Find affordable properties through the auctions of private sellers

Tony Richards recently bought four properties in his hometown Montgomery, Alabama. He bought it from an external landlord who did not have the local market knowledge or presence that was needed for real estate management.

All four features are inside disadvantaged neighborhoods As defined by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Moreover, three of them are in the same street. The median family income in the allotment channel around those three properties is $ 28,591. That is 60% below the average family income of $ 70,782 in the larger metropolitan area of ​​Montgomery.

“That would not be for the investor outside the city,” said Richards, who bought the properties through Veiling.com‘s new Smartical program. “But for someone like me who knows the city of Montgomery and the Tri-County area like the back of my hand … I can let it work.”

New marketplace for motivated sellers

That is good news for sellers such as Ricardo Sims, the out-of-state landlord who sold the properties of Montgomery to Richards via Smartsale.

“We had to take back some property where we don’t have large real estate operation, so we didn’t want to keep them,” said Sims, general partner at ConstitutionA real estate financier based in Connecticut who provides Fix-and-Flip and long-term loans to real estate investors. The company sometimes takes properties of real estate when investors notice about their loans “We had 15 single -family home (houses) in Montgomery, Alabama … I do not imagine how I would have sold alone (them). Thank goodness for auction.com. “

Sims was able to sell the properties quickly thanks to the deep and wide pool of buyers who use Auction.com, with his more than 7.4 million registered users. Just like Richards, most Auction.com buyers are local community developers who have a deep knowledge of the markets and submarkets where they buy.

More inventory for boots-on-the ground buyers

Richards started investing in real estate in 2004 and discovered distracting real estate auctions at the end of 2019. His first auction.com was purchased in December of that year.

“We have discovered online auctions and auction.com, and that was the best since cut butter for me,” said Richards, who has bought 15 properties on Auction.com since 2019. “To be honest, I kept that secret because I didn’t want too much competition.”

Prior to the four properties he bought in 2024 via Smartsale, all purchases from Richards’ Auction.com were via online banking property (REO) auctions. Smartsale has offered a new acquisition channel for local community developers such as Richards.

“Very tired landlords,” said Richards, and described some of the motivated sellers who use private selling auctions. According to Richards, these landlords are motivated to sell because they may not have the local resources and infrastructure to properly manage their rental points – in contrast to developers of local community like him.

“We are here with boots on the floor,” he said. “All maintenance problems we are on, not 24 hours later, but today.”

Support for local jobs with “full Renos‘

Together with the fast and premium real estate management that he offers to tenants, Richards is also proud of the extensive and high -quality renovations that he does on newly acquired property, most of which are in bad condition when he buys them.

“These are full renos, which means that the bathroom took off the bathroom, out of the kitchen, new bathroom, new kitchen,” he said about his approach to renovation. “Make everything new, so you don’t have to come back that much.”

Richards said his small company, Renaissance -Feticshas around 20 people full -time and supports more jobs through the network of contractors that he regularly hires for renovations of real estate.

“If you count the contractors … it will be 50-plus,” he said. “We have a team of people who mainly work on our qualities. The majority of their affairs come from Renaissance property. “

Quality, affordable homes

Richards grew up in Montgomery and knows the city and its neighborhoods well. That knowledge, in combination with the locally based resources that his company brings on the table, gives him an advantage of the home field. He is able and willing to buy property that other investors may shun, and he is able to offer high -quality housing to people who may otherwise be unable to afford.

“My niche rents the same ownership of the same quality to someone who may not be able to afford anything else,” he said. “Their only (other) options would be a Slumlord or are unable to rent a period.”

The advantage of the home field also gives Richards the confidence to buy in neighborhoods that could avoid other real estate investors.

“All the books I already read in the day said they are buying a house in a neighborhood where you would not live,” he said, and noticed that he decided to fulfill a few years of that advice in his investment trip. “Only because I would not want to live in a neighborhood does not mean that someone else would not want to live in that neighborhood.”