All Forum Posts by: Kevin Wood

I just made an offer on 5 properties at once with my long time friend/business partner. This will be both of ours first house. I've read 10-15 books over the years. You know what actually got me over the hump?

Listening to someone on one of the podcast saying that to just get into your first property. We found something that wasn't perfect, but cash flowed (in our opinion) from Day 1. Honestly reading about the 2% rule or the knock out of the park success stories can actually discourage people from starting. In your first deal you want to find that knock it out of the park success story. Hearing the podcasts with real people not all having 100% success all the time and encouraging listeners to just get into something moved us forward.

I should also note we found a good mentor and another realtor friend that have been very helpful as well.

I don't think this is a bad idea given how high hard money can be. If you do it right my guess would be that it doesn't wreck your credit, but actually help it long term. Short term may take a few dings, similar to other cc hacking methods. You have to be absolutely organized and certain that you can make payments because getting hit with that rate on the back end would be brutal. Thanks for the interesting post it's always important to know every piece of financing that is available to you so you can make the best decision for your business/needs.

 Great point here

If you are looking for next steps I would suggest that you talk to a local realtor about your goals and see what they say. As folks say, each market is different. I'm not super familiar with Austin (focusing on Houston at the moment), but I can say that it is a desirable city for folks to live and has a good rental base with UT in the heart of downtown. Hot markets aren't necessarily a bad thing and you can find the deals just takes a little more networking. I find Austin to be affordable, but then again I'm living in Mountain View, CA.

@Brian Adams

Fantastic post. I'm a CPA myself (audit side) who moved into private industry in 2010. Been saving ever since and looking on buying my first single family soon. Offer went out this weekend actually. This is actually where I would like to get to so you describing the step by step process is very inspirational. Thank you.

Thank you all for the thoughtful replies. We were nervous about the HOA fees and this only increased my nervousness. Appreciate all the helpful feedback!

O no double post how do I delete this?

Hi all! Long time reader and first time poster. Beginning the process of my very first purchase with my partner in the Houston area. We are looking at several properties, but one in particular we are interested in. Note that we are just speccing this deal and so I am including all the information I have at this time. We will do more due diligence and look at finance options as we move forward.

Specs:

Property: 2 condos at $110,000 in Harris County Texas

Rent for 1560

Taxes 2640 a year

530 a month HOA/Condo fees (includes outdoor maintenance/insurance)

100 a month maintenance fees

Known Financing Options:

Cash for 20% of PP and 6.5% interest on loan for balance

Plan for Property:

Rent for a year or less then allow for rent to own and hold the note. This is what our mentor does and seems to work well in our area.

My obvious concerns here are that HOA fees are dangerous based on what I have read since you are not in control of them. Does anyone deal with these? How do you handle it? Is 6.5% a good interest rate? We are shopping banks, but haven't gotten many leads yet. This would be my partners and I first property. I know from listening to the podcasts that sometimes it's best to find something that works and get in the game rather than constantly digging for that perfect property. This was a deal brought to our mentor he likes and is passing on to us. Any other comments appreciated.

Double Post sorry. I don't know how to delete.