Cashflow deals in Austin proper are hard to come by so I would look to outer lying suburbs like Bastrop, Round Rock, Leander.

Some items just don't make sense to buy at specialty store ie if they are 10 miles away on a SF/LA traffic, that could be a 2hr round trip.

8% for selling costs is what I tell people for a good round simplistic number.

So using round numbers , their property is going to have to appreciate +-13% during those 3 years to break even.

My first batch was 300 mailings and my first round of budget money was 1k thats about all i remember from the first mailing though.

Here are the numbers:Purchase: $52,000Closing Fees: $5000Finance Fees: $11,000Rehab Costs (contractors, material, holding costs): $104,000Resale: $215,000Realtor Fees: $12,000Closing Costs: $12,000Buyer’s Concessions: $6500Project Earnings: $12,500Note, the numbers are rounded out, and also the earnings were then split amongst partners.

hi everybody,my name is elisha mcginley, and i'm a new member. i really don't know where to begin, so i suppose i'll tell you about who i am and what my goals are. i grew up very poor. i was homeless for the first time before i started elementary school, and have been homeless a few times since. my childhood was pretty unstable. when i was 17, i moved into my first apartment. i worked a grueling job for $4.15 an hour, 35 hours a week, and continued to go to high school, but i eventually dropped out with the realization that having a roof over my head and food to eat was the most imperative thing in my life. i'm not telling you this to pull your heart strings, but to express my gratitude: because of my experiences, i earned an insatiable desire to find a home... not just a house, but a real home. i also learned a lot about human nature and how much potential i had to succeed with a stacked deck in life. i began having health issues in my mid teens, which resulted in surgery and being told i couldn't have kids, but i proved that hypothesis wrong when i had my first son at 21. when i found out i was pregnant, i immediately got my ged, because i knew i couldn't provide for my son working at gas stations and fast food restaurants. when i was 24 i separated from my husband, decided to go to college for architecture(so i could build my own home), and fell in love with someone else. soon after my first year in school, i had my second son, and found myself single again. i still consider myself very lucky, because no matter my relationship with either dad, both of them are very devoted fathers, and we are all able to coparent in the best interest of my kids. however, architecture school demanded complete devotion, and being a mom was more important to me, so i left my dream behind. a year or two later, i went to school for auto cadd, with the hopes of staying in the field of architecture, but i added mechanical cadd to the mix, just to widen my scope. i worked full time during the day at a college text book store, and went to class four hours a night, four days a week, until i was laid off. i was half way through school when i landed my first professional job as an electrical drafter. i graduated with a 3.8 gpa and a great job that i loved. i bought a 5 bedroom house, and i was content to just keep plugging away, working hard and kicking butt. then, our contract with the military was awarded to another aeronautic company, and i was laid off again. it didn't stop me, though. i laid low and stayed broke for about a year until i landed my current job as a technical writer. my starting pay was $10,000 a year less than my previous job, but the economy wasn't the best, and i was just glad to be back in the saddle. i don't love my job as much as my last job, but it is a good job, it has its benefits, and i'm almost back to the income i had become accustomed to. i still consider myself blessed. hey, i have come from poverty to being a single mom(no child support, alimony, or even child tax credits- it's all me) with a 5 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood, a car that's paid off, an education that i paid off this year, and one credit card. i'd say that makes me pretty successful. but then, tragedy struck again. little more than a year ago, i began having health issues. i would randomly begin shaking and sweating and feeling dizzy and nauseated. my pulse would accelerate, and it was extremely uncomfortable. i went to the er and they told me i'd had a heart attack. after a month of wearing a heart monitor, i was relieved to hear i hadn't had a heart attack, but i have a mitral valve prolapse. but, it still didn't explain the weird attacks i was experiencing. after months of trying to figure out what was wrong with me, someone suggested i get tested to lyme, and what do you know- that's what it was. when i was first diagnosed, i was relieved. i was under the impression i only needed a round of antibiotics and *poof*, i would be magically cured. this was not the case. in fact, the treatment exacerbated my symptoms and presented new symptoms. that's when i learned about herxheimer reaction- "herxes". basically, lyme is a bacterial infection, and when the bacteria dies off, it released a mass amount of toxins that the(already compromised) immune system just can't process. think about cancer treatments- they aren't pleasant. without spending too much time on the subject, chronic lyme can not be cured, but it can be put into remission. it effects every organ and system in the body(my mitral valve prolapse is a symptom- yeah, symptom of lyme). it can even get in the spinal fluid and the bones. the range of symptoms is unbelievable. i thought i was going to die. i've never hurt so bad in my life. but, it woke me up. i had been willing to settle for plugging away as a technical writer, slowly paying my debts until retirement, but that scenario no longer works for me. nothing brings you back to reality quicker than realizing your own mortality. i'm not afraid to die, but i'm worried for the mess i could be leaving behind for my kids. i know something has to change. i'm still sick, but i had to stop the treatment to get back to work. i have become even more motivated to make a lasting change. i want to be able to afford the time and money needed to get into remission, but at the very worst, i want to be debt free before i kick it. and suddenly, a few days ago, it occurred to me that i could become a real estate investor with little or no money. what do you do when life gives you lyme?

Several rounds of speculation have seen investors lose money. 

And the standards evolve over time.In neighboring Santa Clara County (California), it has been 3% as long as I have been involved (20 years)Here in Santa Cruz County, the standard used to be 1% upon acceptance of the offer and increase the deposit when the first contingency is removed to 3%.I write "used to be", because at some time between 2007 (when I did my last contract with the 1% increased to 3% deposit) and 2012, agents in Santa Cruz adopted the Santa Clara style of full 3% upon contract acceptance.I suspect that your agent calculated 3% = $3000 and change, and he rounded it up to $4000, to show financial strength.That can make a difference.I recall writing an offer in 2012 on a fixer upper that was listed for $540k (worth $800k after $100k repairs).

So, for example, (using round numbers) if the relinquished property had $150k in equity and $150k in debt and sold for $300k, the exchanger could theoretically pay off the debt and bring in some new capital to acquire a replacement property for $300k+ and defer the taxable recognition of the full amount of capital gain.Most TIC/DST offerings come pre-packaged with financing in place for leverage, so someone in a position like this one wouldn't have to come up with as much new capital (although the financing is almost never anything close to 100% loan-to-value).