All Forum Posts by: Kevin Coggins

So let's say I'm buying a house that comes with two additional lots. The legal description is going to have "Random Place Lots 1-3" when I'm signing all the mortgage paperwork. If these lots have a value of say $10k a piece, would there be any way for me to sell these (I'm assuming since the mortgage is on all of these it's difficult at best)? If it matters at all, I think the house + lot it's on would appraise above the loan amount. This may just be a dumb idea, but seemed like I could get more off the lots than I put down so wanted to see what others know or have experienced.

EDIT: how do I move this to creative financing - not sure how it changed to short term rental

Unless you're invested in a Mutual Fund, Index Fund, or some alternative investment to a traditional stock, your holding costs are $0. You can get in and out of an investment for $5 or less with the click of a button, so it's extremely liquid. 

A combination of both real estate and stock (whether it's 401k, Mutual Funds or whatever you choose) is the ideal scenario for most people for diversification. I think something that hasn't been mentioned is that people make a living on the stock market, just like people do in real estate. It has made people very wealthy, and also made people broke. 

If you do your RESEARCH, stocks aren't some crap-shoot and you can make a good deal of money on it (just like Real Estate). You may not be able to control what a CEO does, but you also can't control tenants, contractors, etc.

@Ben MorganI'd recommend checking out AirDNA (somebody else pointed me here about a week ago) - they provide data from AirBnB, even their free reports can give useful information such as vacancy rate and average nightly cost. I've never used their paid service, but apparently there are reports you can pay for, or even buy their raw data. From what I saw, there is potential for a vacation home to be economical year round. But I'm sure this varies greatly by area.

I actually found a house I was interested in, and all their documents and amended documents were posted on their website. I doubt that is the norm, but that made it a whole lot easier to figure out! :)

 At the present moment a buyer agent. I have a specific property I'm wanting to look at, but I'd be more comfortable with another opinion and someone more familiar with the area. 

somebody on here has to be familiar with this area! or maybe a conroe/willis realtor?

Looking for a Lake Livingston area realtor (Onalaska/Livingston area).

Are you getting that from the below chart?

If so, you're really reading it incorrectly. If you aren't getting it from this chart, please explain your logic and how you come to 2%. I could agree with "you can expect a 2% greater average annual return over the lifetime of the investment" - but even your money is still double from the company match.

I've come across a few SFRs that have window units, and this seems like a huge negative, especially in Texas with summer coming into full swing. I'm curious to know how others look at window units, whether it's an issue, and how to discount rent or future sales price. Basically, I'm wanting to know if I'll need to eat the costs to install central A/C (not sure I want to look at the cost), or if I proceed with window units, but assume a X% discount on rents (comps I see have central a/c). 

 Gotcha, from the post I quoted it seemed like an argument against 401k (or I just hate the graph, haha).

Also, for the people against 401k/IRA for the taxes going up in the future...you can always make Roth contributions (unless you're over that threshold, but even then I think there are ways). I currently have a mix of traditional/roth, but will probably focus on Roth these next few years fully expecting to hit the earnings limit with my wife going back to work.