All Forum Posts by: Alfred Litton

@Trevor Muzzy  We've had George Foster do work on our properties, and he's been reliable and reasonably priced.  Foster's Properties and Services    1910 McGregor Ave. Wichita Falls, TX 76301.  BP won't let me give you phone or email for him, but I will send to you via message if possible. 

Our LLC has three properties in it. Each has a homeowner's insurance policy with $500K in liability insurance. Is that sufficient? Do we need another liability insurance policy for the LLC itself? What do you all recommend?

Oh, one other thing. (Sorry to be wordy.) If you're a long-term player, you should look at the I35W corridor.  TXDOT has plans to go 8 lanes from Denton to just south of OK border and 6 lanes to the up to the Red River.  Why? Because the I75 corridor is getting built out and the growth will shift in the next decade to the Alliance area where there is still plenty of land. Denton, Krum, Ponder, Sanger, Decatur will boom when that shift happens.  Denton's pricey, but small towns around it have LOTS of potential for flips, rehabs, and long-term rental holds.  What happened to Collin County from 1995-now is about to happen to Denton County over the next 20 years. Look west, southwest, and just north of Denton for some older flippable homes in those small towns. You  might make a mint over time.

I have bought 3 sf homes in Wichita Falls in the past few months (all cash).  I can tell you that the bargains there are far harder to find than back in the spring.  The first two were multiple-offer scenarios, and I had to pay over asking on one. The market for good rental prospects ($80k-$100k) has been picked over in many respects. Realtors there tell me the city's been flooded with investors in the past year or two--like me, honestly! Bear in mind that I'm not interested in flipping or extensive rehabs, so I'm in a particular niche.  I think you need to look very, very carefully at the local job market and the key employers as well as growth and new construction inventory.  WF, Waco, etc. CAN be good places to invest, but do your homework.  They are not a "no-brainer" by any means. And you can't assume they are reasonably priced just because they are in mid-sized cities.  That said, it seems that EVERYthing is cheaper than the DFW area these days. I've lived in Denton for 23 years, and the prices have just exploded all over the metroplex. It is not the bargain it once was. You will rarely find something at the 1% rule. More like .6-.7%, and that's just not interesting enough for me.  You can find SOME properties in WF or Longview (not Sherman/Denison anymore) for that 1%, but there's a lot of trash that's been brought on the market lately designed mostly to be sold to unsuspecting out-of-town investors, so watch out! People come in from both coasts and think $100K for a house that rents for $825 is a deal. It's not. Not here, anyway. And especially if it's a piece of crap that needs another $20K worth of work. Bottom line: Be careful, be patient, and do your homework.  (BTW, I lived and worked in Lexington--VMI--for 3 years and loved it there. But boy is it expensive to buy a home there!)  Good luck!

@Zack P.  Thanks!  I'll check it out.

@Alexander Felice.  I am able to pay the loan off in about 12 months, no problem, and I have about 2/3 of the cost of the home saved in cash.  So I'm less worried about the interest rate than the crazy fees/closing costs on a mortgage.

Hi Aaron. Would a bank do that if the property is in my LLC? (Can you tell I'm new at this?)

Oh, one other thing I'd add.  Once you get too far north (30 miles north of Denton is where we live), it's not so easy to get good trades people to come up and work on your properties. Can't currently get a concrete guy or a roofing guy up where I am.  Don't venture too far north unless you know local guys to do the work.

Chris Carlson's observations are very true. I've lived and worked in Denton for 25 years. Right now, I find Denton itself to be too pricey, but Krum, Sanger, Ponder, and Valley View are all much more in range.  I live in Valley View right now, and the community is bracing for what will be tremendous growth all the way up 35W, through Denton, all the way to OK one day. TXDOT has plans to expand I35 to 8 lanes all the way to Valley View and 6 lanes up to the Red River.  It's coming at us up here!  I'd look at Sanger and Krum right now.  Gainesville has problems (drugs) that you might want to steer clear of.

Hi All. I currently own 2 SFHs outright (no debt and both in my LLC) and wish to purchase a 3rd. I have $50K but would need about $85K for the 3rd home. I don't want to do a traditional mortgage since the amount is smaller and the fees are awful in TX. Is my best bet simply a personal loan? I probably could pay off the $35K in about a year or a year and a half. Ideas? Suggestions? Thanks everyone!