All Forum Posts by: Leigh Ann Smith

@Michael Le and @John Truong are right about the additional taxing authorities. You can look at HAR.com for more complete tax info.  Just do a search on HAR for the property address.  HAR says this property is taxed at 2.9423% when you total up all of the taxing authorities.  So, if it's appraised at $87K, the taxes would be $2,560/year.  

The $1,824/year listed by Zillow is the amount paid in 2014, which was based on the 2013 appraisal (which was $62,000).  Speaking of which, I'd be careful about how much you offer for this house.  I see that the asking price is $99.9K, but just 2 years ago it was appraised at $62K.  Tax appraisals aren't 100% accurate, but unless that house has been rehabbed in the past 2 years, that seems like an awfully big price spike.

@Tom MacDonald, I could be mistaken, but I think you can only use a VA loan on a home that will be your primary residence.

@Iman Yu, we have visited some houses referred to us by wholesalers, but we haven't found anything yet that worked for us.  Or, I should say that there was always someone willing to pay more than what we thought was a reasonable price!

@David Rollings, was the house on the property when you bought it or was it something you added?  100 sq. ft....that's some tight quarters!  How many people does it sleep?  

@Lance Wakefield, the size seems to depend on whether or not they are built on a trailer.  We are looking at one on a trailer that is 8' x 18', so 144 sq. ft. and they want $33K for it.  That's $229/sq. ft. which seems outlandish, but it's important to remember that it has a bathroom and a kitchen.  If you built a 1,440 sq. ft. house with 10 bathrooms and 10 kitchens, the price per square foot would be high, too.  They pretty much always are going to come in high on the per sq. ft. price because of that.

For tiny houses built on the ground, they seem to run more in the 200-300 sq. ft. range.

@Caroline Ortego, we stopped by and looked at the Tiny Texas Houses one time.  They are amazing! That guy is actually not selling them anymore.  He is focusing on developing a tiny house community and teaching people to find and use salvage materials to build their own houses.  Too bad! 

One thing to remember when listening to podcast guests discuss small multi-families is that we do not have near the quantity of those as they do in some places.  On the recent podcast with Brie Schmidt, I think she said that properties in the Chicago area were more than 50% multi-family.  I hope I'm not misquoting her!  In any case, Houston has nothing like those numbers.  It's probably because this is Texas, and we have lots of land.  In parts of the country where the population is more dense, it would make more sense to build multi-families.

@Account Closed, I've finally found an advantage to living out in the country with no city water and sewer.  There's also no zoning!  Because we are in an unincorporated area, I believe there will also be no hotel tax, though I'm still looking into that.  On the negative side, we'll have to put in a septic system, but that's not a deal-breaker.

Is there anything else you learned from your research that might be helpful?  I am wondering about pricing of the rentals (AirBnB, etc.) compared to other types of properties.

I agree @Dan Madden.  I was reading an AirBnB report for my area and they are showing the median occupancy rate for a studio or 1-bedroom as about 65%.  We'd only need 23% to turn a decent profit, so since it is low risk like you said, it's probably worth a try.  The location could be a problem as far as touristy things, but being so close to Houston's medical center could be a big plus.

Hi Jessica, welcome to BP! I have a suggestion for you. Definitely attend your REI Club and take advantage of the info and connections there, but hold off on paying for any seminars. Absolutely all of that info is available at no charge, and most of it is right here on BP. First thing you can do is start listening to the BiggerPockets podcasts. I hadn't ever been a podcast listener, but my husband and I started listening to them a year or so ago, and I feel sure that we've learned more than we would have at any seminar.

Also, click on "learn" at the top of the page and download the free Ultimate Beginners Guide to REI.

Best of luck and I look forward to seeing you on the forums!