All Forum Posts by: Denise Mayo-Walley

Congratulations @James Stokes! Thank you for sharing your story and reminding people that there's always a way - regardless of how busy life gets! I look forward to your updates. 

Congratulations! We're all looking forward to updates on your progress! 

@Brent Coombs Unfortunately here in Houston 'Deals' are not easy to come by based on my experience. Especially if you do not want to do significant repairs. I am constantly looking and the neighborhoods where good purchase price to rent ratios are good are monitored by other investors and decently prices properties fly off the market. My realtor believes it could be related to hedge funds buying up properties at asking or above because it doesn't matter so much to them. Regardless of the reason I wish I could find some of these deals people mention. I get plenty of listings from wholesalers but really don't want to do a lot of rehab. Wish me luck!

Hello! I live in the Houston area and have purchased 2 rental homes in the last 2 years. I am quite surprised at the feedback you've received. My two rental properties looked very similar and I got good feedback. Maybe people think you trying to flip it. It's my understanding that the 75% ARV came into play. So for clarification, this is a buy and hold purchase.

Hello fellow Houston newbies and semi-newbies!!!  

I found BP less than a year ago and it has been an absolute godsend and has served as my motivation to jump into real estate investing after being interested for quite some time. So far I haave purchased a 3 bed 2 bath home on the MLS for $98,500 (June 2014) , spent $5,000 getting it rent ready :-| and rent it out for $1200/month. The house was vacant for 2 months while we made all the small repairs since we did them ourselves on the weekends (bad idea). We've had tenants since November since the sellers rented it back for 1.5 months and so far they've paid on time and there have been no issues. It is self-managed and there have been $260 worth of repairs. I feel okay about things so far but I'm waiting to see how a full year worth of owning this property pans out.

I am waiting to close on my 2nd property with a projected close date of April 10. This home is a 3 bed, 2 bath SFR in the same neighborhood but the foundation has been repaired, the roof is 1 year old and the HVAC unit was replaced 2 years ago. We are under contract for $100,000 with a $2,000 credit at the table for some minor repairs including termite treatment :-| We plan on spending an additional $1,000 on landscaping and a few other items. This home is smaller so we hope to get $1150/month. WELL, I entered my info into the BP rental properties calculator and...it says I will have negative cash flow. That sucks.

So, I shared all this to ask......

How on earth is is possible to have decent cash flow in the Houston area by buying homes off the MLS? I work pretty hard trying to find homes on the MLS that are decently priced and do not require a crazy amount of work. I really have no interest in buy, fix and rent. I'm willing to do repairs obviously but I find it extremely difficult to find properties that can cash flow and satisfy even the 1.3% rule. I plan on using my LOC associated with my investments to make cash purchases in the future from wholesalers, step outside my comfort zone and do more repairs, then refinance. That's the only feasible way I see myself being able to have decent cash flow.

How have you all coped with the Houston area with multiple bids on homes, high property taxes and high insurance rates??? Because at this rate, I will need a whole lot of properties to reach my goals.

Thank you so much everyone for your responses. I truly appreciate you all taking time to respond.

@BreAnn Stephenson - thank you for sharing your expertise with me. I truly had no idea that my liability coverage was on the low side. I am in the process of buying my second investment property and I  intend on having higher liability coverage on that one. I will also change the coverage on the policy I shared.

@Fred Heller - thank you for sharing how much you pay. At least I know I haven't been paying too much!

This is why I LOVE Bigger Pockets!!!  So many people are willing to share.

Good evening everyone,I

It may sound silly but I need help determining if my first investment property is over-insured. I have a 3/2 SFR I purchased in 6/2014 for $98,500 in Houston. I estimate the property to be worth approx. $105,000 after my improvements. As part of the closing process I contacted the insurance agent who did the policy for my primary residence and just paid for the policy. I have read through the forums and see people quoting $600 premiums for their properties and I'm not sure if property insurance is more expensive in Houston or if my policy is not the proper type.

Does this seem like overkill and too expensive of a policy?

Thanks @William Dampier I will get the LOC squared away and may be reaching out to you in the near future!

Hello @Brittany Villamil ! I am in Sugar Land and would love to meetup. Opportunities to meetup are great overall, but even better when it's in your neck of the woods.  Houston's a ridiculously large city! We just need a place to meetup with the rest of the Richmon/Sugar Land folk.

Hello @Jeff McCaskey and thank you for responding. Does the fact that the home does not need any repairs change anything? Here in the Houston area, even properties that require repairs are going for more than asking and with multiple offers. So even though I plan on paying cash, I will be purchasing it pretty much at its market value. The difference between the max cash I can get out and the total to be taken used from the LOC will be left over if that is the case - correct? And that will need to be paid off.

Thanks