Newbie from Austin, TX

[Riley Spiller]

Hi All,

I'm very excited to get started with real estate investing. I bought a house last fall in East Austin. Seeing the booming market landscape has inspired me to get involved. I'm interested, ultimately, in buy and hold rentals. I'm happily employed as a computer programmer / app developer but, that said, my ultimate dream is to provide a second source of income from rentals, enough to not rely on my job.

Primarily interested in learning about the possibility of Subject To type deals as I've only got $50k to start with. That amount is only good for about 2 SFH if I go traditional routes. I'd like to acquire faster than that if possible.

Btw, I found BP from a YouTube interview by Joshua Dorkin. He was interviewing a hard money lender.

[Stephen Masek]

You've got less than 40% of a house. Leverage is dangerous, but with that much equity, you may be able to find something. We bought two in Austin in May, both newer nicer, one for $112,000 in Georgetown built in 2009 and the other for $121,000 in Bastrop, built in 2005. Avoid the southwest area of Austin with no food stores or other shopping for miles around, as those would be very inconvenient for tenants. As you probably know, property tax rates vary significantly. So that is one of the first things to consider.