All Forum Posts by: Kevin K.

We found a great property right by the beach that has been on the market for almost 300 days and multiple price drops.  The lot is around 3500 square feet.  I am not sure that the property could be renovated and would like to understand full renovation costs vs full rebuild costs.  It does have a basement and sounds like a deal fell apart because of a beem in the basement..  Didn't get the full details.  

The big questions are what does a full demo usually cost,  what might I expect to pay to build a economical 2/3 story beach house.

When would you walk away from a deal?  We would pay cash for the lot and then either get a loan to build or pay cash.

Looking at the numbers what do you think about the situation?

I'll be long distance and never managed a rental before.

We are looking at pricing our first rental around 2200 to 2500. Our mortgage is a little under 2k a month. Considering a property manager and they want to take around 70% of the first month rent plus 7% a month ongoing. Unknown issues that pop up throughout the year will cost money. Home insurance $88 a month + unknown property tax increases. What monthly unknown costs should I factor in? Does this look like a property that would make more sense to just sell? Will Austin prices continue to rise or are we peaking? I'm not trying to make money on this property just not lose a ton. Thanks! $2500 take home $2106 $2400 take home $2018 $2300 take home $1931 $2200 take home $1843

nah I'm leaving town.  House is in good shape minus a deck that needs some repair work.  I'm interested in doing this mainly as a way to A) learn about the rental process B) keep the property in austin if we ever decide to move back and C) Keep the property because no telling where the Austin market is in 10 years and the value could be through the roof.  

Assuming you get good tenants what kind of issues might come up through the course of a year?

I'm pondering a transition from single family to rental but my property is one the larger ones in the neighborhood, it will likely require throwing cash at a deck/fence 6-7k and it has a 17 year old ac unit. Comps in the area are lower than I had hoped and a handful have been sitting for months with no renters. I'm new to the game so I assume that can happen. When does it just not make sense to become a landlord?

what tax benefits do I now get by switching a single family home over to a rental after buying the home roughly 2 years ago?  We put a new roof on the home right when we bought the home and also are pondering a deck rebuild or repair.

Originally posted by @Joey Sullivan:

Originally posted by @Kevin K.:

Originally posted by @Joey Sullivan:

Remember to use your MLS comps as the touchstone. Don't do any more or less than what the comps are telling you.

 From a safety standpoint the deck needs to be repaired, but doesn't look like it's going to help much in bumping the rent.  I guess it either comes down to repairing and hoping that the rest of the deck doesn't fail/degrade or doing the whole thing.  

The cheapest route might be to tear it down and haul it off.  We had a great swimming pool at one of rentals in Round Rock.  It needed some up front work to get it back to usable condition. But the monthly cost to maintain it couldn't be justified with the market rents (i.e. we'd get less cashflow), so we filled it in.  

 My backyard has a big drop off from cement back patio to ground, which is why the deck was added.  Might be hard to justify renting with all the cash I'm going to need to put in along with unexpected monthly maintenance from tenants. Long-term Austin housing market gains would be the payoff at the end.   

Originally posted by @Joey Sullivan:

Remember to use your MLS comps as the touchstone. Don't do any more or less than what the comps are telling you.

 From a safety standpoint the deck needs to be repaired, but doesn't look like it's going to help much in bumping the rent.  I guess it either comes down to repairing and hoping that the rest of the deck doesn't fail/degrade or doing the whole thing.  

What is typical for yard work?  Does landlord or tenant handle this?