All Forum Posts by: Bill Crider

You will find the prices in Killeen to be a fraction of the prices in Georgetown. Average in Georgetown is over $450K now for a 3br 2ba. I can hook you up with people in Killeen who can get you into a very nice 3br 2ba for under $300k. (I'm not a realtor).

Most investors won't replace all income with cashflow because they:

1. Don't hold their property long enough

2. Don't buy right

3. Don't manage right

4. Listen to people who convince them to sell for shorter term gains.

5. Don't buy enough properties.

But that doesn't mean the strategy is flawed, it just means most people's execution is flawed, usually because their attention span is too short.

All homes built east of I35 will experience settling to some degree or another. I have seen homes in Georgetown east of I35 that settled so bad they could not be leveled. One tipped 14 inches front to back! I saw a house in Round Rock that split in the middle and opened a 5 inch crack. Obviously these are extreme, but show what happens when builders don't do adequate soil testing. If you are buying resale homes, foundation inspections are a MUST in central Texas. If you are building, soil testing is a must. Build on bedrock, or not at all. 

I think buying outside your local market is a mistake. If you don't live close enough to visit your properties, invest passively in multifamily, not single family.

That said, south of Austin, north of San Antonio is where the growth will be for the next 10 years.

Tesla is building a new mega-factory near Dell Valley. Appreciation there should be more.

I have an Ozone generator I use between tenants to kill odors, mold and bugs. After doing some research, I find that ozone at high concentrations also kills Sars viruses (Covid-19 is a Sars virus). You can only use it in an empty unit, because it also kills plants, pets and humans at high concentrations. The first part of my cleaning regimen will certainly be an ozone fumigation. 

People are so nervous about covid-19, I am sure that some applicants will ask if there were any positive tenants. I want to be able to reassure them that adequate measures were taken to be reasonably sure no infection remains.

What measures are needed after a Covid-19 Positive tenant moves out of a rental? What additional cleaning/disinfecting measures are needed? I assume washing all surfaces, including walls, doors, counters, bathrooms, kitchen with a bleach solution would be in order. 

Replacing all filters of course. Steam-cleaning carpets, bleach-cleaning hard floors. What about curtains? What kind of disinfectant would be safe for curtains and window blinds? Is there some sort of aerosol disinfectant that should be sprayed? 

Any other suggestions?

Leonard;

You don't necessarily have to find all the money. You should probably have 10% to 20% of the money on hand, because you will need some cash for closing expenses. But there are many ways to buy houses without a ton of cash.

FIrst choice of funding for me is the current owner. I have bought many houses with owner financing of one variety or another. Whether it is a wrap, assumption, straight owner finance or other creative method, owner financing does not require that you have a lot of cash. Not every house can be bought with owner financing, so it may limit your choices. But it may also open up choices you would not otherwise have because you did not have cash to buy your dream house yet.

Another choice of funding is: spend less on a house than you planned! The less you spend, the less you finance! Instead of buying the maximum house you can afford, buy the minimum house you can stand. Fix it up, sell at a profit, and use the profit to trade up.

Of course you can also go the route of prequalifying for a loan. Many people do. You can also get to know private lenders in your area. If you are buying as an investment, you can find a private lender who will lend to you or who will partner with you for your first property. Private lenders will not typically finance your homestead, but maybe you need to work up to that milestone.

Until you find the property, you don't know how much money you need. You also won't be as motivated to actually find the cash. So from my point of view: find the property, then the money.

Bill Crider

I personally collect most of my rents (20+ single family homes) and all those paid on time. Of the four under property manglement, err....management...., 3 did not pay And all three of those live 100% on government checks which were delivered to them on time. Two of them are section 8 and only pay a tiny amount, so it makes no sense. They don't seem to think they will lose section 8 for not paying during the pandemic. We will see. I am much more concerned about May than I was about April.