All Forum Posts by: Vijaianand Thirunageswaram

@Nick Gerli I see you spent good time analyzing and trying to make your mark on your consulting business. You have to understand, Houston was and is never appreciation market compared to San Diego. Investors don't just look for appreciation, appreciation is just icing on the cake. Your video may be relevant to the new buyers not really for investors. Even if the economy is great, still appreciation never as high as you want and cannot compare to other markets. That's also important reason that we stay floated even during 2008-2009. We want affordability for home buyers whether new buyers or investors, having great appreciation will put us out of it and make a bad market. I really do not agree with your analysis especially related to investors. 

Thanks anyway!

@Yenlan Patton We have 9 months rent almost 12k to recover and she staying put. We had court date for eviction yesterday and because we had put both non payment and lease violation they won't consider it until moratorium is lifted which we hoping by end of month. Let's see man. Landlords are hurting badly... 

Howdy Houston REI's,

I thought I will hear stories from investors and landlords from the GREAT TEXAS Winter Storm but surprised didn't see much. Anyway, let me get started and share my story and lesson learned.

Yes we all know, we had record breaking low temperature. Did we prepare for it? Yes we did as per protocols from new channel. 

Did they know lot about winter storms and houses? May be and they did bring regular plumbers to suggest what needs to be done. 

Did it work? NOT REALLY. We all followed the protocol to drip the water in our faucets to make the water running the pipe but actually it caused more damage. I am not complaining about the suggestion but they should have foreseen that even dripping water at 10+ degree temp is going to freeze the water in copper or pvc pipes. That's what happened folks.

I had instructed all my 8 tenant and 40+ tenants we manage for my landlords. They all, most of them did what we said and most of the homes survived except 7 homes out of which 3 of them is ours. We had copper pipe burst in 3 of my homes and 4 of our landlord homes. Last few weeks has been crazy busy getting plumber to fix and my guy to take care of sheetrock. We were able to handle most of it in just 2 weeks and have the house remedied for the tenants. We are working on final ones since we came to know later point. 

Anyhow, lesson learned, DO NOT DRIP WATER IF THE TEMP GOES DOWN BELOW 30. JUST SHUTOFF THE VALVES AND DRAIN THE PIPES ALL THROUGH OUT THE HOUSE AND STAY PUT. This has saved me hassles in the houses which we listed for rented. We shutoff the main line and drained water all pipes including pipes in the garage which is important. Most of the damage pipes are in garage area which has very minimal insulation. 

Second one, If you have copper pipes, try to repipe them after this chaos calms down or atleast shield them with insulation if possible. Repiping is costing ranging from $3000 - $7000 depending on the company. Make sure you do them both vertical and horizontal which is going to cost in sheetrock as well.

Third one, I didn't realize the seriousness until few days before the freeze and took it for granted. I should have thought out and planned more in advance to buy materials and insulate them properly. We never had experienced so its big lesson learned anyway.  Even if you have plumber you been working on for years, they are not going to come out help you if they are getting paid lot of money elsewhere. Make sure you work with them in advance and try to have them on call if possible. That might help. 

Final one, Many of my clients are fortunate to have Water Damage endorsement which helped them to get insurance pay for their damages. So make sure to talk to your insurance agent to add this endorsement on your policy for sure.. If you want more info, I can share about it. 

That's my story. I am sticking to it..  Do share yours.  

We didnt' yet. They changed their system again and we have apply and submit all docs again. We did that last week and tenant submitted the docs and it's in review. Let's hope 

@Cortney Arenstein You really sparked big fire out by calling out NWA. I am surprised you got reply from NWA guy itself. As Investor myself and Investor mentor, I work with wholesalers in our Houston Market all the time. I worked with NWA for last few years now. To be frank with you, NOT A GOOD EXPERIENCE AT ALL. We have closed few properties but as you said bloated ARV and double closing kills your client. That's why I always stayed away from them. Now they want $7500 EM to even make an offer. It started out $3k few years ago and now to $7.5k which was surprising to me. I am still in their list to get deals but I usually glance at it and move on. Just do it to keep myself where are deals coming and so forth.

Anyway, I know you heard from my local houston investors. You are doing the right think for you and your client by checking your comps yourself and making the decision. That's the way to go whether it's NWA or other wholesalers. 

You also came to BP network which is another source that I always depend on too.. 

All the best. 

@Jobin V. Getting wholesaler list is one thing and trying to get good deals from them is another thing. Not all wholesalers are made equal. I saw big debate in the other post about NWA one of the big ones around Houston area. You don't want to be on the list. As @Wale Lawal said we used to go REI events meet with them and get on their list and see what they send it and filter out the good ones. I work with many wholesalers in the market but good ones are rare to come by. New comers are just getting properties from HAR and send few thousands dollars lower and trying to make an impression.

It's going to take time for you to find the good ones.. 

Hello 

I am sure like my landlords many of you might be affected by the COVID and non payment of rents from your tenants. If you are not, you are lucky. We do have some relief on our way. I hope it doesn't run out soon. Do check it out and see if you qualify and apply accordingly. 

https://texasrentrelief.com/

Discuss about Houston Market
Investment Strategies
Sales Offer Ideas
Deal Analysis - Bring your properties and we can analyze quickly.

Houston market is totally taken over by cash from CA and every property you try to make an offer, there is bidding war and more importantly cash price above asking. I never seen in the past and many cash investors just want to get in and cash out later so just looking for place park in Houston Real estate market. BRRRR is hard to come by in good areas. Even Off market properties is having too much competition and number don't make sense at the final purchase price.

As @Chris Hopper said, you need to go to Housing website and fill out ownership form. Nowadays it takes atleast 2-3 months to get them changed and have them deposit the rent to new owner. You need to work with seller to have them pay during this time.