Newbie from Dallas/Forth Worth (DFW), Texas

[Omar Khan]

We moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) area last year (2016). Texas seemed like a nice compromise between Syracuse (wife - upstate NY) and Calgary (me - Canada) and we’ve never looked back. It’s astounding what a year of no snow and super pleasant winters can do to your mind :)

My background is in corporate finance – complex financial modeling, valuation and strategic planning i.e. good at all things analytical and do that for a living.

Over the years, my family has owned commercial and non-commercial real estate in 3 countries. Hence, growing up, I had indirect exposure to real estate and have seen the good (and bad) that come with owning real estate.

Having no direct exposure, I am looking to network and better understand how contracting, repairs and maintenance work gets done. Essentially, how to find a good contractor, how to negotiate with them, understand what to do and what to avoid. I know this comes with experience but we’re hoping to learn and avoid some pitfalls.

Current Strategy:

Using FHA-loans to acquire multi-family residential housing (3-4 units per building) east of Dallas between Mesquite and Terrell (and surrounding areas).

We’ve set a deadline of February/March 2018 to acquire our first property. Once we get going with the first property, we plan on house hacking every year for the next 4-5 years.

I wanted to thank @biggerpo and @brandonatbp for amazing podcasts, @ScottTrench for some killer introductory articles and other BP members from whom we’re learning/plan on learning (and contributing to).

Let me know how I can contribute and assist.

P.S. Hopefully, I got the shout outs correctly linked.