Finding properties

[Ronald Stark]

Hi All,

I live in Austin Texas. I am a first time buyer for buy and hold strategy. Currently I am pre-approved for my loan but I am having difficulty finding a property that meets the 1% rule or will even give a positive cash flow. My calculations factoring in taxes, mortgage, insurance, cap ex, maintenance and vacancy indicate the house cannot cost more than 130K assuming a rent of around $1200-$1300. I am willing to go for single family or even a multifamily but even the multi's are 200K plus. I am checking MLS on all the regular sites like Zillow, Redfin, realtor.com, realtoraustin even Craigslist but I am finding nothing.

Should I sign up with a realtor my guess is they will only find the same properties I find. Redfin even gives a 1% cash back to buyers but i don't want to be restricted to one realtor. I would prefer to be calling listing agents. I see lots of auction properties coming up but they all say 'as is', cannot view and cash only so I am ignoring those.

What am i doing wrong? Please advise.

Thanks,

Ron

[Leland Barrow]

You are entering a strong market with limited inventory, and a lot of buyers. Finding good deals is not going to be easy. Even some of the wholesale deals in Austin are sketch. You can do your own off market marketing, or you can look at smaller towns around Austin, or you can shop for decent wholesale deals. Just beware a lot of the wholesale deals in Austin are not for first time investors. Those properties may need a lot of work. You need to really analyze deals, bounce them off of other investors, and know what you are getting into. If you are a newer investor I would suggest looking at Killeen, Waco, or Temple. At least the school of hard knox in those areas will not break the bank. Austin is a bit more of the big leagues and requires more experience, knowledge, and a good network. Just my personal advice.