All Forum Posts by: Leigh Ann Smith

Hi @Account Closed , one thing I would encourage to check carefully into is those grants and scholarships.  In general, government scholarships are only allowed to pay for tuition and fees.  I don't believe the university would be legally allowed to accept both GI Bill and a Pell Grant to pay for the same tuition and refund you the difference.  Sometimes even private scholarships are this way....tuition and fees only.   Check with the financial aid office; they'll be able to clarify that for you.

@Account Closed , we haven't yet purchased our first buy and hold in the Houston area, but it seems to me that we have to move away from the really hot areas and maybe move further east, south, and southwest.  Anything west is too high, and most things north are, too.  There seem to be some reasonable deals in Baytown, but that's further than we're interested in working.  I haven't crunched the numbers in detail to know if they work.

Hi @Luke Andrew , I just listened to BiggerPockets podcast 83, and it has some really helpful info on profitable land lording.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/08/14...

Also, if you click the Resources tab above, then FilePlace, there are some sample rental agreements there.

Property taxes run about 2.8% in the Houston TX area.    So, for a $100,000 house, that's $2800/year or $233/month.  Do you just throw out the 50% rule in areas like this?

And don't get me started on flood insurance....

@Jacob Lair , I'm a newbie, too.  Having a general contractor on call like they have on those flipping shows on t.v. sounds like a great idea, but I am getting the idea from reading on the forums that it is not easy for most people to find someone like that.  It seems that contractors come and they go.

Thanks, @Doreen Chaisson and @Loren Whitney !  Good answers to my question.

Doreen, we've done everything on the up and up with the 10 acres.  We bought it from the same person (unrelated) that we bought the rest of our property from, and it's just sitting back there growing grass, so we're fine on all that.  That's the reason we'd like to take distribution of it - so that we could actually use it for something.  On the bright side, my husband is now 56.5 years old, so we'll be able to do that soon enough....if we want to pay the taxes on it.  :-/

Loren, regarding the 20% rule, if we had the 10 acres surveyed into 2 acre parcels, could we take distribution of one of those parcels and use it, or would we have to wait until all 10 acres were distributed?

We live on 35 acres, and purchased 10 acres of it (unimproved pasture) with a self-directed IRA. If we wanted to put a rental property in that IRA, could we then pull the pasture land out without tax consequences?

@Bill Gulley , don't the wholesalers typically promise the seller a quick closing? With financing involved, it won't be very quick.

We are looking for our first buy and hold property, and we plan to use conventional financing.  Would wholesalers be able to work with us, or does the financing make it not practical?

@Chance Cooper , you can upload it to BiggerPockets Fileplace here:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/files