All Forum Posts by: Marian Smith

I just posted a house in Round Rock just off I35/Toll45 on facebook fsbo that would make a great house hack. The second floor is a 350 sqft attic conversion and the stairwell to it could fairly easily be made to be a separate entrance. Although I believe you'd need to keep an interior door access to the upstairs as the house is zoned single family. You hear of ADU's but attic space is another possibility with older houses without all the trusses. And now days you can insulate the ceiling with foam.

Also, I would be wary of your loan terms and the risk of deeding triggering a loan due notice.

If you can qualify, then you can afford the payments without tenants,  that’s good.  Are you also committed to living in Dallas for the next few years?  And Dallas is big, so if you lose your job are there a lot of potential employers in the area?  
Buying can be a great decision.  If you are looking at buying as an investment, just remember that location is of utmost importance and also that you make your money when you buy.  Don’t settle for a house because it is cheap and you can close at the end of your lease, better to wait for a good/great location and spend some money buying out of your lease to make it work.  Good luck!

I often hear people recommend a cpa for taxes but never have I read of one instance where a cpa added much value imo. There isn't a lot of flexibility in reporting your income or expenses.  Pretty cut and dry.  You have to keep up with the receipts, etc.  That is the main hassle.  Businesses are just income and expenses.  If you read a tax guide like lassiters...and rentals are treated in about a page...follow that and/or the irs publications then you know what can be used as expenses...basically everything for a rental that costs money and you have a receipt.  The difference between maintenance and repair can be a gray area and the amount you can write off in one year is something to keep in mind.  vs depreciate.   All the tax software will keep track of your depreciation...and that is explained in a few sentences in Lassiter or in one of the irs pubs.  If you are wary of being audited and want cps backup I guess that makes sense.  My returns look about the same year after year with turnovers showing a little less income and more maintenance expense.

You could also pull up a simple warranty deed from your county and use it for a template...maybe use an electronic source like Gale through the library to get instructions on how and why a deed says what it does.  The heading format can be slightly different per county but the rest is the same.  It's a bit of typing to create one from scratch...lawyers just fill in the blanks, well their paralegals do, so not too expensive to go that route.

Are they good tenants or would you prefer they leave when their lease is up?  Do you want them to remove and take the seat when they leave?  

That may very well be the case.  Crashes, at least in stocks, tend to be panic driven.  The fed targeting housing costs has indeed halted appreciation nationwide and housing prices are likely to plateau or drift down even in markets with low supply and a growing job base.  Not seeing widespread panic or distressed selling in Austin's future.  Rents may go down but a lot of landlords with long term tenants are renting below market anyway.  New entrants probably didn't cashflow from the get go, but if they can put 25% down in the Austin market they likely have a few options going forward...we are not Memphis.

"Just pointing out the trend line" is not the same thing as saying the market is coming crashing down.  You say you've lost 75-100k per duplex. We all gain and lose about 10% per property every May to December...every year.  And your spouting 75-100k losses vs a percentage is not very illuminating.  Sounds scary though!  And kind of meaningless unless you need to sell.  We all saw some crazy high prices being paid but it was a crazy time...super low inventory, super low interest rates, and a bunch of Californians willing to overpay.  We all know those crazy days are gone, but that doesn't portend a crash. It just means top dollar days are gone. 

@Joe Scaparra  Not sure the purpose of your predicting the Austin market will come "crashing down."  There are plenty of reasons the market may not...and Austin has proved to be a pretty resilient market in the past.  No, I am not pissed, just sounds like fear mongering.  We all know business cycles.   No doubt there are recent job losses and interest rates are elevated, but I am not sure what percentage of the population are immediately affected...most just keep on living their lives.  

All the headlines about declining prices plus high interest rates seem to be discouraging buyers.  Is there a corresponding rise in rental demand?  Are jobs still moving to the area?