All Forum Posts by: Allison Stewart

@Shawn Jaffee, if you have to leave Austin, then rent out the unit you occupy and use a good property manager and keep collecting your cash every month. We aren’t necessarily planning on being here forever. But property management is always an option.

And like I said before, my current property has appreciated 100% in the last 5 years. We don’t need count on that happening again (we like cash flow) but that’s the way it’s currently going in our neighborhood. We also forced appreciation with a reno on both sides of our duplex (and we have one of the highest rents in neighborhood, consequently). 

You just have to pick the right neighborhood. 

We are currently looking for a duplex in North Austin (west of 35). We own one already and are moving on to our second once we find one that fits our criteria. 

House hacking as you describe is super doable in Austin! My husband and I are doing it currently in our first duplex and looking to buy our second that we will also house hack. Happy to go over some numbers with you if you want to PM me. We pay very little to live in our house (MUCH less than your rent) and are building a significant amount of equity (the home we own has doubled in value over the last 5 years). When we move out of our current duplex, it will cash flow quite nicely (right now around $800 a month cash flow after expenses). 

Also a multi-family investor looking for meet-ups. I've checked out the Investor Underground meet-ups and I'm not sure it's for me. It was very flip oriented, and we are buy and hold kind of people. 

Also following for tips - considering a cash out refi to buy another property!