All Forum Posts by: Michael Le

Great story. It took some time, good understanding and communication between you and your partner, but eventually you guys found a way. Nice job.

@Benjamin Blackburn

MUD = Municipal Utility District

WCID = Water Control & Improvement District

When a new development is getting built on empty land there is usually no water lines, sewage, drainage or anything else like that. It has to be built, along with the streets, etc. To get the money to build these the developers will petition the state to get a MUD formed. And then the MUD will sell bonds to raise money to build this needed infrastructure. And then to pay down those bonds, a MUD tax is charged against the property. Over time the bonds should get paid down so that means over time your MUD tax goes down. A lot of older homes (30 years or so) no longer have this tax so their tax rate is usually around 2% versus the 3-4% in a brand new neighborhood. Don't 100% quote me on this but I think this is right.

There are some slight differences between MUDs and WCIDs but I don't think they're significant.

Hi Benjamin,

That looks like it's only the tax for Harris County. There should also be tax for the local school district, which is usually the highest of the three property taxes. The third one will likely be for the local MUD/WCID district that most (but not all) houses will be part of.

Hi Eddie,

Welcome to BP. I'm new here myself so hopefully we'll see each other at one of the local meetups. As I'm sure you've already found out, there are a lot of resources on this site. Listen to the podcast, read the blogs, and interact on the forums.

Good luck.

As Charles said, if you don't need the money then enjoy the extra cashflow. Even if you needed some of the cash, consider refinancing instead and pulling out some of that equity. Nothing like starting now if you don't already have an investment property. That area will continue to grow.

Painful lesson but you paid it forward by sharing it with us. Thanks again and I hope you can get your money back. Surely there is some sort of fraud that can be reported for this if he did it to many people. And small claims court should be relatively easy and cheap to file, so you might want to look into that.

Welcome to BP, Iman. I'm new like you so hopefully we'll both be BP success stories in the future.

Congrats, Michael and thanks for the breakdown.

Welcome to BP and to Houston, @Ivan Lai. I hope to see you at some of the Houston Meetups.

I wanted to say new investor but I haven't done anything yet. I'm hoping to rectify that soon and I know that BP is a good place to start down that road. 

I've been interested in real estate for a long time. Years ago I started my Realtor classes from Champions School but never finished. I attended REIAs in Houston before and never did anything then either. I do have some real estate experience as my second home was purchased as a short sale. 

I'm eager to meet and interact with many people on here, from Houston and throughout the world.