Seeking advice for home ownership strategy for next 1-5 years with tight finances

[Taisia S.]

Hi everyone, first post for me but a lurker for years! I bought my first single family home in South East ATX in Feb 2023 and am seeking advice from experienced home owners/investors about my home ownership strategy for the next 3-10 years since things haven't gone as planned for me, I'm out of new ideas, and tight on money.

I bought the house with the intention of renting it out while living elsewhere. I didn't account for the rental rate being lower than my escrow when I bought the house and my escrow has increased by $400 due to property tax increases which I didn't anticipate. Escrow is high because I only put 3% down.

Single Family Home

1 story 3 bed 2 bath

Safe and quiet standard suburban neighborhood, built in 2007

Sale price: $319,999

Loan amount: $310,999 @ 5.625% for 30 yrs

Total paid to close $9,312

Current monthly escrow: $2,684

Current monthly utilities + internet: $350

Avg 12 month rental rate for an unfurnished 3/2 for my area: $1,900

TLDR; From 4/1/23-1/1/24 I STR'd and rented out rooms while living in primary room. 1/1/24-3/1/24 tried to rent individual rooms while I travelled which epicly failed. 5/1/24-11/1/24 secured a tenant from FF. 11/1/2024-now I moved back into my house and have been living here with my partner. Need help figuring out new long term plan. I don't want to live in Austin anymore and I have a remote job (US only). I would love to keep the house if I could figure out how to rent it to where I earn passive income or at least have it pay for itself while I earn equity, but if I can't then I want to sell it to where I at least have an even break and can do this differently with a different property somewhere else (learned a lot with this one). I'm leaning towards trying to rent my house out, furnished, at a premium $3,000/mo after I re-build personal savings, but can't afford the risk of a tenant leaving prematurely and having a whole house vacant while also paying rent somewhere else. To make my house worth $3,000/mo I think I would need to spend ~$20,000 on improvements. Please see home improvements section below.

What do I do?
Do I stay living here and aggressively send more towards my principle to reach a magic number (...20% of the loan amount?) and then try to sell the house?

Do I focus on completing all or some of the home improvements before renting it out furnished (Mid Term Rental) so I can have it pay for itself for awhile while gaining equity before selling (hope for another market seller's 'peak'?)?

Do I plan to sell as is in 2 years while focusing on building out my personal savings and only addressing the home improvements reactively instead of proactively (Idk what I could reasonably sell it for with the unaddressed issues listed below)?

Not options for me:

Paying more towards the principal while also addressing home improvements in the same year (ie., next year). I cannot afford this.

Renting it out at $1,900 while I live somewhere cheaper with my partner. I would be too far underwater and have to live in an apt in an undesirable area or do van life which are not conducive to my current job.

Airbnbing the rooms individually while I live somewhere else. This was too much work for me to do by myself with my full time job and I wasn't able to find a cohost who charged an affordable fee to do this for me.

Getting a roommate, we both work remotely from home and need the separate rooms with no disturbance at home.

Market considerations: It's been a buyers market since I bought my house, value hasn't increased yet but I'm hoping it will in 2027 when a nice grocery store comes to the area and more stores are built up around me. Goodnight Ranch and Easton Park are new developments near mine. I'm within walking distance to an elementary and middle school. One of my next door neighbors are Section 8 recipient renters, they’re polite but there is always copious trash in the front yard and they have broken down cars (poor curb appeal for my property). The rest of the street and neighborhood is well kept.

Home Improvements:
Here are some pending home improvement projects in the priority order I've come up with:

Grading to mitigate intense backyard erosion (no gutters) which caused fencing to lean significantly (diy for $300)

Landscaping for curb/backyard appeal ($700 diy)

Termite stations with baith for 12 months ($1200)

Fascia/ Trim replacement ($3000 trim is rotting and I don't want it to get worse and hit the beams)

Gutters ($2,000)

Fencing ($4,000 I need to get very stable posts that will withstand problematic clay soil on a slope)

Roof ($7,000 it's the OG 2007 roof and every inspector I've had come out says that insurance probably wouldn't pay for a new roof because it's so old)

Rodent exclusion ($1,200 evidence of activity in attic)

HVAC replacement ($5,000 been paying for frion to be refilled that's leaked out once a year for 2 yrs but home warranty won't replace the actual unit, they do have a discount though) This has worked so far and I may do this another year to address the things above first.


Long story: From 4/1/23-1/1/24 I either rented out or Airbnb'ed the two guest rooms while working remotely. It was a hell of a lot of a lot of work but was able to net ~$1,500/month. From 1/1/24-2/28/24 I placed tenants in individual rooms for the 6 months and crashed with a friend for a month while I quit my job and started travelling. Then reality hit, one tenant left early because another tenant was smoking meth in the house. I evicted him and was left with 1 secured tenant for the next 6 months, 2 rooms with a security deposit for the remainder of Feb, and vacant rooms for March. By luck, someone from FF paid for a room for March but never showed up. I cut my trip early and returned at the end of April to evict my remaining tenant because of different reasons. I got straight to Airbnbing the two guest rooms again while I tried to secure any tenant for the whole house for at least 30 days to buy me time. By luck again, someone rented my house for 6 months furnished at $2,550/mo. I nomaded around on a tight budget while applying for jobs, tenant moved out at the end of Oct due to job relocation and I had the security deposit for Nov. I moved back into my house with my partner and got lucky that my old job rehired me at a significant pay raise in April after months of an unsuccessful job search, I've never struggled this much to get any corporate job it was incredibly competitive. Now I've been living in my house with my partner, paid off the debt I accrued while all these events occurred which blew through my savings, and am building out my savings again.

I appreciate any advice. Thank you.