All Forum Posts by: Tamara Elliott-Deering

I have never used a home warranty but I came across this article: https://www.landlordology.com/buy-home-warranty-rental/ maybe it will help

Welcome,

What part of Texas are you in? I'm outside of Austin so UT land, but I'm also equidistant between Texas State at San Marcos, Baylor, and Texas A&M.

Hi Brad,

I'm looking to build a new family compound in Texas. Where is your lead located?

@Leland Barrow had a great response for determining your goals and objectives. One option I'm a big fan of is the two year flip. Buy a fixer upper, live in it as your primary residence for two years and then sell it without having to pay taxes on the first $500,000. If you don't want to live in a fixer upper you can finance a property with a 203k loan and move into a finished renovation.

I don't think new construction is the best option, mainly because if the houses are in a development they tend to go down in value the first few years before they start appreciating (provided you are in an area that is not ripe with speculation).

Best of luck.

Tamara

Greg, 

measure the cabinets and buy replacement doors both http://www.cabinetdoormart.com/ and http://www.cabinetnow.com/ sell doors on line.

If the property cash flows and you can get conventional financing at a good rate go for it, real estate will tend to increase in value over time while your debt is a known quantity. If you wait until you pay off your debt to invest in real estate you will most likely end up spending more for the property in the future. That being said, make sure you can lock in your numbers - your loan costs and vacancy costs before you make the offer and make sure this is the way you honestly feel the most comfortable about proceeding in the debt repayment vs. real estate investment option. One sure fire way to decide. Flip a coin, heads you buy the property, tails you pay off your debt. If you argue with the results of the toin coss you know your decision. What I mean is if it comes up heads but you say, best two out of three then pay off your debt that is what you truly want to do. Good luck, any action you take will put you further ahead.

You're going to have to market. Figure out who you're ideal customer is, what income level they need to purchase the homes the builder is selling, where the people are coming from that are driving the increase in demand. Once you know who is buying figure out how to get to them before they make their purchase decision, sell them on the benefits of your properties vs. others and develop a relationship with a mortgage broker to pre-qual your leads.

You have to run your numbers, from what you presented it doesn't look like there is anyway that this property would cash flow but I don't know the McCallen market. In theory you could pay the 10k and make the payments in a sub-to deal but why would you? What's the cap rate? Do you know the cash-on-cash return and the monthly cash flow? Don't try and force a property to be a good deal.

I think you can make a living investing in any market if you are clear about your goals and are willing to put in the work. We have had a really strange weather year in Texas and Houston has been hit pretty hard plus they're talking about a more active than normal hurricane season this year. My advice would be to research the market, talk to friends and family in the area, decide what and where you want to invest and set yourself up before you move. This will give you time to wait out whatever mother nature has in store for us and still not stop your forward momentum.

Welcome to the community from a fellow investor-agent in Central Texas.