All Forum Posts by: Tristan S.

@Brianna H., that is very impressive. What about tenants ? How do you find them ? Do you write the lease contract yourself ? 

If there is any maintenance issue, how do you deal with it? Fix it yourself?

Thanks a lot for sharing. I appreciate. 

@Brianna H., that's impressive. How did you find the property ? By yourself or your agent did ? What part of houston is the house located ?

How did you estimate the reno cost ? Was that given by the contractor you are working with or you guys are doing the work yourself ?

And finally, in the 350$/mo, is that including management ?

Thanks!

@Charles Nguyen, sounds great! Looking forward to network.

@Charles Nguyen, Is it open to new people ? I would love to join and meet fellow real estate investors from Houston.

@Brianna H., thanks for your input. I have been looking at townhome in the area for maybe a couple of months. But only changed my strategy recently when we realized that we could not afford what we wanted. What do you mean exactly by market analysis ? I just assumed that due to the location (galleria), there would be some demand for rentals because a lot of people work in the area and it's close to the loop. I am aware of the fees and do not like the idea as much as you, but it seems like a townhome is the only affordable option for the location (if there are any other option, please let me know). I do not think that I am ready to rock the suburb being in my mid 20's without any kids. Is there any other area I should be looking into?

@Michael Le, You make a really good point about the one bedroom which I definitely did not think about. Let me know what is your opinion on townhomes and HOA fees ? Is there any way to have them being profitable ?

@Justin Long, thanks for confirming, it really heps.

Thanks @Brianna H. for the answer. I was not aware of the one year limit for the use of a FHA loan, that shouldn't be an issue.

I was talking about one bedrooms because we are looking at townhomes/apartments in the galleria area or even in the loop and that is what we could get for a budget around 100k. That is where we want to be because it is close to work. So even in the galleria, one bedroom units does not receive much interest from future tenants ?

Do you know any good realtor investor you could recommend ?

Are you personally using FHA loans to acquire properties ? Do you ever refinance ? (why would you ? it would mean locking more of your own money into the property, wouldn't it? )

Thank you.

Hello everyone,

I currently live in Houston, my lease is up in february 2016 and my wife and I plan on making a move before then.

We do not have 20% down for a place that we would like to live in (2 bedrooms) which would cost around 200k. So I thought about the following strategy :

Buy something around 100k for a one bedroom using a FHA loan, maybe improve it and keep saving towards our 20% down. Follow opportunities closely until we find something we'd like. Get the second place using traditional financing and rent the first one. Hopefully staying less than a year in the first place.

The other possibility would be to rent for another year and keep saving but I don't like the fact that the lease would get us stuck and most likely make us miss deals.

What do you guys think ? Is FHA financing a smart idea for the situation ? Should traditional financing be used for the second place or FHA as well ?

The long term plan would be to keep acquiring other renting properties.

Thanks for your help.

Thanks @Ned Carey, 12% ! that does put things into perspective.

I am just really meticulous and want to make sure that I am doing things in the most efficient fashion. Buying for the first time is definitely a little stressful.

@Michael Le, I was asking by curiosity and wanted to know that it was possible. Your strategy definitely makes sense. 

@Jeff Trevarthen, what I mean by best rate is a rate as fair as possible for my situation. Thanks for the information, it makes more sense now that you talked about the underlying strategy.

@Alexander Felice and @Michael Lethanks for the quick response. I'll definitely check all the resources you described.

From your experiences, is it better to go with a big name bank or a smaller credit union taking into account that I will probably need more financing in the future for new real estate investments?

Also, does every bank let you make extra payment towards your principal if you wanted to pay your mortgage off quicker?

I have also heard (not sure if true) that some bank compound interests twice a month and that making two payments a month would significantly decrease the overall amount of interest paid over the life of the mortgage. Is it true? Is there any other strategy to lower the amount paid towards interests?

Thanks.