Double R Flo-Town

Property Management, Passive Income & Florence’s Future

• Robert Thomas & Reeves Cannon • Season 1 • Episode 12

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In this episode of Double R Flowtown, Robert and Reeves sit down with Chris Langmo, founder and head of Riverland Property Management, to talk about Florence’s booming real estate market, what makes a great property manager, and how to actually make money in rentals — without losing your mind.

They dig into:
🏠 Why Florence, SC is a hidden gem for investors
💼 The difference between Greystone Properties & Riverland Property Management
💰 Whether it’s worth owning 1–2 rental properties (spoiler: it depends)
📈 How good management saves owners time, money, and sanity
🌆 The next wave of growth coming to downtown Florence

The team also talks about Florence’s culture, why locals should appreciate what’s happening here, and how a few risk-takers are shaping the city’s next chapter.

🎧 Like, share, and subscribe for more honest, local conversations about business, growth, and real estate in the Pee Dee.

Robert:

All right, double R, episode number 12. We're not announcing the episode numbers anymore.

Reeves:

Yeah, no more numbers because after 12, it's kind of like a baby. The first 12 months. Why are you laughing, Chris? I'm just doing that. We haven't even introduced it. I'm sorry, do your thing. Anyway, after episode 12, no more episode numbers. But yeah, this is episode 12. Who do we have?

Robert:

So I'm glad that happened because that is normal office day right there. We've got our main man, Chris Langmo. He's in the office with us every day. He's our buddy, he's our business partner. We have started Riverland property management. Chris Langmoe's the head honcho, and we wanted to talk about that today.

Reeves:

So this is cool, Robert. Like you said, Riverland property management. It's it's not Greystone properties. Greystone properties, we help people buy, sell real estate. We help builders develop property. Riverland property management is the property management side of this. And Chris, you've been with us what, four or five months now? And yeah, probably about five. You really have a vision for building a property management company. And so we you've come in and you're helping us with that.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a I think there's just a real need for it in Florence, to be honest. I mean, just a high quality, you know, property manager in Florence is just really needed. And, you know, the biggest thing is obviously getting the most amount of money for the investor, you know, possible. But, you know, there's a balance because screening is super important. I mean, there's a lot of moving parts to it. So there's a balance for sure. But, you know, I'm really excited. I mean, I think it's gonna be gonna be great. And it flows well with everything you guys are already doing, you know, with the home sales and with land and with everything else. I mean, I think it really flows well.

Robert:

I think what sets us apart though is Chris is full-time focused on property management. And that's what it takes to be great. You can't do sales, this, and five other things. If you're gonna be the best at property management, that is your full focus. And Chris is totally focused on that.

Reeves:

Well, and that's really the objective we have with Riverland property management is we want to be the best property management company in the PD and really take it beyond that after we fine-tune the systems here in the PD. And so, what do you think, Chris, sets a property management company apart? And what can we do as Riverland property management to do that?

Chris:

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is just taking as much pressure off of the property owner as possible. You know, and that's handling, you know, the tenant screening, that's handling collecting the rent, collecting late fees, you know, running the background checks, I mean, making the sure the utilities are switched over, really just taking as much pressure off of them as possible. You know, because doing it, you can do it yourself. I'm not gonna lie. If you have just one to two properties, but it's gonna be a headache if you don't take it serious and it's not your full-time project.

Robert:

What did I send y'all this morning about having one or two properties?

Reeves:

Yeah, that was an interesting tweet.

Robert:

So it was not worth it, guys. I don't think it's worth it to have one or two. What do y'all think?

Reeves:

But you've got to start somewhere, yeah.

Robert:

But yeah, but don't start planning on just having two, I don't think. And and think you're gonna retire off of it or even supplement much.

Reeves:

And what do you think?

Chris:

I mean, I was just saying, I I think it's great to have one or two because, like you said, you got to start somewhere, but at the same time, you just can't treat it like a hobby. If you treat it like a business from day one and you said, you know, these are the rules, these are, you know, the requirements I'm sticking to for a tenant, you know, this is what I'm holding them responsible for, you know, I think that takes a lot of the stress off of it. But if you're just shooting from the hip, not knowing what you're doing, that's a very different situation, you know.

Reeves:

Well, and I think back to all three of us have have rental properties, we own properties, and and I think we all each have different visions for what we want those rental properties to accomplish. And so when me and my business partner, Colin Smith started buying property in 2014, the vision we had was we wanted these properties to pay for our kids' college education. We've now got two kids in college education.

Robert:

Isn't it doing it?

Reeves:

It's doing it.

Robert:

That's awesome.

Reeves:

It's doing it. We started in 2014, we bought two properties on Waverly, one for $28,000, one for $42,000. We sold those for double what we bought them for. We've kept it going. We own up, I don't know, eight, 10 properties now. So not a lot, but it is a lot to somebody who doesn't have any and who's looking to get one. But the vision was can this one day pay for our kids' college? I think for you, you've got an even bigger vision for what you want your portfolio to look like.

Chris:

Yeah, I do. And I mean, just coming back to, you know, you say only eight or only two or only one. People, you know, property managers talking about, oh, I have this many doors, I have this many doors. That almost means nothing because it's about the quality of the property. Yeah. I mean, and the quality of the deal you get. I mean, if you're well over the 1% rule and only have a couple deals and a lot of equity, that's a lot more money coming in than, yeah, say I'm leveraged like crazy at 90% debt and have a bunch of luxury properties that aren't cash flow. And well, yeah, you may have 20 doors, but that doesn't mean you're building well.

Reeves:

So it's interesting. I've run the numbers. Would I rather own three properties that have no debt on them, or would I rather own 10 that are leveraged at 90%? I'm gonna make more money on owning three properties than the 10. Yeah, yeah. That's what you're talking about.

Robert:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then it all goes back to managing them right. Yeah. Because you get that one bad tenant and it screws up, I would say at least two years, maybe three, to kind of recover from that by the time you get them out, fix it up, put it back on the market. That's why when you say screening, so important.

Chris:

Yeah, and I mean making sure they have the right renter's insurance, naming, you know, the property management company and the owner on the policy, you know, and like you said, one tenant can do a lot of damage to a property. It doesn't take long. I mean, one bag tenant to get an infestation or get holes in the wall or a smell you can't get out of the walls. I mean, it's that's the most important thing, I think, when it comes to property management. Yeah.

Reeves:

Well, and I think the other thing with that, having someone who, you know, has had a just a couple of properties, using the property manager and the leverage that you as a property manager have with the repair, you know, contractors that we have to have, whether it's plumber, HVAC, handyman, you know, any of those number of people that you have to have to fix items that break in a home, you have those contacts and you can leverage those people in a much better way than the mom and pop who have one or two properties and they're managing it themselves.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. That's just another advantage to it. I mean, and just like you said, we just have the role that really Robert and you do have the role decks of even more people than me on being able to get things done at a fair and reasonable price. To where, you know, if you call a plumber to replace his toilet, there's some people who they don't know if they're getting ripped off or not. You know, they just don't, versus, you know, we work with the same guys over and over. You know, it's a safe bet. We know it's a fair, reasonable price. Yeah, you know. You know what I love? I love that.

Robert:

I kind of want to back it up a second. All right. We're all in the office. You know, our office, we're all in there together. It's one big room. And I can't tell you the synergy that comes from that. You know, we're kicking stuff around, or Chris is like, what do we need to do with this? Or Chris, let's, you know, well, I had a listing this week that the the seller was on the fence of do I sell this or do I keep it and rent it because he has a really low interest rate. And I love knowing that we can kick it either way, you know? We can. Hey, man, I encouraged him to look at renting it pretty hard. I'm like, if you got two and a quarter interest rate, if your numbers work and you can still buy that other home, keep that baby.

Reeves:

That is that is a really, you know, just having all types of conversations in the office. I walked in Monday after an eight o'clock out and eight o'clock coffee meeting, came in at nine o'clock. You guys were there with your dad, who we love having Bobby in the office, a wealth of wisdom, experience. He always kind of keeps our feet to the to the ground, so to speak. But we were sharing kind of our weekend thoughts, big picture thoughts. You had a big picture weekend thought about people. Florence is still an attractive place for people to come.

Robert:

As we're going into winter time, you know, there's people about to be hunkered down cold for several months. We don't think about that. And those people have got to be thinking, hold on, let me get south and not deal with it, especially the baby boomers. Yeah, they can't shovel snow in their 70s.

Chris:

So they're coming to the south. I mean, and I think it's not just them. It's as, you know, not to get too political, but as these places like New York City and the mayor that they might have soon, and California and the way things are looking there, people are not gonna stop moving to the southeast. You know, and are we gonna get those people directly from New York City? Probably not. But that money's going to Charlotte, it's going to the coast, and we're a secondary market. People are coming from those places to us. You know, and I don't think it's gonna stop anytime soon. And you know, with that growth, I think Florida's a good example of this. People are like, oh, well, how are we gonna sustain this? What you know industry do we have here to give all these people jobs? And what does Florida produce? Right, their business is growth, right? Like the jobs in the industry in the infrastructure will come because it will be a necessity, but Florida as a whole, their industry is growth, it's not oranges anymore. So you grew up in Orlando, Florida. Yeah, yeah. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, you know, I I love Orlando. I don't talk bad about it. I mean, I do you do come on, I don't know. I mean, I I love growing, I had a great childhood growing up there, but it's just, you know, I always my dad's from King Street, so I have a lot of family there, and I've just always loved being up here in a little bit of a smaller, you know, area. And to be honest, that's why Florence has been so perfect for my wife and I. It's it's big enough to where they've got the target, we've got you know everything that she needs, but it's small enough to where it feels small like you get to know everybody. Yeah, you know, that's awesome.

Reeves:

But and so you compare that to growing up in Orlando, and you're gonna choose Florence every day.

Chris:

Yeah, and that's why it bothers me when people from here and I get a little bit jaded sometimes, like, oh, we don't have any, oh, it's sucked. It's like, no, this is great. Like I it's the perfect size for me.

Reeves:

You've been good for us in the office at times when we talk about man, Florence doesn't have this or we need this, and you're like, guys, shut up. Florence is a great place to live.

Chris:

It really is, and to raise a family and everything. Like, I just think that we're in a really, really good spot. You know, we're in a really good spot.

Robert:

I love hearing that. You know, when you were saying earlier about you've only been at the office for four or five months, I I honestly feel like we've like I've known you my whole life. Yeah, you know, we we're all kind of like family at this point, and I couldn't imagine the office any other way, and you not, you know, you not being there. But uh sometimes I'll ask Reeves, I'll say, Reeves, how did we get Chris here from Orlando? God must have a bigger plan.

Reeves:

It still baffles your mind. Yeah, I mean, you come to me about once a month and you're like, why is this dude wanting to live here?

Robert:

Because you had a ton of opportunity there. I mean, you, you know, your family there, you you have you had a ton of opportunities.

Chris:

You could have I mean, and it wasn't like I came here with this grand plan. I kind of came here because I didn't have a plan. You know, my plan was my dad was in the timber business, you know, and so I was gonna kind of help him with that. And obviously, I'm glad plans have changed from that. But um we rescued you from that.

Reeves:

Well, you know, but no, I don't want to take too much credit. Yeah, I mean, you are a stink.

Chris:

You're getting it's all me, right? Me and Robert. Right, yeah, right. But no, I mean, like I said, I came up here because I really didn't know what I wanted to do after I graduated school. And where'd you go to school? So I went to Florida State, go Knowles, you know. What is that? Down with Miami.

Reeves:

Oh, is that what that is?

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reeves:

The Florida State team. I will give you credit. You out you beat Alabama, which I always appreciate. You went anybody except for Clemson beating him.

Chris:

Andy almost beat him too. So I mean, we went two and ten last year, so we're already ahead of where we were ahead of the you know.

Reeves:

But but yeah, I mean, I just the only issue I do have is you still talk trash about South Carolina, which you've got to get on the golden left.

Chris:

The not so classy are you know, the GameCom fans. Bullcrap.

Robert:

I'm that I'm just telling you.

Reeves:

I've got issues with that statement.

Robert:

That's you that's just boring. He can't defend it, but he's got issues with that.

Reeves:

No, I can't. It goes all the way back, and I don't want to get off track, but you're talking about classy and Clemson. Come on now.

Robert:

Yeah, I mean, you know, hey, well, whatever. Clemson's tried to get classy here since they've had a good thing going, but that's falling apart.

Chris:

So it's not looking great, really.

Reeves:

Let's get back on track. You were saying you went to Florida State, you had a good thing in Orlando, but you've come here.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. I just came here to get into the timber business, and um, you know, I decided to get my real estate license. I was like, well, you know, there's a real opportunity to kind of divide some land up and sell hunt camps. Um, you know, basically sells recreation properties. Yeah. And so I got my license, and then the more I was kind of looking at that, I was like, well, I really like the idea of month to month. You know, I think anybody in real estate can kind of understand this, even agents who do single family, like having some guaranteed month to month knowing what's coming in. And that's what made me think of rental properties, you know, and that's kind of how I started to get into that, you know.

Reeves:

And so Riverland, we've already got how many properties under management? And we haven't even gone public yet.

Chris:

Yeah, we've got about 45 now.

Reeves:

Yeah, so we've got 45 properties under management just from not even going public. And with the podcast today, we're kind of letting the people know we're also going to do some social media and begin to really grow the business.

Robert:

And and our goal is to have thousands of the cutting-edge systems to do that. So, like Chris in the office this week was like, All right, guys, give me some more, because he's got his arms around this 45 because we are setting it up right with the right systems.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. The technology on these softwares are just getting crazier and crazier on the ability it's able to do, you know, reconciling your books in there. I mean, collecting rent, collecting late fees, it's all automated. I mean, you know, it just saves me a lot of time. And I mean, there's even more coming than just that.

Reeves:

And it's a huge, it's a huge asset for the property owner, especially. I mean, throughout the year, as they're managing and handling tenant requests and repairs and things, but also then at tax time, it's a one or two-page printout that you have for them and their books are reconciled. It's just a phenomenal asset. And quite honestly, they can write off the the management fee, and it it's really pennies on the dollar that they're actually paying compared to the value that they're getting. It's just a phenomenal.

Chris:

Well, and with that, I mean, that goes back to taking the stress off them and what is their time worth. I mean, if they're spending hours and hours and hours every month trying to figure this out, trying to go collect rent or you know, figure out going to file an eviction, going to do all these things. I mean, at some point you got to do the math on whether it's worth their time, or do you just pay a management fee?

Reeves:

You know, it reminds me, I had a property manager, I became a real estate agent, and you know, it took me 18 months until really you coming in the office before I removed those properties from the property manager. And when I did that, she looked at me and was like, I've been waiting for you to call me. You've been doing real estate for almost two years, but it was so advantageous to let her continue to manage those properties until we had the systems in place because I didn't want to take it on myself, even though I was paying her, you know, a fee to manage properties, it was worth it.

Robert:

Yeah, you know, yeah, so definitely. So we've got so the website's up, RiverlandSc.com. You can see all the properties we've currently got available. You know, Teddy, we're managing Teddy's town homes, which that's been really fun. You know, high-end townhomes in Florence, finally. Yeah, and and they've been renting.

Chris:

I mean, they yeah, yeah, and they I mean, they are beautiful. I mean, they're really stunning inside and out. Um, yeah, and he's got more coming, you know, downtown. Yeah, and then also just right there off celebration, he's got two more buildings coming as well, you know.

Robert:

You know what I heard this week actually? So the development that was supposed to have happened downtown where they built the new parking garage, and it's been dragging for years, is happening. That guy is a developer out of Columbia, and he's about to build, I think it's 150 apartments.

Reeves:

Okay.

Robert:

So and hopefully they'll be nice. Yeah, yeah, hopefully they'll be good.

Reeves:

Well, and I I saw Chris Cawthon, who is at partners with Teddy on the building downtown, and he said they should be getting the CO in the next uh four uh, I think, yeah, four weeks, is what he told me this morning. And they're going to a planning meeting next week to hopefully get another parcel to be able to build some more. But those are beautiful town homes. The ones that we're already managing are at Celebration, which is an awesome pocket of Florence, just very clean, very walkable.

Robert:

You've got places you can walkable.

Reeves:

You can shop, you can dine. All those places are walkable. Really cool place.

Robert:

As we get more people, you know, if we're about to get more people living downtown, then maybe downtown can take that next step. Because I feel like it's kind of been stagnant, honestly. It had a nice regrowth period, and and now maybe if we can get more people living down here, we can hit the next leg of growth.

Reeves:

So here's the thought I had, Robert. We're we're wear wearing trailhead t-shirts, right?

Robert:

Yeah.

Reeves:

At Naturally Outdoors. And we were over there yesterday and we were hearing more about the vision that the guys at Naturally Outdoors have for that entire complex. And I was thinking, okay, let's say I've got a couple of a couple coming in from Dallas, where Rebecca and I used to live, and we're gonna hang out in Florence for the weekend. We've now got a couple of different pockets of spots that I could take a couple that's coming in to visit us for the weekend. Maybe they come in on Friday afternoon, we take them downtown.

Robert:

They stay downtown.

Reeves:

They stay downtown. We have a nice dinner at any number of the restaurants downtown. We take them to Chocobella for dessert, hang out Friday night, and then Saturday, maybe we go play golf, or maybe we go over to naturally outdoors and they take us on a canoe trip or we do a bike trail, you know, one of the trails around town. Then we come back and we have some ice cream, you know, at the trailhead, and then we go to you know, uh Buddies or Local Motive.

Robert:

What was the third spot you had in mind? Because I can't think of celebration. Celebration.

Reeves:

Yeah, so you've got three spots, you know, and yeah, yeah. And you can entertain people for a weekend in Florence.

Chris:

You're right. I'm sure when Natural Outdoors was first getting going, that was a big, big risk. But I think that shows it's always packed. Like this morning when I drove by there, I mean, the coffee shop is full, the parking lot's full. I mean, I really think that Florence needs more of that, and I think they want it. You know, I think Florence could really handle more cool little pockets like that.

Izzy:

And I think it's really important with the growth that you say we have coming in, because people might leave a place because they hate it, but they stay somewhere because they learn to love it. Yeah, and so it's so important to have those sort of environments like downtown, naturally outdoors, and places where people can feel like they can own the culture of a place and not just have somewhere to work and lay their head, you know?

Reeves:

Definitely. That's good is definitely yeah, yeah. In those places, I mean, I would see, you know, the trailhead at naturally outdoors, everything that's happening at downtown, then what's going on at Celebration and the growth there, and then the future expansion with the rail trail, even on into Sumter. There's tremendous opportunity and activity, along with some really cool golf courses, not at the beach, but in Florence, in the PD. That there's a lot to love about this. And oh, yeah, absolutely.

Robert:

So Chris loves playing golf. We we love playing at Florence Country Club. That's awesome. Reeves is gonna join one day soon.

Reeves:

I might come off a little bit of money and join one day. You've got to convince me though.

Robert:

All right, all right, good, good, good. Well, thanks so much for coming. Yeah, no, thanks for having me. I'm I'm we're having y'all on Wake Podcast. Thank you for the invite. It feels more normal to me, honestly, with you being here because that's like our normal deal, you know.

Reeves:

Yeah, but we need to kick him out so he can go get some properties under management and yeah, that's business.

Robert:

That's right, that's right.

Reeves:

Go to work. Thank you again for having me.

Robert:

Thanks, Dick.

Chris:

Bye.

Reeves:

So that was a really cool conversation with Chris. We we really are blessed to have him in the office. Um, you know, we kind of got to know him. He bought some Louis houses from us, and and it really has turned into a great relationship and and a business.

Robert:

Chris is the most focused young man I've seen in a while. I mean, he's at the office focused, he's working till six o'clock. He'll be there at seven o'clock on a Friday sometimes.

Reeves:

Yeah.

Robert:

We will be the best property management company in the PD. I know it. We will be.

Reeves:

It's exciting what that's gonna be. It's certainly exciting what Greystone is. I want to talk about kind of big picture real estate. And we probably shouldn't say this. This is probably not even fair to say, but there's one other business you and I are kind of bouncing around, and we're not gonna tell anybody about it, but if it comes to fruition, I think it's gonna be a another spot in Florence that will be really cool for people. So stay tuned because there may be something else coming.

Robert:

I feel like we did that stay tuned one time before. What was that on? What business were we starting on that one?

Izzy:

I think it was when you guys were launching the podcast.

Robert:

Oh, it was for this. Yeah, that's really that's right. Is wait a minute. So this one will be even better.

Reeves:

Can we say that the trailhead is an official sponsor? I think we can, even though they haven't agreed to be official sponsors.

Robert:

We're gonna, I mean, the trailhead is they're doing something cool, and we're gonna have them on the podcast to really let them tell the vision. But that that little area is going to be, you know what buddy told us yesterday I keep thinking about. All right, he's like, Robert, I want this to feel like we're sitting in uptown Charlotte. He did say that. I was like, wow, yeah. And I mean the vibe they've got in the store is there.

Reeves:

So I really hadn't been in the I'd been in the store, but I kind of, you know, focused. I need some shoes, so I'm going straight back to the shoes. But yesterday we went over there to get the t-shirts and just kind of check in on, see what was happening. Incredible vibe. I mean, they got a little like reading nook conversation area right outside the uh ice cream shop. It is just cool.

Robert:

Live edge slab table with really high-end nice chairs. Yeah, we need to meet there more often. They've got some new, like they had LL Bean in there with some really cool.

Reeves:

Yeah, good products.

Robert:

But yeah.

Reeves:

So, Robert, let's go all the way back to episode one. Oh, Gary Finkley.

Robert:

Yeah.

Reeves:

Do you remember one of the things he said to us? He said, Great communities don't become great without risk takers.

Robert:

Yes.

Reeves:

And that that thought has stuck with me since he said it. And, you know, when we think about what the guys are doing at the trailhead and and the you know, conglomerate of businesses they're building for the investment, you know, and there's risk involved in that. There's risk involved in property management, but any great community has to have risk takers if we go back to what Gary Finkley said. And I think we're starting to see some of that um throughout the city, and it's really cool, it's really invigorating.

Robert:

So we've got I feel like we've got a really good group of risk takers in this town. You know, I always go think about our builders, they're obviously our local builders are risk takers, but there there's a lot of entrepreneurial people here, and so you know, we gotta hopefully unlock opportunities and get things going, and hopefully with interest rates coming down and different things going on big picture, I think it's gonna unlock and some new growth is gonna start popping up.

Reeves:

So, so Izzy, I got a question for you. So, if you just heard the conversation that me, Robert, and Chris were having. And so let's say you and Rebecca decided, hey, we want to maybe think about buying a rental property. Um, what would you want to know about buying a rental property? What kind of questions would you have for us as you and Rebecca thought about, hey, maybe we could buy a rental property and it can help be a piece to our financial future?

Izzy:

Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. Um I think I'd initially want to know what my upfront commitment was gonna be. So, like big picture numbers, what what would I have to invest to start seeing fruit of it?

Reeves:

Yeah.

Izzy:

So, what's the the floor of my investment? And then also what what risk am I looking at? What is it high risk, low risk? Um and I and I think I'd want to know what my end goal was. So, like how do I develop a five, 10, 15-year plan? Because I when you and Colin got started, you had a vision in mind and it was gonna serve you specifically. Um, and so what does it look like to develop that?

Reeves:

Yes, what are your thoughts on that, Robert? I mean, because I you and I love sitting down with people and helping them map out kind of a financial future within real estate and how they can real estate can bless their families. That's one of the big things we do at Greystone. So, what are your thoughts?

Robert:

Well, I think that's exactly right. You've got to have the end goal, the full plan, because if you don't, you're gonna end up you buy this, and then maybe you get frustrated with that, and then you go buy something different, and you can end up with kind of like a cong a mess almost. Yeah, that can very easily happen. So have a full picture plan of what you want to accomplish, and you need to have a real estate expert help guide you through it and help help you understand the full picture numbers of owning real estate because it's not just rent coming in and the payments due and property taxes. There's more to there's more numbers to figure in.

Reeves:

Yeah, I think there's two things that it can frustrate me, quite honestly, and it can really hang up potential investors in real estate that I've seen over the years and and both go back to HGTV. I mean, I I really despise HGTV because it makes it unrealistic, it makes everything look too easy. And and so the first thing is the investor has to understand this is an investment, this isn't your personal home that you're gonna decorate and make cute. And when you do that, one, it's unrealistic, it blows the budget, and the tenants are gonna trash that, they don't care about that stuff. So you've purely got to look at the piece of property you're looking at buying as does it make sense on paper? You know, does it pencil out profitability-wise? And with that, like you said, Robert, you've got to not just look at the mortgage payment. If you've got a mortgage payment, you've not just got to look at what cash you're having to outlay to buy the property, you've got to look at property taxes. And we're gonna talk a lot more about property taxes on the next episode. You've got to look at vacancy rates, repair cost, you know, try to understand future appreciation, you know, all types of things that come into buying a piece of property, but you cannot allow kind of this, oh, it's so cute, it's got a yellow front door. And I've always dreamed about owning a property with a yellow front door. That will murder you if that's the prism in which you're looking at it properly.

Robert:

But now that won't, do you think the Airbnb opportunity is still in Florence?

Reeves:

I'm 50-50 on it, and that's coming from a guy who owns uh several Airbnb or or we own several. Yeah, and I have people ask, I had a guy last week asking me about that. And if I was buying rental property today, and I am, I'm not gonna put it in an Airbnb. There is potential for a little bit more upside, but the upfront costs are higher, the vacancy rate is much higher, and as you see, our two hospitals. Systems working very hard to reduce the travel nurse population. That's not good for your Airbnb uh economy in Florence. And as you see the battery plant pull out, which you know, we think it's coming back, and that's gonna help the Airbnb market. Um, but if you don't have construction workers coming in and you don't have healthcare workers coming in, the 30 to 90-day rental market in Florence, where Airbnb in Florence thrives, slows to a trickle.

Robert:

There's not people coming here for vacation.

Reeves:

Buckies, I think. I think they come to Bucky's come stay for a Bucky's overnight. I mean, wouldn't you? I heard that here the brisket sandwich is pretty good.

Robert:

Oh, yeah, it's good.

Reeves:

Yeah, so so I that's the other thing, though. When you evaluate a property, and let's say you might can rent it for $2,400 on Airbnb and it rents for $1,750 traditional. You want to make sure that everything pencils out Izzy at $17.50, not at $2,400. Now there's going to be a lot more carrying costs, so that's not all straight profit. Um, the the difference between those two numbers, but you've got to make sure it's gonna pencil out at $1,750. But again, just the opportunity for us to sit down and across from a husband and wife who are thinking about getting into this, they understand the vision they have, they have a long-term goal of hey, we want this to help pay for our kids' college, or we want this to be supplemental income in retirement, or hey, we want this to be supplemental income today. All those are very different conversations, very different goals. And depending on the goal that that client brings to us, depends on the counsel we give them.

Robert:

I'll tell you one interesting big picture thought though. So if you take somebody that had $50,000 sitting in their bank account eight years ago, okay, and they said, no risk for me, I'm not dealing with all of it, I'm leaving this money safe in my bank account eight years ago. And then you took somebody that invested $50,000 in a rental house eight years ago. I'd love to do a study on the difference. That $50,000 into bank account is now worth probably $30, and that house probably appreciated $30,000 over that eight-year period.

Reeves:

If it was just in a money market, you know, savings type account. Yeah. I mean, real buying power, that $50,000 is definitely $30,000. The dollar is really weak. And that's where rental property investing is a storehouse of wealth.

Robert:

And you capture the appreciation.

Reeves:

Exactly. But as the and as we continue to have an inflationary climate, owning real estate, you get to ride the inflationary dollar up, which is a huge benefit.

Robert:

When you factor that and understanding the tax advantages, specifically for certain people, income, how they treat their income, there's some major tax advantages.

Reeves:

Especially with the passing of the big, beautiful bill that Trump did uh and and Republicans in Congress, uh 100% depreciation. Again, you need to talk to a CPA about that to understand the nuances of that. But massive Trump's a real estate guy. Yeah. So it makes sense to buy real estate while he's in office because he wants to help the real estate guys out.

Robert:

The one thing I think maybe we talk about on an episode is I think there's a chance real estate gets on the blockchain. And then real estate starts becoming this whole different animal of how it moves and sells, and it's not as clunky to sell. Yep. And it could ramp again. And I think Trump's got his eyes set on that.

Reeves:

Some of the things the administration is saying in regards to crypto and how to transact and how to basically deregulate, you know, a currency so that person-to-person payments can happen. Those are some fascinating conversations going on that most people aren't paying attention to. You and I love to talk about that stuff and listen to you know the crypto conversations and understand kind of what's going on on the blockchain and that that type of thing. Some wild things that might be coming.

Robert:

Definitely. Maybe we'll get a little um PD real estate fund.

Reeves:

The other thing I want to say though is you know, you said $50,000. Here, here's the deal. In 2014, I was working at a church. I was a pastor, I had three kids. I made a very fine income, but not enough of an income to, you know, have disposable income to go buy a bunch of real estate. Rebecca's grandfather passed away. He left us a little bit of money. And for with $15,000 each, me and Rebecca, and then Colin and Aaron, we we each put $15,000 in, bought two houses, and from that initial investment, it's now paid for three kids to go to college.

Robert:

That's amazing.

Reeves:

And so it doesn't take as much money as people think it takes to, but you just have to have the right strategy, you have to have the right patience, and um, and it can be done.

Robert:

How easy would it have been for that $15,000 to have vanished into nothing? Like you, you know, well, let's go on a vacation and we'll just save that for savings, and it would be gone, and you'd have no, you would have no clue where it would be.

Reeves:

If I'd have listened to my sister, we'd have gone on a cruise and it'd have been it'd been it would have been cracked once you'd been in the Caribbean.

Robert:

Once you crack into it, that's a great example.

Reeves:

Yeah. So that's the thing I would say to anybody out there who's like, Man, I would love to buy a house or love to do this for my it doesn't take as much as you think it might take.

Robert:

And it forces you to continue to save. It's like forced savings. Yeah. That if you're not forced to do it, you're probably not.

Reeves:

Yeah. All right. So let's talk big picture. What's happening in Florence real estate? What do you see?

Robert:

It's um, you know, I think we're moving into the season of it naturally slowing. So, you know, we're probably feeling a little bit like, oh man, this is getting really slow. And it, and there's not a ton of buyers out there.

Reeves:

Yeah.

Robert:

Um my my my feeling is, and you know, this changes daily with national politics, but I think it's gonna be pretty slow through Christmas, through the first of the year. I think first of the year things are gonna kick back into gear, rates are gonna continue to hopefully come down. It's not for sure, but what's a 30-year mortgage right now? Six and a quarter?

Reeves:

Six and a quarter, but horrible. No.

Robert:

So you get that down a little more first of the year. I think things are gonna pick up, especially in Florence, if we can get the battery plant back to okay, it's coming back to life. People are coming back to town for that. And there's there's some other industry looking pretty hard.

Reeves:

Well, and I think next next episode, hopefully, uh, we're gonna have a big battery plant update. So stay tuned for that. But I think you're exactly right. We're kind of going into a slow season, plus just some of the national news that's going out out there, government shutdown. That has a little bit of an effect on loans getting to closing and that type of thing. I think we've got two, we've got lots of properties listed, certainly. But I think we have two bellwether properties, one in Pamplico, uh four-bed, three-bath, really beautiful home on a corner lot, mature oak trees. We're bringing that to market this week. It's gonna be really interesting to see.

Robert:

That's an attractive price for what you get. Yeah. 330,000. Yeah, it's a beautiful home, natural, uh in a grave location neighborhood that people like to live in there.

Reeves:

So, what how the market handles that property will be very much a bellwether. And then the one we just listed in Deerfield at 259.

Robert:

That is the one I am focused on. That is going to tell the story.

Reeves:

Both of those are new listings this week, and how those how the market receives those two properties will I think we're looking at those two properties as kind of giving us an indication of how strong the market is in this last quarter of 25.

Robert:

Yeah, we'll keep everybody updated on what we're seeing. And um, I'm in I'm really enjoying this podcast, Reeves. I I hope everybody else is this listening, and the biggest thing you could help us do is share it, subscribe, and um, we'll try to keep this baby rolling.

Reeves:

Yeah, definitely. Like, share, subscribe. Not every episode is for everybody, we get that, but we're talking about things that are happening in Florence. We're talking about real estate that impacts everybody in Florence. And if there's somebody you want to see on the podcast, let us know. Yeah, we'll reach out to them. We'd love to have them on the podcast. But yeah, this has been a lot of fun. I can't believe we've finished episode 12, and we've been doing this for a little bit of time now, and we're gonna keep doing it.

Robert:

It's only because of Izzy. Izzy's the Izzy is the driving force. The meaning of everything is. We'll see you next week, bro.