All Forum Posts by: TAYLOR BRANNEN

Hey Ryan,

Thanks for the response, I asked the listing agent about seller financing but the seller doesn't want to go that route she just wants to be done with the property. I also learned that she no longer wants to occupy the building that she currently runs a salon out of. 

As for your first two questions,

1. I great up close to this city so I know the area reasonably well, I decided to just drive through town and see what was available and stumbled upon it. It is about a 20 minute drive from me currently so my plan is to actively manage it. 

2. I was texting the listing agent just as you made the post and he told me that the owner is just looking to retire and doesn't want to have her business anymore or have the deal with tenants. 

Hoping someone could shed a little light on the numbers as well as mixed commercial retail property.

Thanks! 

Any help would be greatly appreciated :) 

Hi, I'm relatively new to the community and have found the posts as well as user blogs and podcasts to be very helpful so thanks for everything! 

So I made a call to the listing agent on the property today to get more information and I may go take a closer look at the property in the next few days. I would really love some help with questions I should ask him to decide if I should make an offer.

The property is zoned mixed use the in the town square of a small town (2,000 population) It has two different buildings on .2 acres. One of them is a residential house (650 sq ft) the other is a small shop (300 sq ft). The house which is a 1/1 is renting for $700/mo and the shop is occupied by the seller for her business. The listing agent told me that she would be willing to rent it for $400/mo. Both of the building are older (built in the 80s) but both have had new floors and paint on the inside recently. The area looks like it doing very well for a small town, the property is right next to a brewery, a lot of updated antique businesses and a few local real estate offices. 

It is currently listed for $125k but it has been on the market for well over a year with little interest so I'm thinking I may be able to get a discount, my strategy is to buy and hold for cash flow. 

My calculations with the current asking price of $125,000 and 15% down @ 4.5% for 25 years with 1.25% property tax and .5% PMI put me at $720.78/Mo which would leave me with positive cash flow of $379.22/Mo before I renovate the buildings and raise the rent.

What do you think about this deal and are there any questions I should ask the listing agent when/if I go walk it. 

Thanks in advance,

Taylor

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the response. The 2% rule is helpful but kind of discouraging, a lot of the properties I see for sale are in the $120k-$200k and the rental rates are closer to the 1% range. 

The properties I'm looking at are all very closely regulated by the city and there aren't a lot of random trailer parks around or anything to that effect. I do know what you mean though. 

Back to whether I'm looking at a good deal there are a few options for properties which I am leaning towards and, the majority of them are condos which I would rather not purchase but the prices are much lower. Another is a small (640 sq ft) property on .25 acres but it was built in the 1970s and needs some work, upside it is very close to a river, in an excellent school district and close to the town square. It is listed for 82k and rental rates in the area are around .90/sqft in the area and there are some nice houses around it. I'm thinking with some work to the property and possibly adding a room on I could bump it up to a reasonable property. Should I be interested in something like this? 

Should I be looking a semi distressed properties to make sure I hit the 2%? Is there another place besides Realtor listings that I can find a good deal on properties? 

Thanks again.

Hi everyone! I've been told that your first property is the hardest and for me thats no exception, I want to make sure I do this right the first time. I just purchased my first home in February and I'm looking to make a purchase in the next few months. I have 20k that I am prepared to put down on a property and excellent credit. 

I live in a small town outside of Austin,TX and because of the cost of property inside Austin is very high I have been looking in some of the outlying areas. Populations in the cities I have been looking range from 1000 - 4000. I'm going into this with a buy and hold strategy and I want to generate cash flow, I would love to start in commercial (storage units and warehouses) but nothing in the areas I have looked are either for sale or in my price range. My next option is to go the residential route...

Has anyone had experience in small towns? My concern is that my unit will sit vacant for too long a period. Are there any people I should seek out in my community for information on rental properties? 

Also what are the steps you go through in determining whether or not a deal is a good one or not. I see a lot of people on the forums say they pick houses up for 40k and amounts much smaller than I'm used to seeing listed for sale in my area. Am I looking in the wrong areas? 

Your help is greatly appreciated! 

My income from my regular job is more than enough and I mistakingly said pre-qual instead of pre-approval. I have submitted all my information to the banks and I'm good to go.

I will check out the rental forum and look into the expenses more like you suggest. Also thanks for your comment on REOs if I need more than 20k I can get my hands on 20 more pretty easily if the deal looks right.

We'll see and I'm going to go check out that rental forum.

Thanks.

Thanks for all of your replys, originally I was looking at getting a condo but I couldnt make the number work. I did some more looking and a lot of people were saying that wholesaling may be a good idea, which is what promted this post. When looking at these properties what are important things I should look for to make sure I'm getting a good deal?

Should I be looking at condos, single-family homes, or multi-family. Are Foreclosures and REOs good investments for someone starting out?

Also,

Jon I have about 20k cash that I can put down on a property and I'm solid on credit 750+ I have my pre-qual I'm just trying to find the right place. I'd rather take a year and find the right place than find the wrong place in a week.

I have been researching and saving money for well over 2 years now and I feel like I'm at the point where I'm ready to really find the right property and make a purchase.

I'm planning on using the property to rent out for cash flow also.

I'm wondering how I need to go about finding wholesale houses and with these houses what should i expect in terms of repair? I live in Austin,TX so if you are familiar with the area I would love to hear some insight into the market out here.

Thanks!!!