All Forum Posts by: Clint Nelson

I think if your going to buy a house, then right now is a good time to buy. I also do believe if you know you will be in the same place for 10 years, it could be a good investment, or if you have a family. That being said historically housing prices on avg have risen just slightly above inflation, and if I tried to sell a stock that had that kind of return, had to spend on maintenance, and charged a 6 percent commision to sell it people would be running scared. I don't think real estate is a bad investment, I just believe it's not the best investment for everybody like a lot of people including me are made to believe. A house mortgage in my area would propably average 1200 a month with thousands of dollars down. I believe maintenance cost on a house and HOA fees would average at least another 300. If you saved the thousands, got a 1 bedroom apartment for 700 a month, and put the other 800 in to other investments I believe you would come out aheand in the long run. I might be wrong, but just what I believe from my experience.

Well, I think I am definitely looking at renting for the next couple of years. I know this is propably blasphemy to say in real estate forum, but I thinking buying a house is extremely overrated investment, especially if you are single.

I am actually looking to move, since I live about 45-50 miles away from work. The question is I have had to spend about $5000 dollars in the last month fixing the A/C and plumbing. I believe you can write off repairs for a rental home, and I am wondering if it would be worth it to the rent the house out for at least 1 year, so I could use the 5000 as a tax deduction. I also had to get the foundation fixed, so that would be another 7,000 if I could write that off as well. The payment is 1050, and it should rent for about 1300. Thanks for the help.

Clint

I live in Southeast houston, and I now have 2 jobs in northwest houston and I am looking to move, but I dont know much about the area. Is there a website that will list info about an area, crime percentage, school ratings, and all of that. The multiple listing service has some info, but not a lot.

The house I am living in right now has foundation problems and they are coming on the 4th to repair it. My question is that I am definitely moving, and I am looking at renting it vs selling it. If I choose to rent it out, would I be able to write the repair cost off?

Clint

I'm not a seasoned investor like many here, but my mother did rent a condo for several years, and I would look towards renting a house, rather than a condo. The maintenance fees on a lot of condos, are really high, it was about $325 a month for her 1 bed room. The fees usually don't cover anything on the inside, and a house can be expensive, but for a 3/2 house I still dont average that a month.

I actually came to this forum with a question about renting my house out and found that it propably wasnt the best deal. I am wondering if you were starting in real estate investing, where would you start, wholesaling, flipping properties, renting properties, etc.. Flipping properties always seemed pretty risky to me, assuming that you could buy a property, and with a little work, sometimes no work assuming you can sell it for 10 percent more just seems out there. The rental side seems more stable, but from what I have heard you would need a very large gap between what you buy the property for and the rent you could charge, just looking to learn a little more, any help you can give is appreciated, Thanks.

Clint

Thanks for the info both Jon and Brian, sounds like I will hold for the time being, maybe once I have it paid down a little more and the rent for my area goes up some I will look into it again. I am wondering just out of curiosity now, how someone would rent a place out and make a profit from it. It seems like it would almost take buying a house for $100,000 and renting it out for $1600. I have thought about doing this for a while, just wondering what it would take, since it seems like it would take a lot. Thanks.

Clint

Well, just like anybody else, I dont care to lose cash every month, but if it was minimal, and worked out to make more in the long run, then I might be able to part with some. The 1200 includes everything, mortgage, insurance, taxes, etc.... I am hoping that it could come close to breaking even for the year, and I would see about 5,000 in tax benefits for the year. Do you think its worth it in the long run, or better to stay where I am? Thanks for the help.

Clint

I am thinking of renting my house out, and buying another closer to my job since real estate prices are a lot lower there than where I live now. I am just hoping to get some advice from some more experienced investors. My current mortgage is right at $1200 a month, and my house should rent at the lowest for 1400, most likely $1450. I really don't expect much positive cash flow from this. These are the main reasons for considering this:

1.A long term investment of the tennant slowly paying off my mortgage.

2. Gaining interest on my house that is appraised at 145,000, over a number of years if it only averaged 3% a year, in 24 years would value at 290,000

3. The tax benefits, I am taxed at around 30%, and I could see about a minimum of $15000 in write offs between interest, taxes, depreciation, maintenance, etc.

4. Eventually the rent should keep going up, and the mortgage should stay the same maybe reduce, when the PMI is down is down to 20%

Those are my reasons, I am just looking for someone with more experience to say if it looks like a good idea. I am also wondering how much I need to have in store of cash to cover what rent may not. I am also considering having a property management company take it as most cost 10% percent of the rent, wich is also tax deductible, so about $100 a month not to be on call 24/7 for the tennant seems like it might not be to bad. I appreciate any help you can give me.

Thanks,
Clint