Husband/Wife Investor from Dallas, TX

[Treivor Cashion]

Hey all - I made my first post on here about 3 years ago in Oct of 2017. At the time, I was a relatively naive and wide-eyed kid who had just listened to his first real estate podcast and was eager to get started. However, I quickly realized (with the help of my wife) that before we could comfortably start investing in real estate, we needed to make some significant lifestyle changes. Since then, I got married to the woman of my dreams in July 2019 and we have paid off a total of $110K in student loans together and are completely debt free. Additionally, we've been building up a cash cushion and have a sizable emergency fund as well as enough cash for a downpayment, closing costs, and some reasonable rehab to our future first investment. We have also both listened to the BiggerPockets real estate podcast non-stop, have nailed down our investing criteria, read books on everything from property management to negotiations, and have put a business plan together for our real estate investing future. I have also been lucky enough to have been working with a real estate firm here in DFW that focuses primarily on due diligence of Freddie Mac multifamily securitizations for B-Piece buyers, so I've been able to hone my multifamily due diligence and underwriting skills in this field for the past 2 years on top of our self-education.

At this time, we're focused on acquiring a duplex/triplex in the DFW metroplex (focused in the Irving/Las Colinas, Coppell, Carrollton/Farmers Branch, Richardson and Trinity Groves/Medical District areas in Dallas, as well as some of the surrounding submarkets on a deal-by-deal basis), with the plan to house-hack. We are shooting for a minimum 10% CoC Return. Since we don't have much experience in construction/rehab right now, we would primarily only focus on a property that needs cosmetic/interior renovations and would generally avoid properties with major foundation/roof/plumbing issues. We would prefer to keep the renovation budget to around $30K-$40K total. Our plan is to hold long-term (10+ years), with a primary focus on positive monthly cash flow and equity capture through strategic renovations (targeting a 10% to 15% increase in equity above the cost basis), with a secondary focus on properties that are likely to appreciate in value over the investment hold period and tax benefits derived from investment real estate.

Right now, we are trying to identify real estate brokers/agents in the DFW area that specialize in 2-4 unit buildings with a real estate investor mindset. While this would be our first home (we're renting right now), we would 100% view this as an investment and would treat it as such. We are not in the mindset of a normal first-time homebuyer. On top of this, we're also trying to find local lenders that would be able to give us good terms as first time homebuyers (i.e. FHA/PMI products), as we're only trying to put about 5% down to use the excess cash for rehab. But we would also like to be able to start building a relationship with the lender as real estate investors for any future investments.

It's been a long time coming, but we're excited to get started! Any recommendations for a real estate broker/agent and local lenders in the DFW area, as well as just any general advice as we start this journey, would be very much appreciated!

Thanks, 
-Treivor & Lisa Cashion

[Treivor Cashion]

Originally posted by @Bruce Lynn:

Happy to assist you if I can. 10% CoC is a great goal, but tough in this market. All you goals you mention are the right answers, but tough to do in this market. When you see the rent #s vs the sales price #s, it will make your head spin in many many cases. Prices have gone up faster than rents in my opinion. Just heard or saw something today that said prices are up 10% YOY in September for the area and inventory is way down. I think the other challenge you will have is most of the areas you mentioned don't have a lot of multifamily. Coppell for example has one small neighborhood of duplexes....almost always sold as 1/2 duplex, not full unit. Same with Las Colinas....I'm not sure there are any duplexes in Las Colinas, can't think of any off hand. I see almost no tri-plexes for sale in DFW area. There are duplexes and 4-plexs. Not to say any of your goals are impossible, but not easy to find.

Thanks Bruce - appreciate the insight! We have noticed that inventory is super tight, despite the onset of COVID-19 and substantial unemployment that has come from that. A little frustrating, but given the diverse employment base in the DFW area, I guess it's not all that surpising. We are just beginning to start looking at and underwriting deals, so we may adjust our strategy to what is a more reasonable expectation in the market. For example, we're taking into account the rent savings that we would experience by moving into a duplex and taking that into account in our CoC return metrics. We are also willing to expand our search radius into the surrounding DFW submarkets (i.e. Royse City, Arlington, Prosper, Celina) if need be. But yeah, we realize we're getting into a competitive market with a lot of investors having a ton of liquidity sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next deal...so we're keeping our expectations for finding our first investment reasonable!