All Forum Posts by: Chris Kersey

Hi Sumiya, 

Yes I will share this over to your email. 

I know it can be done with some boots on the ground in the city while you are away. A good handyman and possibly a realtor for future leases/other items and you should be good. I feel like a lot of people work property management up to be a super time consuming thing, but with the right tenant in place, the right team on the ground and some software to manage things, it can be done from a far relatively easy. 

@Sumiya Mahmud Have you looked into some of the self managed software options? I'm a RE Agent and Investor in central Houston (one of our houses is up in Spring) and I use Hemlane.com to track and manage payments, maintenance requests, ect. 

Aside from this, all I would need is a good handyman in the area and most of our properties run themselves. Feel free to reach out and I would be happy to share my Handyman I use in Spring and other parts of Houston. 

Hello! 

My wife and I have a portfolio of 5 houses currently. We have a 3 more new construction duplexes in the works as well, just waiting on permitting to get approved. Up until this point , we have been buying the land with our cash, constructing the homes with cash, renting them out, and using a DSCR loan to pull most of our money back out.

I'm looking for a better way to scale this though. Maybe a commercial line of credit? We both have great credit scores, equity in homes, and an ample amount of cash, we are just looking for a more efficient way to scale. I am an RE agent and she owns her own business. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

- Chris 

Thanks for the info, I'm definitely going to check this out. 

Hey Holly, 

When is the next meet up? I would love to join. 

- Chris 

@Jessica Perez Velazquez I love the Spring Market and used to live up there for 4 years. I still have one rental near 2920 and 45 that does well. My vote is to keep the house and rent it out. Spring has continued to appreciate nicely. The problem is getting ahold of the trapped equity you have in the home. Have you thought about getting a HELOC on the house while you are still living there to utilize some of your equity? This won't allow you to access much (roughly $30-45K depending on lender, I use CUTX) but it's still good to have that option available if a great deal comes up.

The other option of selling the house and investing the tax free gains is also on the table. You just have to factor in the returns from what your invest the money into this was VS how the rental house would perform. 

I'm a Realtor and manage my own properties so feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions about your market or need a CMA run to see what your home could sell for or current market rent is.

@Mengrou Cao Some of the major suburbs of Houston I would look into would be Spring, Katy, Cypress, Tomball, and Pearland. Most of these areas have great school and are still relatively affordable. 

As far as up and coming, definitely check out Baytown. I just sold a new construction Lennar home out there that would have cash flowed if the buyer wasn't using it as a primary residence. 

If you have any more specific questions or want some local help, feel free to reach out. 

- Chris 

@Edwin Saldivar This is exactly what I do with new construction duplexes in central Houston except we don't plan to live in them and we use DSCR loans to pull the money back out. You are basically BRRRR'ing new construction homes. We buy the land cash, build in cash, get the property rented out and use a DSCR loan to pull our money back out. From what I have found, you need to make sure your numbers work with rental comps as well as home value comps in the area. I found that single family homes would be tough to make the numbers pencil unless you got a great deal on the land. You are also adding HML costs in as well.

Feel free to reach out as I'm happy to share all I have learned so far with this process. When executed well, it can be an amazing way to build equity and have a new construction rental with little if any money left in the deal. 

I recently completed a duplex build in Acres Homes area of Houston with a builder friend for $101/ft. The wild thing is that this cost of $101/ft included his fee which equated to over $37k. The work was good enough but you definitely get what you pay for. I found a different builder for my upcoming projects that offers consulting services on a monthly basis. This is super cool because it lets me be more hands on and save costs while having an experienced builder helping plug in all the pieces. 

The coolest part is BRRRR'ing new construction. If you run your numbers correctly, it is possible to build a duplex in cash, rent it out, and use a DSCR Loan to pull all of your money back out.

@Micah Franklin Check with your local credit unions. This is where I found the best rate for me in TX and I was able to lock in a fixed rate back when the interests rate weren't crazy high. Having a fixed rate is much nicer for me to be able to strategically plan my investments with out worrying about the rates changing. Good Luck!