All Forum Posts by: Jake F.

I'd be interested in an RGV meet up as well. 

Good way to describe the Valley attitude. Congrats on the build! 

@Joe Rivera I have a STR in South Padre Island. I bought a single family home (2b/2ba) knowing that 85% of the units here are condos. Having a different product really helps. Barring that, take a look at the primary photo of your competitors. I bet they mostly look the same. Down here 90% of profile pics are either of the ocean view or the condo pool. My photo of a bright red house makes me stand out from the crowd among a sea of turquoise. After scrolling past literally hundreds of STRs that all look the same, you'll need a reason for people to click on your listing.

Listen to Casual Fridays REI podcast, especially the first 30 or so episodes. Listen to the earliest RETipster podcasts and watch his YouTube videos. That should teach you what you need to know to get started. Take the money you were going to spend on training and put it into mailers. It's a profitable niche, you just have to stick with it.

Great info everyone. I've already contacted a RE lawyer who deals with thornier issues than my current attorney. 

I initially asked seller to deal with the squatters, or at least send a notice to vacate. Seller is very non-confrontational and doesn't want to deal with it. This is why he's willing to sell at a steep discount. 

I think I've found the occupants' names, but you never know with open source Intel. 

I'm about to go under contract to purchase a house that I found off a direct mail campaign. The current owner has a sub trustee deed in his name. His father originally sold the house on terms to someone about a decade ago. The father died and the son inherited the estate. The son discovered that the buyer had stopped paying the note as well as the taxes, and the son foreclosed on the property 18 months ago. A title company has verified that the guy I'm negotiating with is the current owner. 

There are people living in the house. I asked the owner about them, and he said he has no idea who they are. They might be the people who originally bought the property from his dad, and they might not be. The guy says he knows absolutely nothing about them. Some quick Googling led me to believe that this wouldn't be much of a problem and that I would be able to get rid of them fairly quickly after purchase. Even if they were on a lease, it seems they would automatically be considered month-to-month after the sale and I could give them 30 days to vacate. 

I met with my RE lawyer today regarding something else and mentioned this deal to him. He had a conniption and told me not to do the deal, claiming it would be a disaster and that it would be really hard to get the squatters out. I'm not sure what recourse they could possibly have, since even if they were the original buyers from the father they seem to have lost any possession rights when they were foreclosed upon. My lawyer couldn't really articulate a defense they might put forth, and would only say that it would be a mess in the courts. He admitted he generally only deals with "clean" RE transactions. Lawyer indicated I would not even be able to treat them as month-to-month and give them a 30 day notice. 

Anybody have any experience with this sort of thing in Texas? My impression is that my lawyer is just being a Negative Nancy. For what it's worth, the property is in Hidalgo County. 

If you used cut and paste on your first post directly from this guy, my guess is that English is not his first language based on the grammatical and syntax errors. For example, the author used "%5" instead of "5%". I know that's common in some countries like Turkey. 

It looks like Jason Coutts is a real person. I found his FB profile. He does appear to be living in Texas. Also might be Mormon for whatever that's worth. "Willow Oak Properties LLC" is not a recognized LLC in the state of Texas. Sure, it's possible it's registered in another state, but still odd. Based on exactly three minutes of research, my guess is some foreign entity created a LinkedIn account using his name and is trying to scam you.

I'm looking to hire someone to answer inbound calls from direct mailers and think it's a good time to switch my VOIP provider. I'm currently using Phone.com and have two numbers with them, but I've been having some serious issues and it's time to switch. 

I like that CallHippo integrates with my CRM (hubspot) and includes call recording. Anybody out there have any experience with them? 

Congrats man! Glad to hear it worked out for you. You are killing it out there! 

I love seeing McAllen all over the news with the DHS secretary and the President standing in front Rio Grande. It keeps the big investors away. Although they are building so many plexes down here that I don't know how they are going to fill them all. 

While I can't speak for any of the multifamily deals on the market, I can tell you that what is generally thought of as "border" crime isn't really an issue. Public corruption and drug crimes are rampant, but property crime and violence is actually fairly low down here.