All Forum Posts by: Joseph Weisenbloom

In my area there is demand for land where people can park their tiny home, converted van, RV etc. People pay high rents as well from my research. 

My area also has unincorporated off grid land that is in close proximity to the city (20-30 mins) This means I wouldn’t have to deal with coding ordinance issues but I would have to provide utilities. 

Crazy idea. What if I bought some of this cheap land and installed a solar array, drilled a well and installed a septic tank. Im certain I could rent spots to people fairly easily.

The upfront and ongoing costs would be relatively low as I am not building a structure. Cashflow could be high as well. Keep the land long term and sell to developers as Austin expands.

Anyone ever done this. Am I crazy? Thoughts?

@Andy W. Yes typically income websites listed for sale on brokerage sites are providing 30-40% ROIs on net profit. Im sure this comes with a lot more risk than real estate as websites aren’t a proven asset. Not talking about being a broker. Not sure if any real estate folks have experience with this asset class?

Online businesses have the same cashflow aspect as real estate with much higher returns but also much higher risk. Anyone out there buy and sell online businesses? Seems like returns are regularly in the 30-40% range annually. Comparable investment? Thoughts?

@Jordan Moorhead@Jacob Pereira@Ganessan P.

Thanks guys for the suggestions!

I know its the worst time of the year for this. Anyone got an HVAC guy they reccomend? Not looking for a company, looking for a one man band.

Thanks!

@Justin Thorpe Yea its cool to see what other people are experiencing all over the country. I don’t really pay attention to the news, hell I dont even own a TV. 

I try to pay attention whats happening on the ground level and talk to locals about what they are experiencing. For my particular niche and location I am seeing a lot of vacancy but that doesn’t mean it can’t be the opposite for someone in a different city and different niche. 

@Nathan Gesner Yes that is what is happening. The plush apartments downtown are being vacated by the students and they are subletting the units at 40% discount. Meanwhile the people that would be renting my units are taking the discounted units. Just posted this morning in a student group to get a feel on whats happening on campus. There are alot of people that signed leases in the spring for fall semester and now they are screwed.

Your vacation rentals are booked! How is that possible? Its basically illegal to travel right now with all the interstate travel restrictions. Don’t think there are many takers traveling to Texas, its a corona cesspool down here right now. Well good for you! 

The lack of supply I get and understand. However I don’t understand where the demand is coming from. I would have figured housing demand would have fallen off a cliff.  How can people even afford a house right now with 30% unemployment and paycuts galore? I would be more worried about not getting foreclosed on and getting robbed by the droves of methed out vagrants roaming the streets. I thought lending standards were tight as well? I don’t get it.

I’m going to offer the opposite news in my neck of the woods. I rent bedrooms in Austin, Tx and have been struggling to get stuff rented since June. Usually things are packed but there has been a major uptick in rental inventory making it harder to compete.

1.ATX was one of the biggest AirBnB/Vrbo markets and since no one is traveling all of the short term rental houses have been converted to longer term leases.

2. The University of Texas is allowing all students to telecommute so lots of people are studying remote at their parents house instead of being on campus. FYI there are about 50k students enrolled. There has been a huge glut of subletted apartments and rooms hitting the market. I am in a bunch of housing groups on facebook and there are $1200 bedrooms renting for $700 right now. One student posts about seeking housing and they get bombarded with 50 messages from other students desperate to get out of their lease. These are primo downtown apartments too. My stuff is about 3-4 miles from downtown so very hard to compete with. 

3. Much of my tenants come from people moving from elsewhere because of job opportunities. It doesn’t seem like companies aren’t hiring like they used to over here. 

4. People on unemployment payments. Lots of people don’t have jobs and are receiving their $600 per week from the gov’t. However Im worried about renting to these people because what happens when their benefits dry up.

Sounds like good return to me. Don’t worry about what others are doing and focus on yourself. IF you sre happy with the returns keep the property.