All Forum Posts by: Christian Rojmar

@David Ivy Thanks for very informative post! Seems like best thing to do is expand search outside of Austin (@Joe Norman - I have some friends that own rental properties in Houston so need to talk to them - Dallas is equally bad to Austin at moment) or wait for market correction that will place rental rates more in line with property values. Don't see how you can be cash flow positive when rent is about 0.5% of property value unless making a very large down payment (which is something I am not looking to do).

Thanks for replies! Meeting with realtor today which should give me some additional valuable insight. Was hoping out-of-state investing could be avoided in beginning as I am new to real estate investing. I am also thinking about looking into storage units but I have a feeling that market is no better than rental properties in Austin...

Hi everyone!

Finished reading rich dad poor dad for the second time a little while ago and have since then been plowing through real estate books as much as time allows, including "Rental Property Investing" which brought me to this forum! It is great to meet everyone. I live in Austin, Tx and have a goal of accumulating 20+ single family rentals over the next 10-15 years in the Austin area.

With that said, the problem I notice right of the bat as I have begun analyzing real estate deals is that whether I look at properties that are in foreclosure, been on the market for months, pre-forclosure, REOs, or Craigslist, the pricing on such properties (which is far below current "market rates" in Austin) are not even close to allow cash flow to be positive. I have expanded my location with no improvement in cash flow. Are you guys experiencing similar difficulty in today's market (particularly in Austin)? I am far from discouraged yet as I have just begun this journey and the fact that we are what may very likely be a peak in the economy before a pullback or recession. Do you guys just play the numbers game and make offers that allow cash flow goals to be met on a ton of potential listings and wait for someone desperate to accept?

Any thoughts on where to go from here? I have begun shifting my focus to building a network - realtor, lawyers, accountants, lenders, property managers, and hopefully other investors so I have that in place once the market provides better opportunities. But am I maybe just overlooking something in regard to finding cash flow positive properties?

Appreciate any input and again, great to meet everyone!