All Forum Posts by: Todd Curtis

Did your niece care enough to properly account for depreciation and other tax deductions? Also, is this her only property and if not, does she have other properties with that may not have been closely managed?

Is there interest in the house from buyers that would make it attractive for the owner to owner finance? Perhaps a lease option if the state laws make it feasible? What are the realistic numbers given recent area sales?

I've used VAs for a completely different business, and to do so successfully I had to take the time to write very clear instructions.

My business relied completely on email and other online communications, so I have no insights on how to manage them for real time or voice related communications, but I will say that I had to tailor my VAs to those parts of the business that could tolerate turnaround times of one working day (the VAs were in Asia), and that focused on routine activities and communications with management rather than with communications with customers or actions that were not covered by established procedures.

The Tim Ferris book 4-Hour Workweek turned me on to the idea of VAs, and it took me a while to warm up to the idea. My suggestion is to start small and see how it goes.

This looks like one of those 'it depends' kind of situations. Your due diligence should deal with the the finances, the market, the structure, the management, and most of all your exit strategy. Having the opportunity is good, but if you can get it on terms and conditions that would make it attractive to other investors as well, then go for it.

Congrats to your son and to you for raising him right.

The big thing to keep in mind is that ARV is based on three values: Your acquisition cost, the repair costs, and the final sales price. The last two value are opinions, the costs of repairs and the value after the sale. both of these estimates could be way off, and in a bad way. Repairs could cost more money and take more time, and the sales price could be lower than expected (or your estimates too optimistic).

The first value, your cost to acquire the property, is the one you have the most control over. If your acquisition cost is high, don't fool yourself by convincing yourself that you can make it up with low repair costs and a higher sales price.

Todd

Be careful on the estimated costs and revenues. You said the estimated rent was 800/500. Is this based on documented payments from current renters, or area comps?

I'd also be more conservative on the maintenance and vacancy rate, unless you have documented the past repairs and maintenance for this property.

Also, get some sort of independent estimate of the kinds of deferred maintenance that has to be dealt with, and also the chance that you have to deal with a major repair issue.

Lastly, do you have plan in place on what to do if the keeping this as a rental becomes too much of a hassle?

Todd

I would recommend getting very familiar with some of the basic real estate tools for San Antonio and Bexar County. I'd start with the Bexar County Appraisal District site at bcad.org, which also links to tax records for properties, and the Bexar County Clerk site at https://gov.propertyinfo.com/tx-bexar/.

At the Clerk's site, you have to register, but once you do, you can use it scope out records of properties or property owners.

I've wholesaled several properties on the Eastside, and found these sites to be very helpful in my initial research.

Todd

If the property is in a jurisdiction that allows online searches of tax records or recorded property records, you can look up past records involving that property or property owner to see if a recorded document includes the legal description. 

Todd