All Forum Posts by: Austin Neal

I live on the north side of San Antonio and own some storage. I'd be happy to connect.
I can also vouch for @Brandon Hobbs. He's a good guy to know.

@Lawrence Gillett I’ll guide you through the whole process. Send me a DM if that’ll help you.

@Renee Yarbrough Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.

This doesn't answer your question, but I wouldn't mess with meters in a 20 space park. That adds more CapEx, labor, and record-keeping. In my experience, it works fine to have site rent include all utilities. Most of my 30 amp sites with meters use 300-500kWh per month with a few outliers. I find that bumping the rent up to include all utilities is more profitable than billing back the electricity.

Ten spaces per acre is a good general guideline. Twenty spaces will require a lot of effort from you since it won't be able to support much employee labor.

@Cody Richard The goal is to buy it cheap enough to have a repair budget from the hard money lender. A very basic example would be as follows:

$100,000 ARV (hard money will lend 70%/$70k)

$20,000 estimated repair budget provided by hard money lender.

Therefore, you need to buy the deal at $50,000.

This example does not account for lender fees and holding costs, but you get the idea.

If you buy it cheap enough and can rehab it under budget, then you may even make money in this process. For instance, if your hard money lender puts $20k in escrow for your repairs and you end up completing the rehab for $15k, you can still draw the full $20k and net $5k for yourself.

A conventional lender will typically lend 75% of the appraised value, or $75,000 in this example. That’s should be enough to refi your hard money loan and roll in your conventional lender’s fees.

Does this make sense?

In the big picture, buying property at the right price is far more important than cash flow (which is also very important).

@Cody Richard Find a deal at a fraction of ARV. Use hard money for the purchase and rehab. Most hard money lenders I've known will fund up to 70% of ARV. After rehab, refi at 75% LTV. Then put a renter in it. I've done multiple deals this way and I often ended up with $0 out of pocket because I bought the deals at the right price.

I’ve seen quite a few posts on BP that seem to disregard the importance of equity in your investments. Why is that accepted wisdom?

Buying deals for less than they are worth has been a cornerstone to the growth of my business. In 2013, I bought a house using the strategy described above. I sold the house in 2015 and used the equity to buy an industrial building. I sold the industrial building in 2018 and used that equity to buy a 176 unit storage facility. The equity I captured was much more valuable than the $500/mth cash flow the house produced for me.

Don’t lose equity. Be patient. Dig deep for cheap deals.

@James Edwards You might consider a master lease with purchase option at the asking price. That’ll give you some time to test the theory.

@Joshua A Kloos “Equity isn’t real money anyway” is one of the most astonishing lines I’ve read on BP. You might want to reconsider that.

@Michael Nelson I left Houston in 2018 and moved to Bulverde (N side of San Antonio, W of New Braunfels) and absolutely love it. Big city amenities and all the outdoor activities we desire. I think you’d be wise to choose a market with less heat on it. The competition in Austin will tempt you to overpay for deals.