All Forum Posts by: Donny Widjaja

Happy Birthday Josh, and thank you for building this awesome site.

Hi @Kelly ZumBerge

Welcome to BP.  I am a new investor in Austin area, and looking for some wholesale and other investment properties.  

Thanks for the input everyone.

I hesitated in finding the owner at this moment because I can't even think of any exit strategy for this house at the moment, but I try to contact the owner first.  Who knows, he might just give it to me. :)

Hi BP members,

I found a burned down house (big hole on the roof, broken windows, and it has been abandoned for a year or longer according to the neighbor) and surprisingly, someone mowed the lawn because it looked neat.

I estimated the ARV around $110K to 120K. The tax value: $92K. The house has 4 bd / 2 ba, about 1600 sq ft.

How do I estimate the repair cost for this house?  Do I need to assume I demolish the whole house? I did a quick search online, the estimated cost to build a house is $100 / sq. ft (or higher).  So, I'm looking at $160K.  Is this even worth buying?  The outside bricks seems like in a decent condition. 

Hi @Miles Stanley,

I am also a noob on rehab projects and I am working on my judgement on the rehab cost as well.  

I use a website call homewyze.com to help me with the estimate, and sometime I go to home depot's website for material cost, or call some contractor just to get a rough estimate on labor or project cost.

In my case, I'm looking for a house around 1000 to 1500 sq ft.  So, when I see the roof has an issue, I automatically estimate $10,000 for the roof.  I hope the real cost is lower then my estimate, so I can make more money.  :)  Interior paint for the whole house: $7,000, etc.

I just memorize a few major items, and that will help me to make a decision if I want to see the property or not. 

@Jared Hohensee,

There is also an investment called Quest IRA that holds investors meet up regularly.

This is their calendar event for Austin, TRILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT MIXER on January 25, 2016.

Event calendar: http://www.questira.com/all-events/austin-events/

Hi @Satish Vittalam ,

I currently have 2 rental properties, and I managed them myself.   I would like to share my challenges, and hopefully, can help you to make your decision.

1. Finding tenants:  Posting a "house for rent" ad on Craigslist is the easy part.  Scheduling a meeting for showing and screening tenants can be challenging but it is doable.  One tip a person suggested is to schedule a showing for all interested parties on the same time frame, just like an "Open House".

2. Preparing a contract.  I got my contract from LawDepot, and I can fill in the template  online.  I compared it with some contracts from other sources, and it seems to be reasonable.  It covers anything many issues such as rent, landscape maintenance, who pays what (for utilities), pet clause, sublease clause if necessary, etc.

3. Rent.  I think a good property manager should be able to suggest the optimal rate for rent on that area.  "Optimal" means the most money that you can make with the minimum vacancy time.  In my case, I might have charged too low. 

4.  Emergency call.  In the last 2 years, I've received only 1 real emergency call that came at 9 PM from a tenant regarding drainage issue.  I asked my handyman to fix the problem in the morning.  There were a few other calls on minor fixes.  Luckily, I know a good A/C guy that I can rely on, and a handyman that can be available quickly when I need him to fix a few items around the house.

5. Being too nice.  One of the biggest issue for a new landlord is being too nice.  I was too nice because I want to be successful, but in the end, I am actually hurting myself.  I'm slowly becoming a tougher landlord now. :)  For example, I waived late fees a few times.  

Yes, there are many other issues, as Aaron mentioned in his post, that could happen to any landlords but luckily it has not happened to me yet.

Maybe you can try to use their request for replacing the sink as a leverage to make them sign a legal leasing agreement. Tell them this is better for both of you in the future.

Unfortunately, mold is one of the worst case since it might impact a person's health. If you don't see any sign of mold on the cabinet, then there is no need to replace the whole cabinet.  You can try to convince your tenant that cleaning the mold will be enough and if it come back then you will replace it.

I recently had a mold problem on the bathroom wall.  I called a professional mold remediation company to get their free consultation.  They said the mold is only on a small area, you can just clean it up.  So, I told the tenant the professional company told me that cleaning that area should be safe for you.

@Chip Chronister, in addition to what Jeff mentioned.  You might want to review your list again.  Are you targeting the right people?  Yes, we want buyer with high equity and in a good neighborhood, but you might want to add some criteria like:

1. where the house is at least 20 years old, because that's when they feel frustrated and want to move out or spend money for repairs

2. The house is facing a foreclosed

Again, those are just some example that you might want to consider.  

@Dyanne C., I can't speak for your market on how fast you can get your money back, but buy and hold strategy is certainly not going to be a quick money making deal.  Most people keep rental for the passive income (cash flow).  However, if you get can all initial investment within 10 years, I think that's a good deal.  You've done something right for sure. :)  Anyway, what's your goal for the rental?  passive income, or high appreciation property?

One of my rental, needed a major repair such as foundation and termites.  So, we ended up with bathrooms renovation, bringing electrical to new safety code, and plumbing to new safety code too.  It cost me $40K, so I won't make my initial investment back in 30 years.  However, my goal from the rental is passive income, so as long as it is bringing cash flow, I'm happy. 

My next challenge is to actually learn to buy properties with no or low money down, so I can get my initial investment back in a shorter time.