All Forum Posts by: Stephen Stokes

Best to consult a mortgage broker on source of funds requirements for FHA as I am not an expert there. Send me a direct message if you would like a referral.

In my humble opinion, suggest you approach from a total expense point of view using conservative estimates to compare your two options; paying his rent or owning and possibly selling when he vacates. Transaction costs are there so it may very well depend on price point and time expected to inhabit. In this case, you are forced to either rent for him or buy something for him to live in. Have you also discussed with him the possibility to have roommates? Also, the intangible impact of purchase that may sway the decision to NOT go elsewhere as desired due to the impact of you having to sell. I have always thought that if I have a kid that goes to university I will surely have the purchase a property day one because at 18 you should have established a Roth IRA and can make 100% tax free penalty free withdrawal to purchase first home and this will likely make the math for you.

Does anyone here have experience with probate process and finding leads in Austin MSA counties? 

I use the Mint app from Intuit.

@Jerryll Noorden  I do not follow the point you are trying to make? Are you saying my offers would not be credible? 

@Jonathan Pflueger Thanks for the recommendation on the handwritten letters! For me, the offers ($) would be genuine as the highly refined targeted areas I am seeking, I know what price point will make sense for me to come in and do the full rehab strategy. However, I could absolutely see how someone could take advantage of this strategy for wholesaling. Here in Austin, we actually have several wholesaling companies that are quickly gaining a terrible reputation for making offers and then backing out of them. 

@Braden Smith there are already services like OpenDoor.com that will send you an offer without seeing the property so this is already being done. Believe reasonable offer can be listed and fine print allowing legal protections. 

Does anyone send "yellow letters" with an actual offer figure? Recently watched a podcast where discussion came up around intriguing strategy to send an actual figure "I will buy your house for $xxx". Theme was that people would tend to respond more to this wanting to know how the number was derived at minimum. I am looking to send out my first round of mailers and seeking any templates or experience that folks are willing to share. I am planning to target a small list as I do not want to be involved with multiple transactions at this stage and really do not want to wholesale any properties; I am a buy and hold investor. 

Read B. Turner's book on managing rentals. Helped me get started and continues to be a resource for me. 

I do not know about you but I do not have time to mess with fighting 1:1 with the county appraisal board nor do I see there being an ROI on the time invested. Prefer to outsource this to a trusted supplier who has produced great results for me on my properties. If your interested in the referral, I can send via DM.