All Forum Posts by: Mark Sewell

Hey, I'll rent you mine and I'll move to Seattle.  Kidding - I like it here.  

I am from WA State, if you ever want to visit.

This is a good resource that might help - richblockspoorblocks.com  I think about any area around the beltway will work.  

Check for areas that flood regularly, of course.

Sure, they are pretty common.  No tax returns, and no income verification at all.  

Non QM here means it is a 'non-qualified' loan, which is to say, it doesn't have to meet the same standards that FHA/VA and government-backed paper has to meet. So instead, they have lower LTV rules - you aren't going to get 80% out on these loans - and rates are going to be maybe 1.5% - 2% higher.

Ian, probably we could beat that for non-QM, but not by much.  It's fair for non-QM.  

OK now if you go back to the W-2 then you could get a great rate - in a couple years.

I am a loan officer now at one of the biggest/oldest HM lenders in TX and I don't think I could help you - at least not here in TX.  Here you have to have cash or certified funds to pay for whatever you buy at auction.  Could be different counties have different rules, not sure (doubt it).  

Now sure, we could probably do some kind of cashout arrangement after you pay cash for it, but we also not loan as much.  So those are two key items that you would want to check on in your state where you and your HM lender operate.

@Victor Nap welcome.  I agree.  Trying to invest in real estate with a great deal of personal debt, and/or having some less-than-optimal personal finance habits, is not going to work in most cases.  It is like going to the gym everyday but not managing your diet.  You cannot work-off a bad diet in the gym, and I think, likewise, you are going to find it really, really hard to flip/brrrr your way out of debt.  There was a time when I thought maybe I could, and I found out I couldn't.  Very humbling, but I get it now.

And tacos.  All kinds of them.  Breakfast tacos are the best thing ever.

You know, this thread has been going for months now, and when it started, I thought it was an odd question - obviously the big market is the better one right?

I am starting think now that these markets are so hot that it almost doesn't make sense to look in the big metro areas - I think the opportunities now might be in the smaller secondary towns.  Draw 100 mile circle around Houston, DFW, SA, and Austin, and look for places with decent internet connection and some kind of jobs or economic activity - and heck, if I can work from home, do I need to live 10 miles from my office now?  Maybe, maybe not.  

I get calls from RE agents, brokers and investors now looking at properties in places like Victoria, Freeport, Huntsville, Sealy, Navasota, and on and on... you get it.  I see these little $100K houses cash flowing like champs - like you could find in Houston 3-5 years ago.  Sure you want to have a big enough market that you know you could sell it when the time comes, I get that.  

But the demand for those little 3/2 1500 sf houses in Houston is just off the charts now - to the point where owner-occupants are outbidding any reasonable investor than can do basic math.

Same as my experience with contractors.  Some guys are golden.  Others aren't.

@Account Closed not offended.  Please spread the word.  Houston is overpriced.  Too hot, too humid, too may bugs and hurricanes.  Leave some opportunities for the locals.

No, I am being a little facetious.  We do have a problem here and it isn't demand - it is lack of supply, particularly at lower price points or really anything under the median.  

And you nailed it on property taxes.

@Steven Ha 

Here are a couple of resources to help you with your online browsing:

Richblockpoorblocks.com

city-data.com

The newer stuff will be too much to pay, might be real hard to get it cheap enough.  I think you want the houses built between 1980 and 2000.  Probably you'll be looking outside beltway 8.  Get familiar with the areas that flooded.

And see that's the rub - there is a role for good wholesalers.  It is hard freaking work, running marketing, staying consistent, talking to sellers, doing all that follow up... on and on.  But to do it right, you really need experience.  This is why so many of them fail.

You want a mentor?  Great, partner up with an actual buyer.  Get them to help you with some cost of your marketing, in return for some privileges and discounts on the leads when they come in.  Involve them because they have experience.  You got time, energy and skills, and they are busy... First, figure out what you are good at and focus on that, but try to run in teams as much as you can.

Also Kalim, this is BP where all the realtors hang out.  Wholesalers don't really eat their lunch per se, but they do nibble at it some...  So there's that.