All Forum Posts by: Christine Newton

Welcome! My husband and I are real estate investors in Austin. We had single family rentals and have recently moved to multi-family. We rehab houses and this year are about to launch our residential real estate business. 

You should definitely check out some of the local meetup groups. Networking has definitely been a big factor in growing our business over the last couple of years!

@Sriratana Sutasirisap

I live in Wells Branch, so I a may be a bit partial here, but if I had the choice between the two I would pick Wells Branch over Pflugerville every time. My opinion is that home prices will rise faster in WB than in Pflugerville. The community of Wells Branch has many, many amenities that make it a very desirable place to live. Also, while a large part of Wells Branch is in the Round Rock school district, part of the community is in Plugerville school district, so you'll want to double check on the house you are looking at. 

With that being said, you may want to be careful about how you will be renting out your property in WB. Home owners here are starting to catch on that there are investors coming into the community and renting out these homes as short term rentals with Airbnb. They are not happy about it. There are currently groups of neighbors that are watching these properties and documenting every single thing they deem to be a nuisance. It has been reported to the MUD board and I know that the MUD attorney is looking into the matter to see if short term rentals can be regulated or banned. That may never happen, but you never know. At the very least, if you are renting through Airbnb and you have big parties happening every weekend at your property, you run the risk of having the sheriff's office called on a regular basis. 

If you are doing 3-6 month rentals for professionals in the area you probably won't have as much of a problem. 

Welcome @David Wei!

I'm also an investor in Austin, TX. Bigger Pockets was a huge help when I first started investing. Definitely check out the podcasts that discuss the types of investing in which you are interested. 

There are also many meetups in the area where you can network with other local investors and I would suggest checking a few of them out to see which ones you like best!

Dan Castro has drafted documents for me on an assumption deal that I did earlier this year. If you do a google search for Castro and Baker you'll find his contact info. His office is on Shoal Creek Blvd. in Austin.

Hi Jake, 

You are right that the list you are looking at is probably pre-foreclosures and yes...you might be able to find a house to purchase from this list. There are a couple of things to consider. For starters, you will be competing against hundreds of investors that are also marketing to these properties. These investors are sending letters, calling, and knocking on doors. 

You will also need to find out when the house is scheduled for auction. The foreclosure process here in TX is very fast. The bank give notice 21 days before the auction which always happens on the 1st Tuesday of every month. So this means that if you do find someone that is willing to sell you their house, you will need to act fast. If you are trying to buy the home with conventional bank financing then you probably won't have enough time. If you are buying cash then you should have no problem getting it done before the auction. There are some creative strategies you can use here such as buying the house with a hard money loan and then switching to a conventional loan. 

Also keep in mind that the info you get tells you the original loan balance, but it doesn't tell you how long the person hasn't been paying their mortgage. You can use the information to figure out how much should be left on the loan, but there will be more than that to pay due to months of non-payment. 

I just purchased a house from a pre-foreclosure a couple of months ago. She hadn't paid her mortgage in 18 months, but I've also talked to another guy who hadn't paid his mortgage in four years. 

Another thing to keep in mind...if you do find a pre-foreclosure and there happens to be enough time for you to buy the home before auction with a conventional loan then you will need to keep in mind the condition of the home. A lot of the homes that I have been in that are on that list are not in very good condition which means that the bank will likely not lend on them. Many have years of neglect. 

If you do decide to go this route then the first thing you need to do is figure out how to get in touch with the owners to see if they want to sell to you!

Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions!

Good Luck!!

- Christine

Hi @Ronald Stark, 

Those are good concerns to have! My husband and I are investors in the Austin area, and we own several rental properties here. Most hard money lenders will give you a letter of pre-approval. The hard money lenders we know offer loans at different LTVs for flips versus buy and holds.  Also, the lenders we know will require you to already be pre-approved by your conventional lender before you can get the hard money loan (just for buy and hold loans). 

Other lenders may work that a bit differently. I see that Sherman Bridge was mentioned above and I'm pretty sure they have a different type of program. I'm not very familiar with what they offer. 

The best thing to do will be to call some hard money lenders and see what they require.

When I am purchasing a property I like to make sure I have at least two exit options just in case one falls through!

If you have any questions feel free to PM me!

My understanding is that here in Austin the city is no longer giving out new permits for vacation rentals for at least the next year while they look into this issue. 

Numerous complaints have been going into the city from residents that live next to or near vacation rentals.

Before they stopped issuing permits my husband and I almost bought a duplex to turn into a vacation rental, but there were no available permits for this particular area of the city so we backed out. 

Personally, I would not buy a property to turn into a short term rental if I couldn't do it legally. The headache that could come with trying to run one illegally is just not worth it for me. You may be more risk averse than I am. :-)

Rod Hanks is correct in that affidavit of heirship will have to be filed. My understanding is that the court will still need to grant the house over to the surviving daughter. I'm pretty sure the daughter can not sell the home until this is probated. 

What you need to do is contact a real estate attorney. 

@Robert Hidrogo

Yes...the Austin market is very competitive right now. Your friend is right in saying that there are very few deals on the MLS and you need to be ready to jump on them immediately when they do come up. There are investors here that are buying properties off the MLS, but the majority of them are running their own marketing campaigns to find leads.

You should start going to the local meetups and networking with other investors in the area. This will give you a good idea of what people are doing to get their deals. 

This is a tough market, but there are deals to be had. My husband and I have purchased two properties this year, and that is small time compared to what some other investors in the area are doing. So it can be done. 

Hi @Dan McFall, 

Welcome to BiggerPockets! My husband and I are investors in the Austin areas as well. We are buy and hold investors looking to add flipping to our repertoire. We attend several meetups in the area to network with fellow investors and to learn more about investing in the Austin market. You should check some of them out!