All Forum Posts by: Gary Ennis

Thanks, Poem - I appreciate the recommendations!

I'm looking to get a HELOC on a non-owner occupied investment property. I know there are a bazillion "HELOC on Investment Property" threads on BP - that's because I just read all of them. :)

Just want to see if anyone in Austin (or within the state of Texas) has banks or credit unions that they recommend who are willing to do a HELOC on this type of property.

Thanks, David! We've attended several of the meetings / open houses that they've had. As of mid-summer, they were saying that 13 of the planned 80 houses were spoken for, with deposits down and financing arranged. But since then, they've kind of gone dark. On their Facebook page, the latest posts are of a future residents' potluck dinner in July, and one of the principles of the development group speaking at a conference in September. 

Whoa - I just now checked their Facebook page to make sure I didn't miss anything, and there was a new post from 7 minutes ago (!) that reads as follows:

"Elgin Agrarian friends - My most heartfelt wishes go out to Osmo's Brewery who has decided to take pause and change course as they consider their future brewery plans. It has been great to have Osmo's part of our meetings and workshops and I sure was looking forward to having a brewpub I could walk to! We have some ideas of how the former brewery parcel could be used but we look forward to working with our future homebuyers in design charrettes in the New Year. We have other exciting news to share with you so keep posted!"

Thanks, Jason - I appreciate it!

OK, maybe it's not a success story yet, but it's well-positioned to be one eventually. 

Due to the difficulty of finding decent deals in Austin, my wife and I decided to look for a property in Elgin, TX. This was a calculated decision: Elgin is only 30 minutes from Austin, it's got a nice historic downtown, and there is a group that's planning to build the Elgin Agrarian Community, a 24-acre community of 80 green-built homes with a 5-acre CSA farm, jogging trails, a craft brewery, and a spa / events center. 

We wanted to find a property near the downtown area, within walking distance to the Elgin Agrarian site. We ended up getting the property right across the street - actually, right across the street from where the craft brewery will be. :)

That's the good news. The bad news is that, despite multiple hints at a groundbreaking, nothing has gone vertical yet. They have cleared the site for the farm and for a few roads. Fingers crossed that the project stays on track.

So for now, this is a path-of-progress play waiting for the progress. But it's certainly got its positives. We're in it for a little less than what it's worth (~$210K), we've got 30-year financing from a local bank, and it cash flows about $100/month. We got really positive feedback on the renovations from all the prospective tenants who toured the property, and our tenants recently told me "we're on cloud nine in this house." The house sits on one-half of a beautiful, flat, 0.50 acre lot, so we can always subdivide and have another 0.25 acre lot to build on or whatever. 

Before the renovation, it was a 1,456 sf 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, with an oversized attached garage, a clunky layout and a super-kludgey "master" bathroom. We didn't add any sf, but we did convert it into a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, with a huge master suite and master closet, and a huge open concept living/dining/kitchen area. Before/during/after photos are below. 

Another reason for this post is to let the BP community know that I haven't fallen off of the map. :) Got sucked back into the corporate world a couple years ago, and you know how that goes. Striving now to be more active on BP and in our RE investing. Got a deal you'd like to partner on? I'd love to hear about it.

@Amy Janota @Lynn Currie @Jon Klaus

@Robert Grunnah @Robyn R. @Gonz Trevino @Qui Chau @Elizabeth Quintanilla @Dan Burstain @Raj Vajir @Mindy Jensen @Scott Sutherland @Mike Walker @James Sinclair @Lamar Cannon @Esmeralda Lira McGee @Aaron Gordy @Guy Gimenez @Nathan Cron @Jason Grote @Corey Young @Brandon Turner

Before:

During:

After:

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, given the 6-year time horizon (although many of the smaller pieces of the ban go into effect within 10 days). HomeAway is planning to push back on the city, and AirBnB might as well. And current council members face re-election this November. 

@Chris Smith City Council did pass the moratorium on Type 2 STR licenses.

There are still a number of other issues that the Planning Commission is reviewing, including allowing STRs only in commercially-zoned areas, requiring conditional use permitting, and requiring code inspections. These issues likely will come back before council after the new year. 

@Vanessa K. welcome to BP! Tons of great folks here who are very knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge. 

It sounds like you have your big goals in place (and admirable ones they are!). Your task now is to establish smaller goals which will serve as the roadmap to get you there. Best of luck in your journey!

Hi @Janet Taylor - welcome to BP!

The REI Masterminds meeting that's held every Thursday at 11:30am is a good one to go to. Strong attendance, plenty of folks who have done lots of deals, and always some newbies there too. It's held at Big Daddy's burgers in the Crossroads shopping center at Burnet Road and 183.

Best of luck locating a suitable Austin project!

Thanks, Karmen. That's certainly a great idea, if one has the funds to purchase in that pricey part of town. Other than the pending legislation changes, one other thing to consider is that the city currently limits the number of STRs to 3% of properties in any particular census tract. Here are links to the number of licenses currently issued for each census tract and the map showing the percentages of licenses issued by census tract. Many of the close-in neighborhoods have no licenses remaining. 

This is for Type 2 (non-owner occupied) STRs. If you plan to reside at the property and rent it out only occasionally, you may be able to get a Type 1 (owner occupied) license instead.