All Forum Posts by: Travis Rogers

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchased as a rental in need of rehab. Painted complete interior/exterior (mostly self, hired for some interior work), removed wallpaper (hired contractor), installed fixtures (self), installed new appliances (self), installed flooring throughout (hired contractor), and cleaned up and updated landscaping (self). Moved in Sept 2021, avoided taxes on my primary, and currently remodeling kitchen counters (changing to granite) and cabinets (have sanded/painted and am adding new doors/drawers). A few before and after pics below

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

3 blocks from my primary residence, location, location, location! I look for good bones, great floor plans, vaults, 3/2, large fenced backyards, and something that just needs cosmetic work to turn it into an above average rental

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found on Zillow, day 1. There was one other offer day 1, I offered $500 over asking and got it under contract immediately

How did you finance this deal?

Standard conventional financing

How did you add value to the deal?

Complete interior/exterior remodel. I did a lot of the work myself. I've recently moved into the home, avoiding a $25k tax bill had I sold this home instead of my primary

What was the outcome?

Great appreciation, cash flow, and increasing rents in neighborhood due to location and demand

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Rehab takes longer than you plan, every time. Reiterated the lesson of the neighborhood, location! You can change the inside of a house, but you can't change it's surroundings. Neighborhood is fantastic!

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I have a great RE agent in Eugene, Oregon! This was my final Oregon property, I've since transitioned everything to Texas and am looking at Florida next.

@Dmitry Medyanikov that's awesome! I also live in Oregon (Eugene) and have a self storage business and some rentals in Temple and Belton, great area! I don't know any private lenders unfortunately, but interested to hear if you find one, I may be in the market next month. All the best!

Thanks @Bruce Lynn and @Doug Spence. Bruce, ironically I spoke with someone in Killeen today who mentioned the TAA, thank you for the info. I left them a voicemail today. I will look up the TX Property Code rental section as well. 

As far as PM's, there were many issues, too many to list. In the end, if a PM is costing me more time, and taking more money than they should with unhappy tenants, high turnover, and high fees for every little thing, then I might as well do the work myself. I have now heard of a good PM in the area and will be working with him if I decide to hire one in the future. 

Great idea on the military spouse. I have a few folks working for me at my self storage facility, both are military vet's and somewhat limited, but have been fantastic! I'm expanding the role for one of them as we speak, he'll be doing my first multi-fam showing this week and is retired so he's been a great help to me. I have cleaners, landscapers, handymen, etc. lined up. My apps are online and electronic to make it easy as are my leases. My storage is nearly completely automated, but of course there's an hour or two a week of physical needs that I have covered with good people for now. I'm going to have them help with the other properties, but need to get myself up to speed on laws, and ideally have a helpline, and forms for when they're needed.  

Finding the right people is critical, I'll add military spouse to the list because you're right that would be a good fit as well. 

Thanks again, have a great week! 

Hi Folks,

I live in Eugene Oregon and am liquidating my SFR's here and continuing to invest in Texas, right now Temple and Belton specifically. For my self-storage/apartments/homes in Texas, I haven't had good luck with property management. This year I took over myself and things are going much better, however I'm still trying to find all the forms and ideally an association I could pay and speak with to get up to speed on laws, processes, forms, etc.

In Oregon we have a fantastic rental association that I pay for annually (Oregon Rental Owners Association). This allows me to purchase forms, and call their helpdesk. Does anything like this exist in Texas? Also, are there any good websites for forms, landlord laws, etc. for TX? I've been told TREC, but all I see on there are realtor forms, nothing landlord related. If you have a link to landlord related TREC pages feel free to add in the comments. 

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Travis

@Chris Gossett, I ended up going with a commercial lender (non-SBA) with a 10 year fixed rate, 25 year amortization, and 85% LTV, fantastic deal for me. Took me hours of calling lenders. I may go with an SBA on my next one, goods and bads. Totally agree on the software! I have great software that automates my late emails/texts/fees, payments, move-ins are automated, etc. Makes all the difference for sure. @Henry Clark does have a lot of good points!! 

If you manage it properly you should be in good shape. This property was not properly managed prior, and had no cameras, and is right off Interstate 35, and they left the vacants open which invited the wrong kind of traffic. It's in good shape now fortunately, hopefully no more arrests. It's been a peaceful month for a change

Totally agree with @Henry Clark, great advice! 

When you do raise rents let them know why (taxes went up, utilities increase in price, value adds like website improvements, cameras, etc.) and I also keep my current tenants a few bucks or more below market rates and inform them of this in the rent increase letter so that they know they're getting a better deal than someone coming in new. I've seen other strategies but this has worked well and so far not a single move out due to rent increase of the over 45 increases earlier this year. Increase gradually (do a little bit each month) so that you don't have a large move-out situation and keep tabs on occupancy as they increase, sounds like you have room to raise them, that's great!

Autopay is fantastic, I don't hear from them much at all, passive income at it's finest! I'm going to use Henry's strategy moving forward for new tenants, huge time saver!

I've had 6 arrests since cameras went up, and have removed several tenants (either by having them arrested or giving them notice). As these problems go away, the units still rent and my life gets a lot better not having to deal with them. Sometimes 5%-10% of your tenants take up 80% of your time, getting them to leave can be a gift!

All the best! I keep searching for another but definitely a tough market to find one in right now. 

I saw that same article and Round Rock was 12% from what I recall, I feel that area is poised the best for appreciation over the next few years. I can't speak for Killen, but in Temple I raised rent from $1300 to $1400 this month (after 11 months at $1300) and had 17 tour requests day one. Raised it another $50 (total of $150/mo) and still had a handful of people wanting to rent it sight unseen. From what I've read/heard, 10%+ rent increases in that area but of course depends on the home, area, timing (supply/demand) and your strategy. My strategy is to find a smaller, 3/2, lower priced home in a decent neighborhood of higher priced homes, so it's the lower rent market in a good neighborhood that typically costs more to get into. These homes rent all day. I also have a self-storage facility in Belton and rents have went up substantially since two years ago. They are up about 19-33% in two years (depending on timing and size) on the two largest sized units, along with other added fees. I'm not familiar with Killeen, but it seems to be doing well as well. Glad it's working out for you, it's a good market and cost to entry is fantastic! I didn't realize it was #10 on the list, that's good to see. All the best! 

@Bryan Brooks I did finalize and it's going well financially, has been a lot of work but getting better every month. Now searching for facility #2, also in Texas. How are things going with your place?

@Jim Cummings also definitely leaving Oregon politics behind! lol. One of the main factors in my decision to relocate to Texas, as well as all of my friends who relocated to TX last year