For my first property, this is better than what I was hoping for, especially in this ridiculous market.

As much as I hate to give my money to a land lord and miss out on any equity build up through loan pay down or appreciation, there are a few benefits.No maintenance costs, I get to live in a decent location (78746) and have a much shorter commute to work and central Austin.With the ridiculous pricing in the Austin market, house hacking is almost obsolete.

After 3 weeks on market I've got a ridiculous offer of 550k, which was turned down immediately.

And a slew of the other ones are just ridiculous.

Are they as ridiculous when it comes to major repairs/updates done annually like Section 8 housing is??

There was someone on one of the podcasts a short time ago that was talking about putting in a ridiculous number of offers, some as low as like $1,200 or something like that.

*maybe* $15K if you can negotiate a deal that doesn't give the buyer any closing costs or concessions.Even if you can get a $15K return, on a $240K+ investment, that's only 6% return, which is ridiculously thin (i.e., risky).For this to be a deal, you'd want to buy at $170K, maximum.

I know it sounds ridiculous but seriously.

check out some of the smaller guys on craigslist. some of them don't pay the ridiculous overhead that some granite STORES do. same granite, just not in a pretty display showroom. good luck!!!

I will not be going around the agent, and once I get comps compiled for the 2 houses + extra lot, i'll make my ridiculously low offer and see what they say.Thanks again!