All Forum Posts by: Von S.

With 7k a month, why don't they buy their own house?

I rent to my parents, but they are somewhat deadbeats and on top of that there's some filial piety cultural stuff I have to deal with-- essentially, I rent to them knowing I am subsidizing their lives.

You can balance it out by buying a multi-unit with decent returns. That way, if they are like my parents, you won't feel like you're not earning something on your cash with the returns from other renters.

Thanks Brian for sharing the specific work and price you paid! I know scope of work and prices vary but this gives me a good base. I also used home advisor to try to get an estimate but the average there is a bit wide ranging.

Hey Forrest, the city's website is best for demographic search. Usually, it will be under economic development. Here's a link for Houston for data from 2011-2015: http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Demographics/sup...

Clicking on each neighborhood will give you breakdown by age, income, etc

Hi Patrick, did you look into FHA loans?

I'm also the opposite, I prefer emails. I think calls are so rude in that there's an expectation the person must stop doing whatever they are doing (driving, eating, working, hanging out with their kids) to take my calls and vice versa. Almost like showing up to someone's house unannounced, but not as rude. If one person doesn't answer, then we have the whole back and forth which is even less productive than texting and email. I prefer short, concise emails. If I'm interested, I'll follow up with a call. If not interested, than it's a cut and paste polite no.

Thanks Russ. Was the 12k work something you had done recently? Who worked on it?

Piggybacking on @Charlie MacPherson's comment, I think another way to analyze whether it's worth holding onto this property is to look at the demographics in your area. In Charlie's experience with the train extension in Scituate, he saw a decrease in home values. This makes sense to me in that I think the demographics in Scituate lean toward more established and older families looking for a peaceful living environment. In my experience, talks of train extension in Somerville (formerly referred to as "Slummerville")-- about a mile or so away from Boston proper, showed increases in price in the exact neighborhood the extension was being built. Further, more mixed-use condos went up in that area as well. My thinking here is that the demographic attracted to Somerville are younger professionals (DINKs or single person household) and they accept the noise as a given to having access to the train. Also, this demographic drive less as well.

All this said, look around your neighborhood. Do you see older established families or so called millennials moving in? Who are your current renters now? Do you see mixed use condos being built or retirement homes or single family homes? This will give you a sense of the demographic trends and you can decide whether this will increase the demand for your property or not when the train comes in. Also, most city economic dept. break down demographics by neighborhood so you might want to check into this-- usually available on city's website.

In Boston area, train extension will increase property values but we have a commuting population. Could you look at the last train extension or access around your area and see if the values of houses around that area increased?

Thanks for the info @Greg H.! That's such a short time period. I rent to live in cheaper/better places and invest outside the city so now, I'll just look at this requirement as a reduction in my own rent expense!

Yep, going through with the bid! There's no mention of a time period for living there but maybe I'll see that later.