Out of state investor = Local
I am a remote investor which means I invest in properties, from a market I do not live in. Often times when sending out mailers I will include a message that says something along the lines of ‘I am a local investor, are you interested in selling your house?’. If people look me up they’ll see my mailing address is based in Indianapolis and will call me up to say “RAWWWWRRRR. You’re not local, you’re from Indianapolis!” First off, this is all my fiance’s fault but I digress.
I am local and here’s why.
The diagram below maps out all the people from our last flip that either worked on the property, received money during the transaction, or were directly involved on the project. All of these people are LOCAL and all of their contributions affect the LOCAL market.
There are 52 different people listed on this diagram and that’s even after intentionally leaving off some people. For listed groups such as ‘title company’, ‘water company’, or ‘property manager’ I’m only counting them as 1 ‘person’ even though there are certainly multiple people involved. Assistants, spouses, sales teams, onboarding. Anyone calling the city water department knows they will be passed off to 3 different people. Every single person on this list is benefitting directly from our project. If we left the house untouched, it would sink into the ground and become a pile of sticks. Instead, not only did we completely transform the property for a gracious new family and revitalize the neighborhood but we helped to employ FIFTY-TWO PEOPLE. Everyone on this chart lives, works, and plays locally and I can tell you from personal experience - they are thankful for the local contribution.
You’ll notice there are some repeated positions on here such as ‘Broker’ or ‘Escrow Officer’ but keep in mind we are buying the property and selling it, meaning these are two completely different transactions and people. The buying agent is not necessarily the same as the selling agent. Not included here, but still a beneficiary of the project are national companies and groups. The big box tool companies, software programs, fast food companies, and others who we are associating with daily during the rehab. No matter how you slice it, we’re spending real time and money at these businesses. Is shopping at Walmart ‘buying local’? Sure the profits go straight to the Walton’s but are the people who work there not local? The money they receive locally goes straight into their hands, which goes right back out into the local community.
Taking it a step further, by improving a property we are raising the taxable value which will bring in more tax dollars for the county. Typically property tax dollars go straight to the school systems. So before you cry foul at gentrification, keep in mind the obvious benefits of having more money to spend on better school equipment, teacher salaries, and programs.
Anything times 0 = 0. As long as the dilapidated house sits vacant day after day, taking on water, and slowly becoming worthless it is not benefitting anyone. Our projects are the definition of spreading the wealth in the most positive and grassroots way possible. And when this project was done guess what we did? We took our proceeds and put it right back into another local project. Now we’ve affected 104 people. If you are unconvinced, ask yourself - who and where is really benefiting when an out of state investor buys a house in your neighborhood? The answer is always local.