All Forum Posts by: Ian Jaeger

@Sean McKenna agreed on the don’t overbuild. The idea would be to combine 2 or 3 adjacent lots and then put up several attached houses... abig 4 Plex or something. Seems like the zoning allows it as it stands but the plats are all relatively small

@Lynnette E. Thanks!

Looks like I have some calls to make to the local government folks.

I’ll check back in when I have an update!

Wow, those were very thorough answers!  THANK YOU!  

Some follow ups:

The existing houses are definitely not in a condition to repair, but the foundations (from what I could see walking around the outside) didn't look to be in terrible condition.  They are old (1950's) but the concrete doesn't seem to be cracked like a lot of the contemporary foundations seem to be.  Are there any benefits to rebuilding from the foundation up, or is that the house is coming down, remove and rebuild the foundation and start from a green sheet. 

If there is asbestos mitigation that will have to be done, and the property is worth less than 0, how do you convince someone that getting rid of it is better than letting it sit and rot? 

One of the properties is actually sitting next to an open lot.  If I were able to get both the lot and the house, how easy is it to join plats when they are both drawn out with build lines on the drawings that are filed with the city?  I'm assuming this is something that can be done, but what's the process?  Just call the city and say you want to join two plats to build something bigger? They are zoned to allow attached single family housing, so in theory you could redraw the lines, but how common is this?

I stumbled upon a pair of houses in an area that could be greatly up and coming in the next few years - already seeing some gentrification around the area.  Neither of them are listed for sale, but they recently got to the point where plywood was put up over the remaining windows.

They are obviously not something that's going to be 'flipped' as the building in the back has a 2 foot hole in the roof and there are obvious signs of structural fatigue.  But the lot is in a great spot although looking at the plat, on one, there is a 24ft driveway easement that cuts through diagonally, and on the other, the build lines on the plat / deed don't match AT ALL to what the house is on the lot.

As I'm new to this, I can see the potential, but I have NO IDEA how to even get started on estimating something like this.  Does anyone in north Dallas (Lewisville / Grapevine / Coppell) have any experience with this and is willing to sit and have coffee on my dime so I can pick your brain?

@Haythem Abid, I can’t comment on long term refund fees, however I’ve been thinking about this for a bit. I’m not sure I’d accept a deposit fee via CC. While I love the idea of paying rent with a CC because you have a lease in hand and an authorization to charge so it’ll never be late. But you really don’t want the liability of the tenant being able to claim it as a fraudulent charge at the end of the month, skipping payment, and getting 2-3 months of living out of you before you notice anything is wrong... not to mention any damage they may do.

Not saying it’s not the right answer for you, but I might pass this one by an accountant / tax guy that’s familiar with this as well.

Expect to pay 2.5-3% on just about everything.  In my non-real estate line of work, I use Quickbooks for all my billing & invoicing and their CC processing works great.  I plan on using QB when I have a rental stream as well because it's actually got pretty good bookkeeping capabilities that you can share directly with your accountant / Tax guy / others.

For me, it was much easier than Square... but YMMV

Hey guys,

I'm in an interesting position in that I can't buy right away (looking at 90 days out MINIMUM), but I want to start looking into a good house hack I can get into.  Ideally it would be a BRRRrrrrrrr.  Type thing, but I'm open to discussing what works in the area.  

That said, if you're an investor or realtor in the North Dallas (preferably inside the  Downtown, I35, US75, PGBT loop) I'd love to buy your coffee some morning and pick your brain.

Hit me up here and I'll PM you my contact info and we and set something up.  Also, I'm not a huge fan of Sbux because I actually like my taste buds, so plan on at least getting a good cup of coffee out of this at local shop.

-Ian

@Davis Doan, thanks for that link!  And everyone else, thanks for the tips... I'm going to put about 2/3's of what I have into CD's as I see myself getting into something within the next 6-12 months... the rest is going into a heavily diversified M1 portfolio... I'll ride the wave up as much as I can and get out when I need it.

Hi all,

I’m just getting started in this and don’t have enough cash on hand for a full deal yet, but am saving as much as possible.

That said, savings accounts are paying essentially nothing, CD’s aren’t much better.

Started dropping cash into an M1 account that I have set up with a big mix of mostly dividend stocks... by my estimates, it should pay about 3% just in dividend returns... certainly not enough to compete with real estate, but it seems to be a good option in the meantime.

Anyone doing anything else with their cash that could be a better idea than the M1 portfolio?

Also a noob, but I think you're asking about 'carrying costs' basically, what it costs to hold / maintain a property while you're flipping / rehabbing / waiting for a tenant.