All Forum Posts by: Scott Beck

Welcome @Lee Ann line to the Bigger Pockets community.

For a good overview of single family real estate investing see the Bigger Pockets guide "." You might also find "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Garry Keller (of Keller Williams), Dave Jenks, and Jay Pappasan to be informative.

When you say you are interested in small MFRs, do you mean duplexes to quads or five doors and above?

Welcome @Cherry Chen to the Bigger Pockets community.

You might find here on Bigger Pockets a good place to start. 

Networking is also very beneficial. You can find local Bigger Pockets groups under the Community tab above (see Networking Events). Dallas has a variety of investor groups that can be found through a MeetUp or Google search. One that I attend is the general meeting of the North Texas Association of Real Estate Investors (www.ntarei.com). This is a good place to network and build your team - wholesalers, agents, contractors, financial folks, etc. They also offer classes for beginners and some specialized topics.

Reach out to me if you have any area specific questions.

Good Luck!

Welcome @Aaron Guthrie to the Bigger Pockets community.

Hopefully your reading and research include here on BP.

Since you are at the beginning of your real estate adventure you should start to do lots of networking. This will help you build a strong team. Locally there are many RE investor groups. I like the North Texas Association of Real Estate Investors (www.ntarei.com), which currently meets in Dallas. I hear that there is a good group in Arlington. I think they advertise on MeetUp, or you can google REIA and Arlington to find them.

I am in Murphy and focus on Collin County and northern Dallas County. PM me if you are interested in a more in-depth discussion.

Good luck!

Welcome @Kyle Adam to the Bigger Pocket Community.

You may want to check out the following:

Networking will be a key to your success and is a good way to find deals. The Community tab has a variety of ways to do this: Networking events; Find Members; etc. Also take advantage of some of the investor groups in the area. I like to attend the monthly meeting of the North Texas Association of Real Estate Investors (www.ntarei.com) where a featured speaker give up to a two-hour presentation. There are vendors available and if you talk to people you will find out who is doing wholesaling or selling. The group also has individual classes throughout the month that are very beneficial. There are also a variety of investor groups in the area that can be found on MeetUp.

My focus is Collin County and northern Dallas County. Let me know if you have any questions on these area related to your investment goals.

Good luck!

@Ross Kallenberg

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets community. The Ultimate Beginner's Guide mentioned above is a good place to start reading. On this site there are lots of useful podcasts (see Education tab above) and forums (see Community tab above).

Networking will also be a key to your success. The Community tab has a variety of ways to do this: Networking events; Find Members; etc. Also take advantage of some of the investor groups in the area. I like to attend the monthly meeting of the North Texas Association of Real Estate Investors (www.ntarei.com). They also have individual classes that are very beneficial. There are also a variety of investor groups in the area that can be found on MeetUp.

My focus is Collin County and northern Dallas County. Let me know if you have any questions on these.

Good luck!

Hi @Donn Yu;

Are you aware that Wylie received the brunt of a hail storm in April and is still recovering? Many properties were damaged with softball-sized hail.

(For instance see http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2016/04/basebal...)

Hopefully you have someone nearby that can walk the prospective property or you can visit it.

Good luck.

Hi @Ben Sealey,

I see that you are from Knoxville and assume you are looking there. Have you tried the Knox County property assessor webpage to find this information?

Welcome @Stephanie Cruz to the Bigger Pockets community.

My focus is the eastern half of the DFW metroplex. Let me know if you have any questions regarding this part of Texas (colleges/universities, real estate schools, etc.)

Good luck! 

Hi @Naveen Desai

Thermal imaging is used for a variety of reasons. In real estate it was originally used by energy companies to help homeowners determine where insulation or window replacement was needed to improve the thermal performance of the home (both cold and hot weather). You might be interested in the following link

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/mus...

Last year I attended a class through the North Texas Association of Real Estate Investors on code compliance. Evidently Texas has adopted to follow the International Energy Conservation Code and each community in North Texas has adopted different versions of this code. Additionally, some communities are applying these to rental units. So you might want to check with the particular city.

Beyond detecting thermal leaks thermal imaging is used to find hot spots in electrical systems and areas where water leaks are present, but not visible. Additional information on thermography can be found at

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermography

Hi Satya,

Just like it is for you, the disclosed fire will be a red flag for buyers. So some will not be interested in the property and others won't care. I don't have any hard data on this, but think it will reduce the number of buyers looking at the property.

Scott