All Forum Posts by: Tatum Littleton

Cool to hear Mitch, good for you! I believe they have been awesome investments for you. I understand the hesitancy to lease to students but vacancy is so low, that if you can handle a few headaches, it's worth it. 

I believe there is a demand for those kinds of rentals. I can speak from experience as a student at Texas A&M, I lived in a 5 br/5 b house and I knew plenty of other students who lived in similar houses or "Ag Shacks" if you will. From watching the market and myself investing in Bryan/College Station, people are still renting out these properties nicely.

They can be leased as a whole or rented by the room and are usually in great areas, close to the university, grocery stores, and restaurants. I think enough investors are looking to invest in these kinds of properties because of their potential, and with as many property management companies as there are, it makes it that much easier to be an owner.  

Hi Nicole! I'm glad you are looking to invest in Bryan/College Station. I believe it's a great and thriving community with unique aspects that make it stand out from other markets in Texas. 

Feel free to reach out anytime. I would be happy to talk with you and learn more about you and your goals!

Great start Denice, I'm glad you're on the forums and ready to learn. You've got a great start by being here and an idea of what you want to do. I would encourage you to read this beginners guide from BiggerPockets, it's a good bit of information so pick and choose what you want to read or read it all. It will give you a 30,000 feet view of real estate investing as a whole for different strategies and will allow you to find new ideas and to explore and see what works for you!

Find your "why" and let that be your motivation! I would be happy to talk with you about the real estate market and what your goals are in investing. Learning as much as you can and remember, its a marathon, not a sprit so keep working hard!

Hi Andrew, glad to have you in the forums, there are plenty of good conversations happening on here especially for out of state long term renting. In my opinion, long term rentals is the "easiest" to get started on your investing journey. I put quotes because its simple but many people make it more difficult. I think you're starting in the right place!

Keep learning and investing in yourself and your family, good luck!

Hi Chloe, good on you for your honesty, being honest with yourself and others goes a long way! As you will see there will be a lot of people willing to help and offer advice but its up to you to sift through it all and find what helps you for where you're at in life. 

You are so young and have more than enough potential to be successful. My opinion (and it's just that, an opinion) would be to keep your 9-5 job as it is steady income and be frugal and save as much as possible. Learn from your family and on your own by going to different meet-ups and having conversations with agents, other investors and anyone else in the industry to hear about their experiences.

Make 2025 a year of planning and how you will go about that plan. Maybe look at numbers and properties you could do a potential house hack and begin to plot out moves but I don't want you to fall into the analysis paralysis group and never make a move, have people that will encourage and keep you accountable. 

I don't think it is a bad idea to find work in real estate somehow as it will allow you to be comfortable with being around it in general, such as a property management company. But I would encourage you to not give up what you have now but instead make a plan and see it through. Being in Texas already is great, there is plenty of potential in the DFW area. 

Real estate investing is a marathon, not a sprint, not a get rich quick scheme. You learn as you go and from others. Keep up the good work and keep that positive attitude, it will reward you soon enough!

Feel free to reach out with any other questions!

As noted above, having an agent that is familiar with investing can help in how the investing market looks versus how buying a personal property looks. It seems you and your husband have the ability to make a property more desirable and I would try to stay local for the same reasons you listed. 

If you haven't already, try going off market, driving around neighborhoods that would be of interest to you and finding ones that fall into your criteria (your agent should be able to help you as well). Keep looking on the market, something will come available but you have to be ready to get on it. It doesn't seem like you will be living in this rehab at all so as @Patricia Steiner said, buy an opportunity, not a property. If the numbers work well and ROI and ARV are good, go for it. I know it's a bit scary to start but once you jump in, you'll learn and grow! Good luck!

According to your numbers, I would say to keep it as a STR but as a few others have said, look at different vacancy rates as well management fees. I would be as conservative as possible in judging for cash flow. $38,000 would be amazing to get that, but of course, those are estimates and if it works out well.

Others noted that the appreciation play could make it worth keeping, I tend to look more heavily on appreciation since real estate investing is more of a long term game. Appreciation takes time and from everything I have seen and read, the Northeast is a good place to be for appreciation if you have the capital to start there. 

Of course, there is no absolute right or wrong answer, you really should evaluate what is right for you and your family at this time and in the future. There are a million different opinions so take them and formulate what will work for you! Good luck!

All great advice so far and would agree with the other comments. I would reinforce making sure you know the leg work it takes for a STR and the potential hurdles that may slow you down (gov./city regulations, set up costs, doing things to stand out) and leave you with less cash in case of an emergency. Do plenty of research and find out what other mistakes have been made in your are and learn from them.

Both are great options but maybe doing a simple pros/cons list for both STR and LTR. Ask yourself how much work you want to do (real estate is not a passive income endeavor) and how does it or does not fit into your life right now. The good thing about your property and area is that it seems that you could potentially transition between the two if you had to. Maybe setting up for STR and looking into MTR since you have it furnished already, there is plenty you can do with your situation.

And someone said it before but make sure it aligns with your "why", don't just do it willy nilly and think you can just make a quick buck, what is your ultimate goal and which strategy will help facilitate that? 

Good luck and keep at it!

The point has been made but I'll say it again, where to house hack? Where do you want to be? It seems you would be most comfortable in Florida but if you're willing to move to other states, I would get out there if possible and talk to as many different people as you can with as many different opinions to get different takes. Take that information and see what might work best for you right now in this position in life.

House hacking is an awesome way to get started and even doing that can still be a bit difficult to cash flow today so run your numbers multiple times and do them well. Even if you are not cash flowing on day one, that's okay (in my opinion), you're not paying the full mortgage on your own, which in of itself is a huge win and you learn other tangible real estate investing skills along the way by simply owning. 

I think if you can juggle managing the property on your own and taking care of your business this seems like a no brainer but I hope you don't get caught in a rut because it doesn't seem like it's working or something else... it's a marathon, not a sprint! It looks like you've taken more steps than some, so, keep learning and planning your next moves!

I'm in Texas and would be happy to talk with you about different markets! Good luck, keep it up!

Take a look at this BP beginners guide. It helped me with kind of a 30,000 foot overview of investing. It may help you get some ideas on what to add to your own thing or send them that. I think it does a good job of introducing different strategies and lingo of investing in a  digestible way and allows someone to find what they may find interesting and then learn more about that. It's lengthy and of course, they can pick and choose what to read or jump around to what they want to learn. 

Good on you for helping your friend, good luck!