All Forum Posts by: Chris Nowlin

I have been closely watching houses as they pop up and sell within days. It's easy to tell which houses will move quickly, but are they good deals? I was hoping to get a discussion going on strategies that people have used for determining what is a good deal to jump on when the market is hot.

Is it better to buy a house that has been sitting for a while?

Pay more for move-in ready?

Please advise!

I am just starting out and working on leaning the ins and outs of the real estate business. I have built myself a base plan and tweaked it about 100 times at this point. I spoke briefly with an agent about FHA loans and am curious to what other investors think about them.

In the long term, I'm sure I will eventually switch to conventional loans out right. However, as a young investor, I seem to see some advantages to taking advantage of the FHA system.

My plan is as follows:

Purchase my 1st home using a 30yr FHA loan. By significantly reducing the down payment I will also significantly reduce my cash investment. Although mortgage insurance would be an additional cost, it would be covered by the tenant.

Step 2 involves saving and refinancing. Any cash flow will be put back into the property with the intentions of refinancing as a conventional loan once the 20% mark can be obtained. As my savings build up, the amount needed to refinance will fall. Somewhere on the sliding scale should come a point where I have enough cash to refinance to a conventional loan, with much less that 20% of my own ever going into it, and purchasing #2 with another FHA loan. Repeating the process until I feel it will no longer benefit me.

Has anyone had any personal experience with this concept? Or, know anybody that has? I would love some feedback on the idea. 

Thanks everybody,

Chris

@Randall Jacobs Thank you for the info. When analyzing a deal, do you have a guideline you like to follow for what you are paying vs. what you can rent the unit for? 1% of the buying price seems pretty fair. Do you have a minimium per unit, or is it better to look at the numbers from all of your properties combined?

@Jason Hirko Thank you, sir. Hopefully I will be able to find a good balance over a couple of properties!

@Jason Hirko is both an acceptable answer? I'd like the properties to remain cash flow positive. I plan to use cash flow to pay down the mortgage. I would ideally like properties I will be able to hold onto for a reasonable amount of time, but also have the ability to profitable dump them, if necessary, before some of the bigger maintenance issues present themselves.

I kind of figured Friendswood would be a great area. I would assume it will attract a better quality tenant that other areas. I haven't done much research on Pearland yet. I will start looking around there as well. Do you have a general price range that you typically try to stay between, or does it just depend on the deal?

Thanks for the advice! 

I am eagerly anticipating my first steps into real estate. I have spent several months saving and researching for my first investment. I currently live in the League City area and would prefer my first rental property to be located close by (south of downtown). I am born and raised in the area and fairly familiar with the region. More than anything I was hoping to get some feed back on the best places to find quality investment properties. I currently use realtor.com, loopnet.com, as well as, my girlfriend. She has recently become an agent. To better clarify, I am curious if there are any hidden places that specialize in investment properties, similar to the BP marketplace, that can be sorted by zip code, price, etc.