All Forum Posts by: Christopher Brainard

Hi @Valerie Watson and welcome to BP!

My advice is simple, attend but don't buy. Meet people, network, ask questions. I've found most people who attend enjoy some good conversation while they're waiting around to bid on properties. While it may seem that buying from auction is an easy win, unless you're a professional and can tolerate the risk associated with buying at auction, it's a bad idea. Most of the minimum bids are far too high. I've seen homes that were completely gutted inside, liens pop up at the last minute, and 'vacant' properties that still had an unwilling to move owner. You'd be surprised how much damage an unscrupulous person can do before being evicted. So 

On a side note, there are still deals to be had in the DFW area, but you have to look for them. The days of doing a random search on the MLS and buying a dozen properties have passed. At least, until the downturn :)

-Christopher

Hi @Jeremy Willis,

The first thing I would suggest is to learn to make a lean budget and save additional capital for investment. With how much you make and how low your bills are, you should be able to put away 2x to 3x per year what you currently have in savings. This indicates to me that there is a lot of fat that can trim, and while you can invest with no money down (read: other people's money), having a bit of your own makes life immeasurably easier. 

The second suggestion I have is to sit down and really plan out what you want. I often hear people say they want out of the rat race, want to make six fixture, be a millionaire, etc., but none of these ideas are sufficiently powerful or specific to make people sacrifice the needful to achieve them. If it were as easy as saying it, everyone would be rich! 

Finally, I would recommend learning all you can here and looking for a local mentor if possible. There are so many areas in real estate where you can carve out a niche, its important to find out what areas speak to you and will keep your attention long term. 

-Christopher 

Hi @Alicia Ro and welcome to BP. 

If you're focused on keeping your rental in good repair, I'm going to go with option #3 - find a better applicant :) 

I agree that most people who say they smoke (or vape) outside are not necessarily honest in all situations. Smoking is one of the most damaging things tenants do to rentals. I also am not a fan of large dogs - I love them but they're hard on homes. I do not like aquariums either, unless your house does not have any water absorbing floors. 

-Christopher

Hi @Alex Landowski and welcome to BP!

There is no real answer for the question that you're asking. There is a multitude of ways to make money in real estate and each individual will prefer one method over another. With that said, if you're asking this question, you need to do some serious studying and learning before you proceed in any direction. Investing without intimate knowledge of and experience in the asset class, risks, and exit strategy is very risky (especially at where we are in the market cycle) and the only person whose money you should have losing more than your own is anyone else's. The good news is that the information is here and free, you just need to take advantage of it. The bad news is that you need to put in the time. After all, there is no free lunch :)

-Christopher

@Alex Silang

You're at risk of being rejected. After you figure in the expenses not included in PITI (Vacancy, Repairs, Capex, Etc), your rental income, in terms of qualification, is going to be lower than you expect. This is why lenders often only take a certain % of your actual rental income (usually like 75%) to calculate your earnings. It also depends on what the rest of your personal income is (W2, 1099, Cap Gains, Etc) and what your personal expenses and debt are. When you put all of this together, you may (or may not) qualify to borrow 400k.

The best thing you can do is find a lender that has the terms you want and get pre-approval, including having the underwriter approval your personal income and rental income. That's about as close as you can get to knowing for sure if your loan will go through.

-Christopher

@Account Closed

Welcome to self managing your properties :)

Most tenants are tenants for a reason and the vast majority of them are not handy nor do they have any experience with maintenance issues associated with a house. Your best bet is to try to educate them when you're there and hopefully they won't call you for the same minor issue twice. If it continues to be an issue, I would simply not renew their lease at the end.

-Christopher

Yes, we only bought one deal off the MLS last year. Everything else was due to networking, wholesalers, or direct mail.

-Christopher

@Julian Fung

House hacking isn't just done with MFRs. My wife and I have lived in and fixed up six different homes over the last 19 years. 

Right now, you're very correct in noting that the DFW area is super competitive, but last year we were still able to buy five houses at 75% ARV (or less) including repairs to flip, all in A/B areas. The deals are still out there and they surface occasionally, but you need to be able to discern the deals from the non-deals and have the ability to move on them very quickly.

Also, remember that appreciation is speculation. In my opinion, we're either at the peak or near the peak of the market, so you could very well lose money in the short term. I'm not saying that you shouldn't invest, but you need to invest carefully and conservatively, even if it is your primary residence. 

-Christopher

Hi @Julian Fung and welcome to BP!

Depending on where you live and where you invest, this may or may not make sense. To decide if this is a valid path for you, you need to compare the cost of buying your primary residence & the mortgage payment vs the income you could generate investing plus your rental payment. 

The reason why house hacking is mentioned so much is because it's generally the most profitable strategy. Investor lending rates are generally higher, plus you have costs associated with finding tenants and maintaining rentals, and when you sell, you still need to pay capital gains. With house hacking, you get better rates, you're the 'tenant', you generally purchase the property at a lower price, and you can get a tax exclusion when you sell. 

-Christopher

I tend to agree with @Bruce Lynn. Its highly unlikely that you're going to get an eviction order based on a couple cigarette butts, as this is purely circumstantial evidence. However, if you want to move forward, you're going to need to provide a three day notice, which gives them the opportunity to cure the problem. I don't know how you prove if they quit smoking or not. You can check out nolo.com and search Texas eviction for more info.

-Christopher