All Forum Posts by: Shuang W.

@Edward Shen , are you looking in Austin? If the situation has only happened once or twice, then it could be just coincidence. Austin market is hot, but most properties won’t be pending over weekends, meaning if you schedule it in two days, it should be okay, unless you schedule for a Monday showing when the property was listed on the Thursday before. And like other folks mentioned, off-market properties could be an option, too.

housing market has been more or less affected by COVID19 duing April and May, but it should be fine now. Cedar Park is closer to Apple campus, while 78681 is preferred by families for good schools. 

In general, properties closer to town have a better appreciation. You are correct that it's really hard to get positive cashflow in Austin especially after considering paying property management fee etc. Within this price range, you can buy either SFR or duplex. I personally stick to SFR as of today considering multifamily is not necessarily bring better results.

@Joe Scaparra , I've learned quite a bit of knowledge from your posts since I joined BP, but I'm still hesitated to buy 2/4-duplex :) I would deeply appreciate if you can help me understand it better. I thought when people buy SFHs as their primary residence, they would love to pay more if the property is in a good location and maintained well. While for Duplex or 4-plex, it's mainly bought and sold by investors. And investors would only want to buy one if there is more benefit. Thus, I think SFHs would appreciate more/quicker than multifamily. And using one of the duplex I've looked at recently, the per sqft price of duplex in a worse condition is even higher than a SFR in the same location. And that duplex won't have positive cash flow with 20% down. I remember that duplex was around 390k, and each unit can be rented at $1400 or maybe a little less. However, it was pending in a weekend... Don't understand.

@Ceryn Chen, east Austin might be a good choice if you are interested in Airbnb. It’s also good for long term rental investment. It has been booming, and the price is still affordable ( kinda ), but you might need to do some major rehab. I might be a little bit hesitated about leveraging too much from primary home considering it’s your first investment. You can do things better when under less financial pressure. To start, you may look for more information on the city website about short term rental licensing, etc.

One thing you might want to consider is do you expect more cash flow, or do you invest for appreciation, which is not guaranteed. If you invest for cash flow, then Austin is probably not on your list.

As for rent, the number of rentals doesn’t tell anything. Even in a same city, Certain area is hot and has very limited rentals, which you don’t need to worry about the vacancy. 

@Richelle Ouellette, thank you Richelle for sharing these valuable information. I have done a major rehab in east Austin, so I have also worked with multiple contractors. I would say my experience is okay, with some people being really reliable, and for others I have had to clean the mess :). I’m really interested in learning more about the process and difficulties of adding a adu, especially for plumbing, etc. I will go and talk to the code department more on it. Would you mind PM me your handyman’s contact if you feel comfortable with it? 

@John Collins, me myself is one of the tech people, and I know multiple of them rent a house near Domain or the 78729 zip code, and others rent in apartments, too. There are several reasons to rent a house, such as being a young couple, or sharing rooms with co-workers, etc. As for Pflugerville, there are many new constructions around or under 300k. Vacancy for a less than 1500sqft house near Domain is lower comparing to Round rock, Cedar Park, etc with more sqft based on my experience. I don’t mean one is better than the other, but the renter target are different. One is a better location for younger family, the other one is for people who would love great schools. 

@Darshil Parikh, I would give 78727 and 78729. These two zip codes are my two favorite in North Austin. And within these two, I prefer 78727 even more. For a SFR less than 1500 sqft, you can still get a property less than or around 300K.

@Sarah Klein, I have a flip SFH which I bought below 300k, and the cash flow can be around 200 each month.

It's hard to get much positive cash flow in SFH in Austin today since the home prices have been increasing for the past years. When I buy an investment, I check out the potential new schools in the neighborhood, job growth in the area, house demands as investors and new residents move in, etc. House hacking can be a good strategy if you just start without much down payment.