All Forum Posts by: Natalie Novak

Karl,

Was it a recent article? I can't seem to find it if you could post the link. I lived in S Florida for 17 years and I've thought about that area also, but I just don't want to deal with another hurricane again. I went through so many that I think I burned myself out on the area.

I'm starting to feel like my husband and I are really late to the party. We have lived in West Seattle for ten years and have accumulated enough savings to buy our first investment property. We have enough of a down payment to go up to $300k, but we were looking to stay in the $200-250k range. We have excellent credit and have already been pre-approved. We have been looking around Hilltop because there are listings in or close to that range and having an old home ourselves we hold a certain love for older homes, but talking to some of the realtors it seems like they are going much higher than listed price? We were told yesterday that a home around L street was listed at $270k and it went for $370k cash. I'm wondering if we should move on to looking out of state even though we'd prefer a rental close to home. For those of you investing in that area or are trying to invest have you seen any deals or is it ultra competitive? We have family just outside of Austin where there are lots of houses in our range and I think that area will continue to rise so we're debating just moving on to looking there. 

Thanks Doug, I may take you up on that. I actually just saw that expo listed. I hope you enjoy Seattle, it's a beautiful city.  Definitely no good TX BBQ unfortunately.

My husband and I have been doing some homework regarding buying a potential investment property around Austin. For those of you that have SFH rentals I'm curious how you distinguish your rental from other similar homes? I currently live in Seattle, which has very distinguishable neighborhoods and the homes are older and not in planned developments so each home is very different. Upgrades to an older home are very evident. With so many new developments in Austin that have similar homes that need little upgrades due to being newly built how do you stand out as a more desirable rental?

I was quoted 5.75 this week, 30 year, 20% down. We have excellent credit. I was disappointed rates have gone up so high.

I’d also be interested in this answer. Lender is telling me the interest rate as a second home is 4.75% , but on an investment property it would be 5.75.

Thanks everyone. I did get quoted a rate for a 30 year loan at 5.75% interest with 20% down.  I knew investment rates would be higher, but I was hoping for a little better considering we have excellent credit and money for down payment. Do you think I can do better? I was told if it was a second home we’d get 4.75%, but we do intend to rent it. 

My husband and I live in Seattle, but due to the housing climate here we are starting our exploration of buying our first investment property in the greater Austin area, probably somewhere in a surrounding area not Austin proper.I have family in Hutto and Georgetown, but they bought their homes 10+ years ago and had no current recommendations for us. We plan on putting 20% down and want to buy and hold the property. Can anyone recommend any mortgage brokers that are willing to work on loans for investment properties in the greater Austin area? We'd like to start getting all our ducks in a row so we can hit the ground running once we find a property.