All Forum Posts by: Kate Moreland

You need to talk to a realtor and a mortgage broker. It is possible to househack with what you have; however, the timing is bad now unless you found a duplex or something that already had a good tenant in place and a vacant or month-to-month tenant whose side you can take.  Getting renters this time of year is a major pain.  

My husband and I did this very successfully in a similar position to yourself and have a nicely cash flowing duplex now. Prices have gone up so they're a bit harder to find now but every now and then they pop up. With an FHA loan and first time homebuyer credits, your out of pocket cost to buy will be surprisingly low. It's repairs and getting a tenant that will be hard.

Feel free to PM if you like; I’m a part time realtor and also can recommend a couple great mortgage brokers in the area if you need one.   

Oh, and no regular bank or broker will lend to you on a commission income without two years of paystubs, so I’d highly recommend waiting to quit whatever regular job you have until you’ve purchased, or pushing your purchasing plans several years down the road.  Annoying, I know. 

I’d be happy to help. My husband and I own and manage our duplex and are currently doing a minor live-in renovation of our current house. 

I do real estate part time and mostly for myself and our own investments but have time now before the holiday season picks up and would be happy to help you find a place.  DFW is big; I mostly stick to the FW and surrounding areas but if that’s an area of interest, feel free to PM me!

Welcome!  And I’ll second what @Zane Zeigler said - live in flips and house hacking are very good ways to get started.  My husband and I house hacked our first property, a nice duplex, and we’re working a minor live-in flip now. It’s work, but it pays off!

@Russell Brazil  I hadn’t thought about L&F - I will suggest that to her as well. Thank you!

Hi BP,

My sister is a new agent in the Shenandoah/Winchester area of VA and needs to find a new broker who can provide training, guidance, etc. She signed on with a family friend but it's not working well as he's very good but very hands off and often unavailable. She is hoping to make this her full time career as soon as possible and even has the next couple months off work (loads of overtime pay from the last job!) to dive into RE full throttle.

She's going to try to reach out to Weichert, a local KW office, and some of the other big names, but do any of you with more experience have a good one I could point her toward?  

Thank for the help, once again!

Howdy! My husband is an Aggie as well and we've been house hacking our way to rentals for the last few years. We have a duplex fully rented out and a SFH that will be ready to go come spring.

I’m also a realtor on the side, mostly for our own houses but I’d be happy to help if you’re looking for a property in the next few months. 

Welcome to Ft Worth!  

@James Evertson  Yes, I did!  I'm now with ICB Commercial Properties from @Megan King's suggestion.  My husband also has a friend who works for Real Estate Reformation, another fairly non-standard brokerage, although I don't know a lot about it.  Best of luck to you and your wife!

Welcome!  I’m a Fort Worth Realtor and have a duplex as well as the current place we’re in which will be a rental come next year.  

This market is pretty quick right now. I can't think of any areas around me anyway where you could get a decent multi for under $200k. A rehab in a sketchy neighborhood, possibly, but for a first investment as an out of state landlord, I wouldn't recommend that route. SFH is more doable although you will definitely have to look for a bit and put in a lot of offers before finding one. Again, it'll probably need a bit of work. There are a lot of older but decently places around here like that, but all need some kind of work, at least the ones I've found.

Maybe an investor with some more experience can chime in and tell me what areas I’m forgetting (I’m looking for similar properties)!  Feel free to PM me for more info as well and welcome to BP!

And sorry for the lack of formatting...I don’t know what happened there.

Hi all, I recently got my salesperson license to help give my husband and I a leg up with our investing, as well as to add some resources for me in managing our rentals. There are so many brokers beating down the door, not to mention all the 100% commission types that don’t advertise much that I’m a bit overwhelmed. Any suggestions for some good brokerages to look at for limited RE work, and hopefully let me do some property management as well? We’ve had friends ask if we would manage their rentals, which is fine since I’m already doing my own anyway, but of course can’t officially without a broker. I can do one client at a time or so but not more as a pregnant stay at home mom of two toddlers. Thoughts? Thanks y’all!