All Forum Posts by: Theresa Colbert

@Denise Warner

Welcome to BP! I did a lot of lurking myself before finally joining in the forums. 

I'll be moving to the Houston market later this month, so good to see another Houstonian!

Love your goal of "Financial Triumph"! What more could one ask for?

@Denise Warner

@Denise Warner

@Lauren Lockett

I know, totally lame. Thanks for the well wishes and for the heads up about colleagues!

Glad I found this! (Thank you, keyword alerts). We're moving to Houston at the end of the month (my husband grew up in the area) and are gearing up to buy our first property there.

Thanks for starting this thread!

Okay...Firstly, I hope I'm posting this in the right area. :)

Original REI plan: house hacking a multifam in Dallas. Life did its thing, now we're moving to Houston at the end of the month. We have family there and can crash with them for a while, so I think the time might be right to look for a property to purchase...and the new plan is to do a "live-in flip".

@Mindy Jensen's recent podcast interview definitely helped with the inspiration. :)

I figured we would look for a distressed property, $120k or less. Potentially finance with an FHA. Obviously we want something we could "force" appreciation into with updates, as opposed to betting on the market. Live in it for a couple years, fix it up, sell it. It would give us a place to live and lots of hands on experience with renovations.

Seems to me that most of Texas is pretty hot right now, so I'm anticipating difficulty getting a good deal.

Anyone particularly knowledgeable in the Houston area that can give me some possible locations to look into? What should I look for in a property? What should I run away from screaming? What updates significantly add value, and which don't? Hit me with your wisdom, please.

Thanks so much, BP!

Thanks @Kelly N.!

Hey BP,

We find ourselves rather abruptly moving to be closer to my FIL during his last months/years with a terminal illness. Our lease isn't up yet, and we're looking to sublease. Already cleared it with the landlord, and it was only after I sent out an email about the place to a local group I'm a part of that I realized my ignorance about subleases...so now I have some questions I hope y'all can quickly help me with!

1) How much to charge for security deposit?

2) Is it better to ask for the full amount of rent (+ security deposit?) up front, or to let them pay month by month?

3) If they paid month to month, they're paying *us*, right? And then we pay the landlord?

4) Where to run a background check? 

5) Can we switch our utilities over to their name (if they want), or should we just cancel them and pay the fee?

Thanks very much!

@Marzella Zielke welcome! Best of luck in your ventures!

@Account Closed and @Cheryl P., y'all are amazing! Thank you so much for the examples, advice, and links!

@Lauren Lockett - I know you're in Arlington, but would you be interested?

@Cynthia Franklin we've got a recent meetup in the works over here:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/86/topics/2019...

let us know if you're in!