Originally posted by @Jon Shoop:
Hi Haley! That is certainly the age-old dilemma. Something that I've learned from property management, is that a lot of times, the higher priced rental homes take much longer than the $1k-2k range. Like significantly more. And that can definitely eat into your year-long returns on a rental property. So don't sweat so much not being able to get an expensive home right now. That's not always the case, as we got an expensive home in Keller rented within 2 weeks of listing.
Since you are downtown I'll make a couple suggestions:
Have you looked into duplexes around White Rock Lake? I think anything on the West side of the lake you are good on for your commute. The east side you'd probably want to stick to the lower half of the lake. I have a client who is doing exactly what you are looking to do: live in half a duplex and house hack the other half - granted she's using property management services so she really doesn't have to interact or deal with the next door neighbor in case something goes south. She lives in the M streets at a not too expensive duplex.
Another option is to find and refurb a distressed home. My company owner does this all the time for clients and we have really good success and the client-owner's have all been very pleased and gotten good rent returns. When I was looking for my first home, I found a bunch of distressed properties off Mockingbird towards the lake.
A third option would be to go to the Bishop Arts District or one of the up and coming areas in South Dallas that is becoming gentrified.
Hope that helped!
Hey Jon!
These are great suggestions! I haven't come across any duplexes around WRL but I will definitely make a point to look now! I've found one in north Oak Cliff and when I looked at the neighborhood basically the whole street was duplexes! Sadly there was only one for sale, but I'll keep my eye on that area.
Theoretically, I'm not opposed to rehabbing a property but I don't have a lot of knowledge in that arena or a lot of cash on hand. My concern is that I'm going to get neck deep on a property and realize I had vastly underestimated the money it required or get hosed by a contractor. I do really like the idea of adding value to the property, though. I feel fairly confident about saving up for cosmetic fixes, but we do a fair number of reno's in my field (landscape architecture) and there's always something funky you can't foresee that usually takes a bite out of the budget. I hope to be able to do full rehabs in the future when I have more money to spend and more experience under my belt.
To your third point, most of what I'm finding right now is coming up in South Dallas or West Dallas. I've been to a few properties and I wasn't impressed with the quality of the rehab. Some of the new builds were pretty disappointing as well. These impressions wouldn't be deal breakers if the location was great, but most of the ones in South Dallas were in neighborhoods I didn't feel comfortable or welcome in. West Dallas was a bit better, but what made me second guess those was if I'd be able to make a return after "fixing" the rehab. I wasn't sure the area would command the rent I'd need, I could be wrong. But Bishop Arts seems like a great choice, I'll definitely keep a lookout!
Thank you for your response! It's given me a lot to think about!
