All Forum Posts by: Simon Shih

Two ways to get comps. Either become a real estate agent and you can have access to the MLS. Or find someone that is a real estate agent that has access to the MLS to pull comps for you. I'm working on my license now, but I have friends who are agents and are happy to pull comps for me.

I think most of the list providers pull from the same source. I know that Listsource and YellowLetters do.

Awesome. 

I just finished the first half of my first mail marketing campaign. I'm saying first half because I got sent offshore after I got half my mailers out. I sent out 1000 postcards, but only got one call. The thing is, the call was a SFR that the owner wanted 25K for. I had someone take pictures of the property and email them to me offshore. I had comps pulled and found the house to be around 75-80 ARV. I made an offer of 15K and he took it. This one deal pays for my whole marketing campaign. I might not have gotten a lot of call like you did, but I got a deal from the one call I did get. Repairs I estimated at 35K so it falls well in the 70% rule. My plan is to BRRRR the deal.

That's a pretty broad question, especially for Houston. The housing market in Houston varies greatly from area to area. Downtown? Suburbs? Heights, Clear Lake, Katy, The Woodlands. What class neighborhoods are you looking at? Are you looking for turnkey or rehabs and hold? A little more specifics would help me answer your question.

Do not use Tax appraisal for ARV. You will be way off. I'm working on a deal that has the tax appraisal at 60K, but the comps pulled put the house at 80K. The tax value is used to calculate how much taxes the home owner pays and can reassessed if the home owner thinks it's too high and wants a lower tax bill. You want a low tax assessment, but a high appraisal.

If you need a starting point, it'll work, but you'll want something more accurate. Pull comparisons or have a real estate agent pull them.

Business. I am all for being sympathetic, but if you want to be a landlord, there's always someone with a sob story. If you buy the house and give him the option to stay at market price, there's nothing wrong bit it and you shouldn't feel bad. I would never "let him have" the house. Make the deal, treat him fairly, and if he decides to move, then sleep well at night because you gave him the option.

@Almin Skender. Cash out refi or home equity line of credit (HELOC) will get your friend paid back and give you capital for the next deal. It's called the BRRRR strategy. Buy, Rehab, Refi, Rent and Repeat. You can buy and hold and use your properties to fund future properties.

Or what @Patrick Liska said ;)

Welcome @Gary L Jamerson. Read and learn. There's a wealth of information here.

Driving for dollars. Find vacant houses.
Go to tax assessors website. It's by county so In Houston it is Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD.org)
Input the address in the search box. 
It should come back with the owners name, address you are searching and mailing address.
The mailing address is usually their current address, not the house that is vacant. 
Send yellow letter to mailing address. 

Does this help?

Is it staged? I always find rentals more appealing when they are staged. Gives the potential renters an idea of how nice the place can be.