All Forum Posts by: Jason Schmidt

I was asked if i buy a house with cash, if i would get tax breaks like i would if i were to make monthly payments to a bank.  could anyone please shed some light on this for me?  

Thanks everyone - yes, I should have mentioned that before - i am a cash buyer and am looking for something in the NW Houston / Tomball / Magnolia / Cy-Fair area.  I would want this to be a good investment, and not just an "ok buy".  Would a buyer's agent still be my best bet? 

My parents have been through many problems in the past several years - from a kidney transplant, to heart attack, and more, my folks have always paid their rent on time, but their other bills have suffered.  They work VERY hard, and don't get paid much.  Their medical bills suck up all their money, and they refuse to get any government help.  

They recently found out their landlord is moving back into their house on October 1st, so they are very depressed, and worried that they will be unable to find a place to rent due to their rent.  I'd like to consider buying a place for $65-75k or so for them to live.  In doing so, I'd like to use this as a springboard to get into real estate investing.  

Can anyone give me any tips on finding a livable place in a decent neighborhood that is going to be a good investment?  I'm in the Houston area, so I think it may be tough.  They have a limited amount of time, so I don't have much time to actually dive into books and such again, so I guess it is time for me to just dive in and DO it.  

Any help (or even leads!!!) would be GREATLY appreciated.  

Thank you!

Being a newbie to this, the only thing I can cite as an objective, is to make an income to where my family can survive :) I am thinking flip to be honest.

- Jason

A lil background on me - I've been doing websites for over a decade, got burned out, so am not pursuing it hardcore like I have been, so have been doing something else I've been enjoying, and that is buying/selling collectibles. I've even gotten into buying/selling cars here and there.

I am married with children, have no debt, monthly expenses of about 3k a month, and about 150k in the bank. I am not looking for a high stress situation, but am wanting to somehow get into real estate to the point of where it can provide me at least a decent partial income.

Question to you is: What would you do? I'm in Texas. Where/how do you find deals? Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated, while I continue to immerse myself in the forums here. Thanks!

of course, i'm looking for the best deal possible here - what would be my best bet? I was told by lending tree, on a 15 year mortgage i could get 3.5% interest rate. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I spoke with a guy at lending tree, and said i was looking at a 185k house with about 50k down on a 15 year mortgage. He said closing costs would likely be 5k. But when i asked the realtor, she said 5-6% which would be about 7-8k or so. What would it be?

we were actually considering buying a house in the next few days and then I hear this on the news tonight. Are we not going to be able to get the good interest rates that we have been having recently? Or, when would that kick in likely?

I am in the Houston area and found a website that advertises a number of houses that have 10-30k equity built in. It is very exciting for me to see, but was wanting to know what you all thought. I am *PETRIFIED* about getting one of these. I do NOT want a rehab, as I don't want another "job". I want an income producing property that is fairly passive. I have read some books about real estate, but I think I'd like some practical, grass roots rubber meets the road advice. What steps do I take? I don't have any debt, and would like to invest maybe 25-50k cash to start out with (there are decent homes here for 70-80k apparently). Any thoughts?

Bill, I am in web development and have "decent" credit, though I haven't checked in a while.

I appreciate your straightforwardness, as opposed to being condescending to try to get your point across. As you know, the kind treatment of people commands respect, whereas one who would try and make someone look like a fool on here just to get their point across does not. I mis-labeled you to begin with - your last post appears that I was wrong, thankfully!