Greetings from ATX

[Doug Reed]

Hi!  I'm a computer engineer from Austin, TX.  Except for owning my own home, I'm not a real estate investor yet.  I'm looking to change that in the next year or two.  Like most of the other Austinites on BP posting introductions, I'm mostly looking outside of the Austin area (San Antonio, Kyle, RR, Killeen, etc) for my first rental property because of the crazy high housing prices in this city.

Since I'm a computer geek and can't distinguish myself by bringing a wealth of REI know-how to the table, I leave you with a few fun observations from the last 24 hours:

1. You can export search results of MLS listings in .csv format from at least one other major property searching site for free; and,

2. You can download historical rental prices, property appreciation/depreciation, etc. in .csv format from a different major property searching site for free.

I essentially scripted the finding of my current condo, and hope to adopt a similar strategy to finding deals on rentals.  That's long term, though -- for now, finding a single good deal on a cash flowing property is good enough for me.  

Thanks for reading!