nomorews6

iTrader: (7)

I am looking to make the jump into investing into real estate from a rental standpoint, and would love to hear from anyone who is already doing this. Any pointers greatly appreciated!

bigburb

iTrader: (3)

I'm not in it, but I've done a lot of research. Do 20% down, as this will give you a good profit buffer every month, and keep a 6 month payment reserve incase you don't have a renter. Modest, 3bed, 2 bath homes are the most common for renting. Anything bigger or smaller than that and you start to have a hard time finding renters (unless you can rent it at a reasonable rate or find just the right family).

astig00

Will you have to put down 20% every time you purchase an investment home?? Seems like you can pick up a home for well under appraised value from the local appraisal district.

bigburb

iTrader: (3)

You can get away with less than 20% in some cases, at lease you used to. I think now the mortgage market is tightening up so most lenders won't even let you do an 80/20. If you're the handyman type then it is a good idea to pick up a foreclosure, short sell, or auction house. You win because you have more equity the day you buy it. I bought my house a year ago and had 13% equity the day I moved in, after the improvements I've done I'm sure its over 15% now.

deadlyz28

iTrader: (29)

im a realtor in the dfw area. focusing on forclosures in the allen, mckinney, frisco, plano area. if you want to see how low you can hop on some of these properties hit me up

nomorews6

iTrader: (7)

my biggest thing is finding the TRUE value of a house. it seems like the value of a house is reported differently from site to site.

What a Rush

iTrader: (2)

www.Magicbullets.com Dan Auito is the man. I have been studying for a couple years now and that site is the most help I have ever recieved.

Zach

Go to the chat portion. And there are a ton of people there that can help you.

ulySSes

I've flipped a couple properties, never but them up for rent. Being a landlord is a royal pain in the ***.

Where in TX are you?

7420NW7TH

iTrader: (8)

I've never done this, but have always been interested in it. And I have read a couple of books on it.

From what I gather, bottom line, is you should not pay more than 70% of market value for the home. This includes any repairs that should be done on the home, so you must have the skills to identify how much it would cost to repair the home, plus, you would have to pay closing costs on the home twice-once when you buy it and again when you sell it. Plus you pay a realtors commission. You see where this is going...it all really eats into your profit. And worse, if its sits on the market for awhile, more profit is eaten. yum.

As far as I could tell, the only way to really make money at it is pay cash for the house, do the work yourself, and sell it by owner. But its pretty hard work too. Not exactly easy money like some of these tv shows would like you to believe.

And on top of all of that, you basically would have to low-ball the person that is being foreclosed on. Thats the part I could never bring myself to do. I mean, they are already in a very bad spot (on the brink of financial ruin) and you have to insult them with a low-ball offer. I think I would wear a body armor while doing this. We all know how it feels to go into a dealership and get offered half of what we think our car is worth, it ain't fun.

7420NW7TH

iTrader: (8)

www.hcad.org

You can bet that the values are not much more than 5% or so than whats listed on this site.

Urban Legend

iTrader: (5)

Thats why you get a management company to deal with the renters. I have 3 properties and all I do is collect money at mid month. Nothing else.

nomorews6

iTrader: (7)

i am in Houston, and am looking at renting them out, not flipping. Urban, do you have any nightmare stories of your management company? do they find tenants and such too? What all do they do ?

Urban Legend

iTrader: (5)

They find tenants, they do the credit apps, etc. When freaks don't pay the management company takes them to court and all that good stuff. All I do is collect cash.

Stick with brand name companies such as century 21, etc. Stay away from Big Stuff real estate and **** like that.

No nightmares from me.

imma_stocker

iTrader: (19)

Foreclosures are money, especially tax foreclosures. The cheapest way to get a residential property is to find out who owes back-taxes and buy their property before they get evicted. Let them know that you will own the property but they will still live there and maintain it as usual and pay you rent. You can get properties for <70% of TMV.

Require renter's insurance, and renters' pay all taxes and maintenance with a required minimal upkeep. You will get less as rental income but you can have more time and more properties.

imma_stocker

iTrader: (19)

A good idea would be take a real estate licensing course. One that includes appraising, financing, investing, principles of RE, and law and contracts.

nomorews6

iTrader: (7)

oooh - this stuff excites me. I just got through a book called 'automatic millionaire homeowner' which was good. i am now reading 'the millionare real estate investor' - please, no one think i'm all about the money - i am about being financially secure though

blake culp

iTrader: (8)

Have you done this before? Seems to me that a resident who is behind on taxes wouldn't be a good tenant. How is the resident going to pay you rent+insurance+minimal upkeep when they couldn't pay all that before you owned the property. Not trying to argue with you, just doesn't seem like it would work to me. I'm actually interested in getting into real estate myself.

imma_stocker

iTrader: (19)

I'm still in school so haven't had the capital and time for it yet. But one of my majors is Real Estate and my dad has purchased a few houses like this. Notice I never mentioned anything about evicting a defaulted renter. It works itself out like a loan, if you want the finance explanation PM me. Basically, you get property and income while they keep a place to live and prevent a big credit hit. You could also wait for a tax foreclosure but there are some CRITICAL details you need to be aware of. Mortgage foreclosures are better IMHO.

Sometimes its a better idea to let them catch-up over some 'grace period' but you can legally evict and call their debt once they default. Pretty much anything on contract wins, whoever that may favor.

SERIALPIMP

iTrader: (4)

I work in Asset Management for an office property owner HQ'd here in Houston, previously I worked in New Development for a publicly traded REIT based here in Houston.

I would be happy to consider investing in any opportunities you guys dig up.

Just shoot me a PM, and we can go from there.

- JW