All Forum Posts by: Dan Buchta

Hey thanks for sharing your experience @Derek Felch. Did you still consider the house your primary residence when you made the improvements to it or had you already moved out by then? I'll probably end up doing a lot of the items myself while living in it for the sake of convenience but I'll also be on pretty thin margins for the first year or two. I know it won't result in a large sum but anything helps!

I am in the process of finding a new primary residence and I plan to rent out my current home once I have moved. There are a few things that I want/need to do to my current home before renting it out such as:

- Painting & Spackling

- Replace a storm door

- Install Deadbolts & Door Viewer

- Other miscellaneous items 

I'm estimating about $1000 of expenses however what I really want to know is if I can deduct these expenses and the time it takes to perform them if I do it while living in the house? If I can't, is it worth waiting or should I just do them now? I realize I should ask a CPA but I wanted to hear if anyone had insight first.

@Fradel Barber I just saw this thread and I'm sorry I missed it as well. I am from out of state but will be moving to the area in the spring. I would love to know about more events like this, especially if they can be made virtual!

I have an opportunity to move to Fort Lauderdale next year and I wanted to get some opinions about the area in terms of REI. I am considering purchasing a SFR as a primary residence and converting it to a rental in a few years or possible house hacking a duplex. However after looking at the market for just a few hours on Redfin/Zillow I'm struggling to understand how to create a positive cash flow with rentals in the area. I'm not looking for a home run but the combined housing prices + HOA fees seem to make breaking even a stretch.

Does anyone with experience in the area care to share what strategies have worked/not worked for them?

Is it just me or are people selling older homes for roughly the same price as new constructions in North Fort Worth right now? Please note that when I say "older" homes, I mean 2-15 years however this concepts still seems crazy to me. If I am not that far off-base, is it even worth entering in the market right now and/or is it a sign that I should consider purchasing a new construction as a future investment? I know there may be better off-market deals out there but I'm not sure I have the time or confidence to go out and get one of those at this time.

Huge disclaimer: I've never rehabbed a house before, but I'm interested in your post

How did you come to that $30,000 estimate in rehab costs? I believe that roof replacement can cost close to $10k if your not doing it yourself and AC replacement will cost similar. There's probably a lot more work that needs to be done plus the listing says it used to be a duplex, which means at the bare minimum 2x the amount of work needed for the kitchen.

I'm curious to hear what others have to say. Good luck!

Thank you for the info! I really appreciate it. 

Hi hopefully this is the right forum for this post.

I just recently received a list of tax delinquent properties in my county and I had some questions about how someone uses the info. 

First and foremost I'm new to REI and have not done my first deal yet. Is this a viable strategy for someone to get started with or am I getting way in over my head as a first timer?

Second, my county says they update the list weekly but I'm confused as to why they do it. If taxes are due only once a year why will they update weekly? Should I bother checking with these updates or can I assume the data I have will last me until next tax season?

Lastly, does have anyone have any suggestions/tips on how to use this data? Most of what I read online is to use direct mail marketing. What indicators would you look for to find the hottest leads?

I would love to hear of any success stories of someone who's done this. I would be grateful for any info at all on the subject! 

Thank you everyone for the input! This has been very useful. I will definitely consult a lawyer before any agreement is made but I wanted to go into the situation as informed as possible.

Hi All,

I'm pretty new to REI but I was wondering how most people who have done partnerships would handle a large unexpected cost in a rental property. Here is the example that I'm thinking about:

I get that partnerships can be formed any way that we agree upon so I guess my real question is, how would someone protect themselves from this sort of situationn? My initial thought would be to have some sort of clause in the partnership that says we split all required operating repairs over $1k but I would love to hear other people's thoughts.