1 Year after moved to Austin TX

[Chris Yang]

Hello fella Austinites,

I moved from SF Bay Area to Austin about a year ago with a goal of becoming a real estate investor and one day quit my normal W2 job.

Fast forward, I am now on track of my plan but also need some suggestions on future direction.

1. Bought something cheap and quick with cash to live with -- done

2. Bought my permanent residence -- done

3. Rented out 1st house -- done, but took longer than I thought (30-40 days) Lesson learned: vacancy, HVAC near end of life and need replacement == extra capital improvement

Now, I have also got to connect with some local investors (Austin & Houston area) and learned a lot from the experienced folks. I feel SFR might not be my type of thing, especially in Austin market. I have run a ton of buy and hold analysis daily, only found a cash-flowing SFR rental closer to the city limit is almost next to impossibility. I understand here it appreciates like crazy, but with limited cash, I need to use them more efficiently. Houses farther away from the city has better cap rate and CoC return, but the vacancy usually eats up profit quite a bit.

Then I tried to learn more about multifamily units. My next deal will be an 180-unit apartment syndication project in Houston. I am going to be just LP in this deal, but I really find it more interesting and easier to scale up. Higher occupancy, and more room for value-add up side.

Would love to connect to more local investors that specialized in commercial/multifamily properties.