All Forum Posts by: Collin Maher

Good evening all.  I am purchasing an empty lot in an touristy town in Texas with good rental rates.  I am in the middle of remodeling my first home  in the same town (an early 1900's). Originally i was going to keep this for a rental but the age of the house worries me long term.  

Im considering building a new house with the intent to use as a LTR.  I have friends that have done this and it has worked well for them but i'm wanting to appeal to a bit more of a middle to higher end renter, meaning the house would be nicer but still small (1200 SF).  The people i know have built small very basic homes and have been renting them well for the past 6-7 years with somewhat minimal repairs being needed.  

Does any one have any personal experience with pros and cons of new construction LTR?  The extra cost in new construction doesnt worry me. just the concept of building nice/new and handing it to a renter. 

Great topics for me to think about. Thank you for the reply. It would certainly be nicer than any of the local hotels. Ive been doing rehabs for a few years and built my current home 3 years ago. Quality goes a long way. Hence the 20K rehab on 670sf.  

As far as why people are coming to our area?  Theres several new restaurants with several more retail centers being built. tons of new apartments.  we are placed right in between two other "trendy" towns that have a fair amount of tourism (although this town does not especially attract tourists the neighboring ones do) and we would be walking distance to the restaurants.

I really like your thought on the mobile being 50 years old in 12 years though. good thing for me to ponder. 

Howdy All! Im looking at a rough (1983) little (670sf) single wide mobile home on a city lot in a busy little town here in Texas. There isn't much of a VRBO presence here but theres a few chain hotels and many new apartments going in. Since this would be my first investment purchase I have some concerns about a single wides value retention. I would be paying for it in cash, and my rough but conservative calculations of renting out just 10 days a month net me a positive cash flow of between $475-$531. If I were to completely remodel the home with an extra 20K in renovations. CoC return being between %8-%10. My biggest question is this. Would or should anyone invest in a 1980's small single wide as a short term rental opportunity? What are the potential pitfalls? This seems like a good opportunity, but I know that due to the fact that it's a single wide, refinancing and pulling money out of it wont really be an option. So once I spend the money, its going to be tied up and unavailable for the 12 years it takes to pay off the expense (assuming my 10 days a month rent stays the same and doesn't increase or decrease).

Thanks in advance!