All Forum Posts by: Kevin C.

Ha ha, have submitted a couple offers in Allen, both turned into multiple offer situations, highest and best.   Nothing so far.  Everything we've bid on has been from the mls, but not move-in ready houses. 

These have been houses that need a fair amount of work - foundation issues, major rot on exterior, bathrooms and kitchens in need of repair/updates etc.   These have been rough houses and yet they're still selling like hotcakes.   

The pendulum will eventually swing the other way, but right now, the areas we like, Allen, Frisco, McKinney and Lucas are crazy hot.

Absolutely not!

I made that mistake with the first tenant I put into one of our rentals, accepted partial deposit and allowed them to pay the rest the following month.

I did get the deposit, along with a tenant that had in fact been evicted from prior home. That eviction did not show up until after she was in our rental.   She turned out to be a nightmare, things started out OK, then went bad pretty fast.   In the end, I had to evict as well, and once I got the home back, it was trashed.  That was a several thousand dollar mistake that I will not make again.

@Dana Chun, thanks for taking the time to put this together.   I'm in Lucas and hope to make the next meet up.

@Sam Sendgraff - figured out how to do the @.   Had to type more of your last name before it fired.  Posted this so that you would know I responded to your initial post.

@Sam Sendgraff (dang it, I never remember how to get the @ thing to work) Agents name was Tracey Lightfoot with Worley and Associates.

We decided not to act on this particular property due to the property not really being exactly what we were looking for.  We were looking for a lakehouse, ideally with waterfront property that could be turned into a vacation rental.  This property was a property that from the beginning was designed and marketed as a vacation rental.  We felt the property was ONLY good for that purpose, which may or may not be a good thing, but for us, it was not really what we were looking for.

We did find out that not all properties in that area can legally be run as vacation rentals, it has to to be permitted for that, and from what I was told, getting that permit for a home that does not already have it can be a lengthy process.  

Tracey seemed to be well versed in vacation rentals in that area and had a wealth of information, just in the end, that particular house was not really what we were looking for.

We self manage our rentals here, so we don't pay a PM and when issues do arise (which have been quite rare), depending on the issue I may address it myself, or call a local handyman or contractor.  

We have enough family with plenty of trade contacts in St Ann that we could probably self manage, but have to assume that issues with 50+ year old homes in low income areas would far exceed what we have experienced with newer homes in more affluent areas.

The limited return along with dealing with long-distance is a concern, the other concern is the area in general is decaying.  The only upside I see there is the redevelopment going on where Northwest Plaza used to be.  If that works out that general vicinity may see a nice boost, but in order for the retail part of that project to succeed it has to draw shoppers, and the base to pull from in that immediate area is pretty weak.

We looked at quite a few homes, found one that appealed to us, made an offer, got into a best and highest offer situation and didn't win it.   After that we re-evaluated the potential profits vs headache factor and decided not to go that route.

We were looking in decent areas in St Ann, only those in Pattonville school district, max target of 50K to 60K all in, that would rent somewhere in the $850 range.  

While at first glance the numbers appeared better than what we see in the areas we like in North Dallas, once you figure in the increased operating costs for long distance landlording, increased turnover and costs associated with rentals in that price range and the limited appreciation potential, we decided to stop searching there.

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Our rentals with vinyl plank are in the $1600 to $1800 a month range.  

Tile is pretty common in this part of the county.  It's cold underfoot in the winter, but our winters are mild.  Solid hardwoods are popular as well, but not something I'd put in this level rental.

Not sure where the upper level property break would be, but these rentals are in solid desirable areas and have no problems attracting quality tenants.

Agree - We're looking to add to our rentals, and this time we're looking for something in the 1400 to 1600 sqr ft range.  The 2K+ sqr ft homes just cost too much to keep up.

For flooring, we have moved away from carpet and use mostly tile or vinyl plank.   Vinyl plank looks great, tenants love it, and it has proven to hold up extremely well.   The first time we had vinyl plank installed in a rental was back in early 2011 and that flooring still looks like new.