All Forum Posts by: Jon Shoop

Depends, HOA fee's are variable when it comes to effecting income. I'd stay away. upside is places that have HOA fee's tend to be more taken care of

you also might want to look and see if the HOA will allow you to rent it out, some don't.

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!

There’s no need to hire a general contractor for the sole purpose of permitting; although I don’t understand why your contractor wouldn’t be unwilling to obtain a home repair license. I think it’s $120/year. That is unless they don’t have general liability, which is something you’ll want to consider. You will need to make sure any plumbing and electrical work is done by a licensed trade. Not sure the whole scope but you might not even need to permit except for the structural changes you mentioned. Here some info from the city:

Does a contractor need to be licensed to do work on my home?
Any Plumbing or Mechanical contractor doing work on an individual’s home is required by the Texas Plumbing License Law or the Texas Mechanical License Law to have a license to work on that home. This license is required even if the scope of the work doesn't require a permit and inspection.

Electrical work must be performed by a licensed electrician.

A license is not required for general building work on your own property.

What kind of work can I do on my own home?
Electrical work must be performed by a licensed electrician unless the homeowner can prove to the Chief Electrical Inspector that they have the knowledge and expertise to perform the electrical work on their own home. Permits, unless exempted by Chapter 52 of the Dallas Building Code, are required for electrical work.

Under the Texas Homestead Act, Texas Plumbing License Law and Texas Mechanical License Law, a person who owns, occupies and has homesteaded the home where the work is to be performed is exempted from the requirement of having a licensed person do the work and may do any kind of plumbing or mechanical work on his/her homestead themselves. The work performed by a homeowner requires a permit (when required by Chapter 52 of the Dallas Building Code) and inspection (if required). If no permit or inspection is required, the homeowner is required to comply with the plumbing/mechanical code.

A homeowner may perform general building work on their own property after obtaining all of the proper permits.
Compliance with the Dallas codes is required on all types of work as well as obtaining the appropriate inspections.

@Jon Shoop

I’ve spent the last decade living in Roanoke! I love Roanoke, it’s my adopted home town. But those townhomes off the Oak St are expensive.

Thanks for the input Jon, I don't think I've looked into much of Fourney yet but I've looked into Fort Worth. My biggest concern with that is just finding an area in Fort Worth that is still in a good enough neighborhood to attract the right kinds of tenants. Any suggestions on which areas of Fort Worth I should be paying attention to?