All Forum Posts by: Christopher Gilbert

Generally if you have an ownership interest in the property then you can manage it yourself. Depending on your state laws you may not be able to manage someone else's property unless you are either a broker or work for a broker with their permission.

Also one thing to keep in mind is that you can protest your taxable house value every year and thus, reduce your taxes.   We own a handful of properties in central texas and the taxing entities generally set their budget and then just inflate the house value estimate to get the revenue that they need.  In order to fight them you need to get up-to-date comps from a realtor for sales within the past year and if you can, protest to have your value reduced to the average. 

We have had houses where we purchased them for $85k and the next year the city tries to value them at $130k.  You should also double check the details on your property because we have had issues where they had the wrong square footage, wrong number of bedrooms, etc. and this can also greatly affect your taxable value. 

Protesting is not always successful as the value is what it is but if you are armed with data you can usually win.  Just do not go in there with the attitude that you feel taxes are just too high, that will lose every time, bring the data to prove it.

There are also companies that you can hire if you are out of state to perform this task for a percent of the savings.  I am a little wary of these places but if they can save you money then go for it, just make sure there are no hidden fees.

Has anyone ever developed raw land into a mobile home park in the Austin, TX area?  We come across land deals from time to time and wanted to see what types of expenses typically go into getting the land ready (zoning, utility taps, roads, etc.).  Does anyone know of any good books, websites, etc. that specialize in this type of development?

I recently let go my property manager and took over the management duties on a couple of my houses.  I resigned the tenants and local law states that if tenants move out the landlord has to refund the deposit within 30 days.  Since the tenants are still in place the law does not really apply.

Has anyone been through a similar situation and how long is allowed before the ex-manager has to transfer the funds back to me to hold in escrow?

Does anyone have any experience developing multi-family properties from vacant land in the Austin, TX area?  We come across land deals from time to time that we used to flip but when the market tanked and the buyers couldn't get loans anymore we abandoned that strategy. 

What is your typical cost/sqft to develop 4-8 units (or more) and is it even worth pursuing?  We have taken smaller lots and built higher end houses on them but the cost/sqft was in the $80 range.  Can having the common roof, utility taps, etc. get the cost down to the $60/sqft range?

For whatever reason the multi-plex's in the Austin area go for a premium (even at mortgage/tax auctions) and we wanted to see if we could take advantage of the trend.

Try Redfin. The have the closest to real-time MLS data that we have found so far. Zillow's Zestimate is no where near accurate in our area and always seems to be off on both value and rents.

Your ROI is good but at $100-$150/door the cash flow is not there to sustain the properties. If you use a property manager they will take at least half of your cash flow and maintance/vacancies will take the other half and then some. If you are not tied to that particular area I would choose another city (or state) to invest in with better numbers. Typically in our area for SFH with 20% down you should be getting at least $350/month cash flow and if you are willing to do some renovation you can get up to $500+/month cash flow. We also look to get at least 15% equity out of a deal as well when we purchase and fix up.

Less money down is great but you need to be getting enough cash flow to make sure you can sustain the property.  I have seen a ton of foreclosures where the previous owners were "investors" that only put 5% down and went belly up when the houses prices fell.

I would skip them and move on to the next tenant.  You may be able to get some history with name and birthdate and maybe a driver's license number but my immediate thoughts are that they are either hiding something or extremely paranoid, either way they are going to be a pain in the butt.

I will not enter into a fiscal contract with and rent to anyone that I cannot verify who they are and do my due diligence on.  What happens if you need to evict them or sue for rent/damages and they skip town?  No SSN means no traceability/trackability.

I typically spend about 1/2 hour per property per month for book keeping and repair issues.  When units turn over you can plan on 2-8 hours of work depending on whether you plan to do showings or pay a commision to other realtors to show the property.  After I totalled up the amount of time actually spent I decided to get rid of my property manager since they were not really adding that much value for the price that I was paying, in my opinion.

You can also try working with a mortgage broker that is local to you.  Mortgage brokers work with dozens of lenders (local and nationwide) and there are usually a few that can get you what you need.  We have been able to get up to nine mortgages this way but each lender has their own rules.  For instance each individual lender does not want to have more than two mortgages with you to help limit their risk exposure but at least you could get mortgage #5 & #6 before finding another.  The broker generally can get you lower closing costs and better rates as well so it is a win-win.  If your mortgage broker can not get you any more mortgages, look for another one until you find one that has the right lender pool.