All Forum Posts by: Jacob Pereira

I'm partial to Austin, but largely because I live there and all my properties are there. For an appreciation play I think it's still a very strong market (probably the strongest of those mentioned), but if you're looking for immediate turn-key cash flow you can probably strike it off the list. You can still find fairly easy cashflow in the Austin suburbs, but you'll most likely need to factor in basic repairs and paint and flooring into your calculations.

@Avery Carl, by value, or by unit mix? I've got 3 fourplexes, a duplex, and two condos. Value wise it's probably about 60% fourplexes, 25% in the duplex, and 15% for the two condos. If you pull in assets, it's about 55% real estate, 40% stocks and bonds, 4% cash and <1% vehicles. Obviously everything besides the unit mix fluctuates a fair bit.

@MRay Kay, you're forgetting about the potential appreciation of the property. If the OP's estimates are correct AND they're in a fast-appreciating area, it might make sense to hold it. Without that (and smaller benefits such as tax advantages) you're right and $800 a month is a poor return on a 270k asset.

@Joseph Cacciapaglia, I'm surprised to read that it was cheaper than traditional construction. The few people I've known who looked into it all said that it was more expensive once you accounted for higher permitting and labor costs. Did you build in San Antonio, or somewhere else?

Flips are getting harder. You can't just buy a house, slap in some new flooring and paint and expect to make a huge return like you could a few years ago. I mostly stick with buy and hold which is a much easier (and lucrative) business.

If you really want/need to stick with the flipping model, make sure your skills are up to par to tackle things that a casual flipper can't handle. Some examples are developing lots, condoing out existing buildings, repairing majorly fire- or flood-damaged properties, etc. If that's not something you're comfortable tackling, consider partnering up with an experienced flipper until you have a better understanding of what your competitive advantages could be.

I wonder if this development will really live up to the hype. It seems very similar to Oracle's announcement that they were moving their headquarters to Austin. Yes, the Oracle building changed the market some (as did the Gigafactory), but the HQ change came later and didn't seem to have a noticeable impact on the overall market. I suspect the same may happen here. Either way, it's certainly not a negative announcement for Austin investors.

As my colleagues have said, probably not a big deal. If the cracks were a little worse I'd say you could at least use them to negotiate down a bit more during option, but based on your pictures it doesn't even look bad enough to do that. That said, unless the house is pristine, you'll usually want to bring up some areas of concern to at least shave a few thousand more off of the original price.

Whoops! Forgot to post the article link: https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

Do you Austin-area BPers think this will clinch it for Taylor? or do you think Samsung is just doing this to sweeten the pot in Austin? or could they still go to dark horses AZ or NY? Is anyone making an real estate moves in speculation of this deal coming to the area?

It looks as though Taylor and Austin are going to be some of the top contenders for Samsung's new $17B fab plant, which will be one of the biggest foreign investments in the US ever. New information has just come out about the exact location they're eying in Taylor. Any speculators planning on buying up some cheap land in the area? https://www.bizjournals.com/au...