached 702239 4900 email is RWeidner@Aubenrealty.com.

 

Tyson:

Emails the best for me and I can be reached at Tyson@Aubenrealty.com. I'm less involved in the day to day operation to this stuff. We've got a big team that helps that, but I'm very passionate about helping investors with, you know, their investing journey. And if there's anything that you know, would be helpful with that and be happy to discuss at any point,

 

Tom:

Awesome. I feel I think there's definitely another episode with you guys on this wonderful investor journey presentation that you guys shared a little bit earlier that we'll add in the show notes, but I think it will result in another episode that we'll put out so Tyson and Ryan, thank you so much for coming on.

 

Tyson:

Thank you guys.

 

Pierre

Well, that's our episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Thanks to Ryan and Tyson for joining us today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Happy investing.