All Forum Posts by: Poem Turner

Wherever you look at, consider the rate new jobs are being added and how robust the local economy is. Houston, for example, ebbs and flows with oil prices. And while the folks taking the flashy jobs being added probably won't be the ones renting your properties, people working in the service industry supporting those new positions will. Hospital and medical staff, restaurant staff, etc. Austin itself is difficult to see cashflow in, but outside of Austin (Round Rock, Jarrell, Georgetown) I have clients seeing $200-$500/month in these areas. IMO, they're very stable investments because those towns all have economies independent of Austin, and are supporting their own growth.

This may be what you're looking for.

https://get.biggerpockets.com/forms/tx/

@Dave Foster Great to hear! Would love to hear your story sometime. We plan to do it with our two girls. I think it must run in the family. My grandparents raised their 4 kids on a 52' Piver trimaran. When I was a kid we used to visit the boat every summer we could.

@Terry Burwell. Love, love, LOVE your plan! We are also on a 5-6 year plan to become liveaboards! Building our rental portfolio now so we have passive income while we're gone, and hopefully allow us to stay as long as we'd like!

We currently lease a Beneteau 375 on Lake Travis; it's the closest we can get for now; with the occasional charter every couple of years.

Best of luck. Hopefully we'll meet on the water!

@Andrew Postell - Check with John Burnam at SWBC or Steve Ferguson at Southwest Funding. PM me for additional contact info. Both are well versed in "unusual" lending situations. Good luck!

@Arley Collado - 203k, yes. HomeStyle Renovation loan, no; they can be investment properties up to the 4th one you own, I believe. Talk with a loan officer who has worked with the products before; it'll save you a lot of headache! Not every one can offer them or knows how to work with them!

Good luck!

203k or a HomeStyle renovation loan may be an option for you as well. That might put you in a position to purchase a property that needs some work, but that could be rolled into the loan. Partnering and/or house hacking is a good option as well. You certainly COULD find something out of state with your 20k down, but at a distance, the tenants you might be working with might be a bit of a headache. On the other hand, if you're up for that, areas around Fort Hood or down in San Antonio have properties at that price point all the time.

Hi Dan, Welcome to BP! I moved from the RDU area 5 years ago. Great place to be investing right now!

Erik,

I'd be very interested in helping you with your focus group! Before I put on my real estate hat I ran a comparative immunology lab and did beta testing of equipment and software for companies like Promega, BioRad, Nikon, and others.

Poem

Oh my, lots of opinions here!

My two cents: 

As an investor: I have an understanding of tax rates in each area, ballpark rents, and overall what criteria works for MY specific requirements.

As an agent: I've run the numbers on enough properties, I can tell at a glance what the monthly cash flow will be (taking into account location, taxes, HOA, schools, condition, appreciation trends, local job markets and coming opportunities) and even if it doesn't fit MY criteria, it may be just right for a client. We've all got different tolerances. If it passes the first glance screening, yes, I do run an analysis, and if it looks right there, I'll pass the listing, analysis, sold and rental ballparks to my client. That's for pockets and off-markets as well as what's officially on MLS. Almost all of my investors have their own analysis they'll run after they have that info. I'm not offended, they don't think I'm pushy, but I've helped narrow the field for them and don't swamp them with dozens of listings a day.

As a techie: I've developed a script to "scrub" the local MLS for combinations of criteria that may have allowed a property to escape my notice (can't look at EVERY ONE), and fit a range of cash flow and ROI tolerances.

So, yes, I think a good investment realtor should do a preliminary screen for you. But they should be experienced enough and have processes in place that make that not as hands-on for them as individually analyzing every property that fits 3/2/2 of a certain age and size within a zip code or school district. Keep looking and networking and you'll find them! Probably lurking here ;-)