All Forum Posts by: Adam Ward

Just a small update, I've been slowing coming into a better position to buy lately. I made the sacrifice to downsize my car, and am at the point where I feel comfortable buying in about a month or two. Luckily it seems like the market is starting to cool here in DFW.

Hi Nikolas, I'm hoping to move to that area soon to start accumulating. Best of luck to you. There is an endless amount of meetups and resources out there in DFW. 

Greetings, to premise, I actually started my interest in real estate investing in 2018 by house hacking and had been attending real estate groups and meetups in the hope of scaling soon after that. When the shutdowns and eviction moratoriums happened, I shied from real estate investing for the time being until some stability hit the market and after returning from a deployment recently I find myself back where I left off.

With a VA loan at my disposal and cash from savings and the downsizing of my vehicle in our WFH era, I'm hoping to owner occupy a small multifamily in the Dallas area, from there I'll stabilize that property and move onto the next investment as a pure investment.

Anyone else start off this way? I'm thinking of self managing for the time being and have actually enjoyed the aspects of being a landlord and the influence it gives you in providing affordable housing for those that might not otherwise have it. 

Anytime I have ever allowed an unqualified tenant they have immediately started breaking lease terms, causing damage, etc. I wouldn't entertain the thought in the slightest. You may have rent in hand, but you may end up hurting your bottom line through damage or other events.

I was in a similar situation to you when I first moved to DFW, and actually ended up buying my first property at market value and house hacking. Fast forward and my home value has risen substantially, almost making it a 1% house due to rising rents in the area and market appreciation.

I started by checking out the DFW REIA and a few real estate meet up groups to network, you'll find some quality people there and may make some good contacts. The DFW area is massive and there are tons of these. Facebook also has DFW specific real estate groups that will post "off market" and wholesale deals. In any of your endeavors, I encourage you to be discerning and do your due diligence on the property before making a purchase.

You have a couple options here,

You can keep things as they are and decide to end the lease agreement at the end of their term or you can ask them what the late payment issue is and adjust the lease to allow for monthly split payments if their situation is reasonable. 

If you're dealing with an honorable person that just needs a different pay schedule then I would allow it and do in my house hack, but if there are other problems, like say they are not taking care of the property or have significant financial stressors, its all the more reason to end their lease agreement.  

Always remember though, that as a landlord, you need to be tough but fair, and always friendly, but firm. 

You have expectations of tenants too as long as you are upholding your side of the contract in providing a serviceable place to occupy. You could easily find a better tenant that respects the property and yourself, especially if he is on a month to month lease term. Be friendly about it, but firm. Start by asking him to leave and progress from there.