All Forum Posts by: Sebastian Gast

Say you already sold it

I made my website with Wix and it is super intuitive and super easy. However, it doesn't have the unlimited potential that a Wordpress site has and I have heard Wix is really bad for SEO. I'll probably move to a Wordpress site eventually.

My keys for me to getting started were getting educated and taking action. Have a balance between both but don't expect perfection in either.  Mistakes will be made but that's a critical part of the growth process.  Best of luck to you!

Welcome! Make sure to form your networks, and BP is a good place for that.  It'll help a lot when navigating the investor saturated market of Houston.

I am about to start turning a property rent ready and have a deck in the backyard (see pictures below).  I am trying to decide if I should keep it as-is or remove the roof.  A covered deck is nice in such a hot climate like Houston.  However, let's just say the roof looks like a civil engineer didn't design it.  

So... would you keep it? Or tear down the roof? I don't want it to turn into a liability but I could just be overreacting.

I've always wondered this.  I was looking at a great deal by the numbers in Lubbock TX a few years ago but I couldn't get myself to pull the trigger.  I would think it depends on what type of college students.  Grad student housing off campus may be a lot better than a middle-of-campus-near-the-undergrad-dorms location.  On a plus side, I think a lot of college rentals will rent with minimum upkeep.  Looking back I can't believe some of the conditions I actually lived in when I was in college...

I have seen a lot that conventional banks will require that you hold a property for 1 year before re-selling, regardless if you finance the repairs yourself.  If you want to be in and out as fast as possible (what most people call a flip), hard money lenders may be the only ones that will give you a loan.  An exception to this is if you're flipping a Fannie Mae property (like that one I'm doing right now) there is a 90 day hold rule if you plan to re-sell for 20% more of what you paid for the property regardless of the type of loan.

As to your second question, being good at flipping may help you make buy and holds rent ready faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.  I would really try to strengthen both areas.

Great advice guys.  I think a fair question to ask would be, how do you make sure you GET an appointment? I wouldn't think anybody would be interested in an appointment if they feel like they are being lowballed.  I also don't think anybody would be interested in making an appointment if they don't at least get an offer on the phone.  How do you handle this?

@JPaul Mills 

@Rick Baggenstoss 

Generally speaking, condos are not a very good buy and hold investment. Condos have HOA fees that can change at the whim of the association which can quickly turn an initially good deal sour with nothing you can do about it. I would especially be cautious in this particular case since your rent to purchase ratio is hovering around 1%. Also, be mindful that college rentals are a category of their own - they may get beat up pretty good (but you also don't have to maintain them as nice).

There are several smartphone apps for this, you might check some out and stick with one that you like. Evernote Hello is one one of them and a lot of people already use Evernote to get organized.  I personally upload my comments into a categorized spreadsheet.  It works for me because I am not calling these people that often, only when I need them.