All Forum Posts by: Alex Nelson

Hi fellow Texas Investors,
I'm in the process of renovating my first property in Arlington, Tx and it's getting to the time for me to paint the exterior. I'm wondering what type of paint you would recommend that will withstand the Texas weather without being over the top expensive. I'm using Sherwin Williams Super paint for the interior. I was planning to use Sherwin Williams for the exterior as well. One contractor that I've gotten a quote from says that they use the A-100 paint for investors. Which makes me worried that this is his code for "the cheap paint". Can anyone recomend a good paint type to use in Texas weather and possibly chime in on how good the A-100 exterior paint is?

I'd love to hear what you guys use and prefer, as well as what paint is worth the price and what is simply more expensive than it's worth.

Thanks for the input!

It sounds like you guys are big fans of Topkote. Will this not crack like the other finish that i already used? I kind of assumed any enamel which is flexed like that might be prone to cracking.

Hi Guys,

I am currently renovating a duplex to house hack. In one unit, i noticed that the tub does not drain completely and leaves a pool of water at the bottom of the tub in a low spot. I tried to fix this by filling the low spot with thin set concrete and then sanding smooth. I then refinished the tub with a refinishing kit. However after less than a month of living in this unit, I've noticed that there is already a crack in the finish. I'm afraid this is only going to get worse if I don't fix this better. I don't want to leave it like this long term as it almost certainly will not hold up.

Does anyone have experience fixing this type of issue? Is there something better than thin set that i should use? Is it an issue just with the finish i used? Is this an unfixable problem that I'm better off replacing the tub all together (and have to remove the new tile i just installed as well)? Any advice is welcomed!!

Any and all of these would be great depending on what you are the most comfortable with. If you are willing to put in the work and don't mind having strangers in your place all the time, then option 4 could be the most profitable depending on the airBNB vacancy rates in your area. I personally don't want strangers in my home so I'd go with option 2 or 3. Option 1 is nice but it's not really setting you up for a good investment as you're not adding any value. If the market goes down you won't have much equity build up to weather that storm.

I would have to respectfully disagree with @Robert Diamond . If this is your first investment property then you have nothing to protect and getting an LLC will be a waste of time and money. LLC's are meant to protect your assets but since this is your first property, you have hardly any assets anyways. You can always move the property into an LLC at a later date if your REI career takes off.

Also no one can predict the market. A lot of speculators will say not to buy because the market is overheated. But it's not a matter of not buying, it's just a matter of being smart with the deal that you pick. There are always deals to be had in any economy, it just may be a little more difficult to find the good ones at this point in the cycle. I would recommend watching a few webinars until you are very comfortable with running the numbers and accounting for extra expenses. From there, you're off to the races! good luck on your first place!

lol that's one way to silence a troll

@Chris Hill

Looks like you answered your own question here.

No matter how many houses are in the equation, as long as you are reinvesting the income back into paying down debt, then it will always be advantageous to pay off one at a time to remove the debt from your books. less debt means more income left to pay down other debt. The more mortgages you get paid off, the more money you will have to pay down the remaining mortgages, wither it's 3 mortgages or 300, this isn't going to change.

The way that your response was worded, it sounds like you want to have your primary residence managed?

I would say that if you want to buy a primary residence but don't know what your long term plans are, then go ahead and purchase a primary residence with the idea of turning it into a rental one day. That way you get set up where you want to live and have a fall out plan if necessary. After you've got your home situated, then you can keep purchasing rentals wherever you see fit. they don't need to be close to your primary residence if you are having it professionally managed, just be prepared for a few days of long drives while shopping for these units.

There really isn't a right or wrong way, its just whatever works best for you and your family.

Hi Tyler,

This question is a bit difficult to understand, even with the questions being retyped, but I will do my best to paraphrase you.
It sounds like your questions is - Should I buy close to where i work now? Or should i buy 2-4 hours away from me?

If this is your question, then it all depends on what you're trying to do. Do you want to have a lot of rentals in the area that you self manage? If so then i would recommend purchasing close to where you live, or moving to wherever it is that you are purchasing. If you are just interested in owning rental property and not managing yourself, then go ahead and purchase wherever makes sense.

I think what is confusing is that your question makes it sound like you want to buy a rental property, but then everything you talk about sounds like you just want a primary residence for yourself. These would probably be looked at under a much different lens so it's difficult to answer that questions as it is asked.

Even if they did not transfer this to you prior to closing, it may still be possible to get this sent to you from the seller after closing is finished. This actually happened to me because i used an inexperienced real estate agent (at leas inexperienced with investors) to purchase my first property. Luckily the title company had their lawyer look into the closing documents and there is a line in there that says something about it. The lawyer ended up sending an email with this in it to the seller post close.

"Section 9(B)(5) of the Contract clearly provides that the Seller SHALL transfer security deposits
at closing; and Section 13 provides that rents shall be prorated. Both
of these obligations must be read with the terms of
Section 19, which states that all covenants between the parties
“survive closing”, meaning that they are fully enforceable even after
closing.

Now I'm not sure if the sections will line up with your documents the same way, but it is possible that this is in your closing paper work as well. This required the seller to send me the deposits, even though it wasn't handled at the table. They weren't happy or polite about it, but i did get the deposits in the end.

Do they meet your qualifications? If their income satisfies the requirement, they want to rent, and you're having a hard time renting to anyone else, then why not rent to them? take a deposit as you should with any rental to cover any wear and tear.

As far as a required housekeeper, this seems to be taking it a bit far. Do you know these guys are messy people? does it mater if they are messy people? As long as the unit is clean when it is returned to you and they don't damage anything in the process, what is your concern with their tidiness? I'd only be concerned with that rent check coming in each month. If anything is dirty when they move out, higher a cleaner and use their deposit to cover it.

One thing I've seen on here which I think is a good idea is to ask them to select a "head of household" which you will do all of your dealings with. This creates a point of contact for you and a sense of responsibility for the unit for the tenant selected as the head of household. This minimized communication gaps and ensures that every one is on the same page.

Other than that, possibly require a co-signer if you don't trust that they can pay. however it sounds like with their combined income they should be able to cover the rent.