All Forum Posts by: Trevor B.

For that ARV I would expect the house to come with it. I do "comparison" shopping where I go and bug, pretend to be a home owner wanting to get a bigger house for my bigger family, Real Estate Agents at new neighborhoods, being built, and the houses in the $300,000+ all come with a Nest thermostat, but that is in Texas.

I know here in Texas, I use the county website. If you have the name of the owners, or pervious owners, or have the address you can pull them up on the website and it will have the last know contact information, including phone numbers (sometimes). 

@Chad Tate 

So what Dave Ramsey teaches is smart, but you cannot live debt free. I explain this in that blog post below. If you have any questions after reading the blog below, PM me or post a commit. Hope this helps.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8605/50807-goo...

@John D. I would refi your first house and use that money to buy the property. 

I list the reasons why you should here in this blog post: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8605/50807-goo...

5% does seem a little high I would talk to a second lender always get a second or third opinion on everything, unless you absolutely trust that person and they have not screwed you over in the past. Also since your first house is paid off screw the Hard Money lender and just do straight cash. Then once the house is Rehabbed and rented put it under a conventional loan. You will not have to put 20% down since you will own the house. 

The four Dallas Police Department Officers that were Killed in the Line of Duty were:

Patrick Zamarippa, 32: Navy Veteran 8 years active, 5 years reserve, 5 year Veteran of DPD. Leaves behind a wife and a 2 year old daughter.

Sargent Micheal J Smith, 55: 7 years Army Veteran, 28 year Veteran of Dallas PD. Leaves behind a wife and 2 young daughters.

Micheal Krol, 40: Sherriff Office Jailer in Michigan from 2003-2007, 9 year DPD Veteran.

Special Corporal Lorne Ahrens: No information on how long he has been with DPD, or age. He leaves behind a Wife and a 10 year old son, and a 8 year old daughter.

And finally Brent Thompson, 43, a Marine. Worked fro DART PD since 2009. He leaves behind a wife, children and a grandchild. He is the first DART Police Officer to be Killed in the Line of Duty since the departments inception in 1989.

If anyone would like to donate to the families to help cover expenses go to: http://www.atodallas.org

Please keep all of our men and women in Blue and Green in your prayers!

With Nest you can link it with the smart vents from Keen. So it would be like the Ecobee, but better because the individual rooms would be kept warm or cold so the entire house stays the same temperature. If you live in Texas, for you landlords that do, you can actually see how much energy your houses are using, down to 15 minute intervals by going to the website provided. Also for the tenants they can go to power to choose which is an online marketplace to shop for the best electric rate and company with reviews, and cost. 

With the current equipment and technology at the hands of home owners and landlords there should be no reason not to use all of it to your ability, so you can save your tenants money and save yourself money. In order to get the 15 minute updates you have to have the meter attached to a Home Area Network (HAN), aka wifi, which will allow you to connect the meter to the website and the Nest thermostats and the Keen air vents, and smart lighting to lower our power consumption. Texas is currently the leader in Smart metering with over 7 million smart meters installed and the ability to allow every consumer to know how much they are using and when. I recommend reading the last article and following the links to other articles. Lots of information at our fingertips that most people do not know about!

www.powertochoose.org

https://www.smartmetertexas.com/CAP/public/

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/08/texas-regu...

I do not know how many people have heard. As of 2:23am 7/8/16 4 Dallas Police Officers have been killed in the Line of Duty, 3 more injured, 1 DART Police Officer has been killed in the Line of Duty and 3 more injured. Protecting a peaceful "black lives matters"protest, by two snipers. 1 civilian injured. Tonight will be a tough night for many people. Please keep all of our Men and Women in Blue in your prayers and thoughts tonight, and tomorrow and for everyday from now until the end of time. This is the worst targeted killing of Police Officers since 9/11. I did not know these men and women, but I have served along side Fort Worth PD and other Police Departments, as an EMT for a local ambulance service. My heart weeps for the families and for all of the Police Officers who knew these Fallen Officers. Always remember Police lives matter too. My flag will be at half-staff for at least 5 days, if not longer. 

Remember without these Officers we would not be able to live as peaceable as we do.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer who died today, first in the Line of Duty for DART: Officer Brent Thompson, 43, joined DART PD 2009.

This is to all of those Men and Women who have served in the military, or In the Line of Duty as a Police Officer for whichever governmental agency, or private agency. May we remember your names forever,

Trevor B.

@John D. Get a Hard Money loan, if done correctly you should be able to role all expenses into the hard money loan. Then just go get the house Refi a few months later. Or you could get a Government loan at 3.5%.

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/buying/loans

@Atwan Kwan No one said it would be cheap to get energy bills lowered from $500 a month, or convenient. You are going to inconvenience the tenants some how, whether it is installing that new air system. Also that is why I including the cheaper way to do it, which is in line with what @Matt Turbitt said. I know in Texas that A/C is part of the rights of tenants according to state laws. IMO

I say buy a Trane, make sure your new HVAC unit is at least as large as the last one, i.e. if the last one was a 3 ton get another 3 ton. Also get a SEER rating of 14 or better. I would get a local company to come install it and then set up a yearly plan with them that they come and service the HVAC units once a year. Including cleaning of the coils, fan, compressor, refill coolant, ect. Having the company come out and due a checkup on the HVAC will extend the life of the unit. But make sure you call around to at least 3 HVAC companies before you decide one a  company. I would call like 6 or 7. Ask your tenant what their current electric bill is so you can compare what they save in energy. So you can show that off for the next tenant. 

Variables include: size tonnage, SEER rating, Vertical or horizontal inside unit, type of Coolant used, I can't think of anymore.