All Forum Posts by: Darryl Taylor

It's hard to say. I don't know what neighborhood. I'd look at the tax rolls on nearby houses. Have the realtor give you recent comps too. I'd say that if it really is worth 160 then maybe around 130-140k within a year or two? You can always call TAD and talk to an appraiser. Don't give them your address. Just tell them the situation. In my experience they've always been very helpful except when they're raising your appraised value!

Yeah. I would expect it. Ours have been going up pretty quickly. There is a limit to how much it can rise annually if you have a homestead exemption but, for a rental you won't get that. I have properties in Tarrant and Ellis counties and they've been aggressive in getting those up. They will also know what you paid for the house too. I would factor in those higher taxes to your numbers.

One more thing, if you'd like me to take a look at the deal for you let me know. Happy to help. I used to live in Arlington but moved a little south out of the city and still work and own property there.

That is not reasonable. I have a home in Arlington but in the Mansfield ISD, which is slightly more expensive, that is appraised at roughly 160K and my taxes are closer to $4500. I would suggest that you go to tad.org and input the address into the property search. You can see exactly what the appraised value is and exactly what they are paying in taxes. If you are only at that rate expect it to go up. You can also get the current tax rates and make your own future calculations assuming they stay the same.

Thanks all.  I'll plan on sending out some requests this weekend.

Hi -

It's that time of the year where I need to review all of my policies.  Does anyone have a good recommendation for an independent insurance agent in the DFW area, preferably Ellis County, Arlington, Mansfield or Cedar Hill?  I'm looking for someone that will shop more than a couple of underwriters.

We currently have USAA and the customer care is fantastic but while auto rates are fantastic I feel that the property rates could be better.  Thanks in advance for any advise.  

Darryl

I appreciate all of the comments. @Alberto C.  We spent 20K on the down payment and closing costs and 7K out of pocket for repairs. 

It was an interesting experience. It had been on the market for awhile so we made a really low offer. HUD countered and we countered back, only raising our offer 2K. HUD countered again but we were at our max and said we we wouldn't go any higher. The deal was dead. Two weeks later my wife was visiting her sister in Colorado and our realtor called her and said that HUD had reconsidered and accepted our low offer. We were pretty excited.

As for repairs, we figured that we saved ourselves about 10K by doing the work ourselves. I took care of the mechanical side and my wife ran the cosmetic stuff. I eventually helped her as mechanical stuff went pretty quick but paint and floors didn't. My wife was extremely frugal when shopping. I think the only things we paid retail for were the hot water heater, garbage disposal, baseboards and misc small items from Home Depot. She negotiated a discount on vinyl plank flooring from GED's floor store, bought all replacement doors and some light fixtures at the Habitat for Huminaity Restore, and all appliances came from Craigslist including a like new dishwasher for free that someone just needed to get rid of because they upgraded to stainless. Another useful cost saving tip that she did was to buy a ton of paint early from Shermin Williams at their 40% off sale (which happens regularly) and to not have it tinted. If it's not tinted you can bring back the extra or return it all i your deal falls through. She took it back to the store and had it tinted about 4 gallons at a time to ensure that we didn't have any overages. They will tint for free. 

It was a long month. I'd work my normal job and the head down to the rental until midnight. Weekends were 16 hour days. All worth it to save 10K. 

Hi -

My wife and I are new real estate investors in the south DFW area.  We currently live in Mansfield, TX and are looking for properties in Mansfield, Midlothian and Waxahachie.  

We recently purchased a HUD home in Waxahachie that was in rough shape. My wife and I fixed up the home on our own and had it rented in 5 weeks. In my opinion, we are doing OK on it. The rent is double the monthly payment and after saving 20% of the rent for repairs (working hard at building up a solid reserve) and 11% (six weeks) of vacancy, we are cash flowing just over $300/month. There is roughly $35,000 in equity.

Our goal is to purchase another property by the end of the year.  I'm a little cautious of some of the creative financing plans out there so we are doing traditional financing through our credit union and all out of pocket funds come from commissions earned at my day job.  I understand that I'm limited with this strategy and want to learn more about creative financing so we can do more deals.

On another note, we would like to rent out our home in Mansfield as the rents are going through the roof and purchase a larger home in Midlothian with a minimum of 1 acre.  Please let me know if anyone knows of a deal.