All Forum Posts by: Alex J.
Alex J. has started 17 posts and replied 307 times.
Post: How Do You Ethically Invest in a Disaster Zone?
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Originally posted by @Mindy Jensen:
Harvey damaged 203,000 homes in Houston - at least that's the number I read this morning. I'm sure it's going to go up. I read 90% of homes destroyed did not have flood insurance.
Irma looks to be headed to Florida. She's the biggest hurricane in recorded history.
Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 and did billions of dollars of damage.
There's an opportunity to solve someone's problem, but there's also an opportunity to take advantage of someone when they're at their lowest point.
How do you invest - truly help people out in these areas - without appearing to take advantage of them? With water infiltration, you need to act fast, so you don't really have a lot of time to negotiate. Mold waits for no one...
There is a trending discussion from an investor in Houston who incurred major damage from the hurricane, but had no insurance. How does he repair his home?
On a related note, how do you shield yourself from these problems in the future, outside of not investing near water?
mindy i am in houston for the last 8 years. i can tell you this much... pre-harvey we had arguably some of the most overvalued real estate... post harvey we will see a lot of communities simply not get rebuilt.
there is actually a lot of rental capacity in houston so i dont think its a similar situation to what NOLA had and comparisons in recent history are going to be hard to find.
in the short term , people are still gutting houses... actually theres a shortage of drywall in some of the suburbs
labor is also in shortage... but i think theres a lot of people laid off from oil and gas from the last downturn that will welcome the work with open arms.... but the problem is some of these floodway communitites simply wont come back.
there is no good solution to the problem houston has at this point without MASSIVE infrastructure development and buying properties in floodways with eminent domain (which i am sure many will be happy to have happen to their flooded house)
ive personally talked to 3 diff people that said they are planning on taking insurance money and fire selling house the first chance they get. as an investor i dont really like the risk.
I have one duplex in houston at this point and a primary residence im not sure its the time to be adding to the portfolio... i am sticking to buying more in los angeles (where i am originally from ) where i have about 16 doors at this point...
Post: Hurricane Harvey - Houston, TX Redevelopment
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Originally posted by @Randall Kates:
I decided to be proactive instead of sitting on te couch so Ill be flying from Philly into Houston to volunteer on the 16th.Do you have any non profits or charities that would need volunteer work?
Red Cross
Post: Hurricane Harvey - Houston, TX Redevelopment
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Is this a scam
Post: Houston investors!!! What opportunities do you see?
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
The opportunity is to fix homes. Contractors will win.
So many I've talked to have nowhere to go and have so many reasons to stay. Short term housing will be good too but there is already tons of oversupply mega apartments here that will get filled short term.
Thats the play...the workers will get a short term boost in jobs. A basic floors walls renno is getting quoted timeline of Thanksgiving on our block...one crew doing 10 homes.
The shortage is not housing its manpower
Post: Late rent after Hurricane Harvey
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Originally posted by @Tom Chen:
@Account Closed, are your tenants in the flooded areas? Those that are affected will not even be able to get back into their apartments for at least another 2 or 3 weeks with the overflow of sewage and raw pollution.
No major flooding. Just water in backyard and front yard. they are ok thank God.
I did a walk thru of the unit yesterday and took them some bug spray trash bags case of water and sprays to just give a helping hand. I also reimbursed them for anything they paid out of pocket for cleaning themselves. They are good tenants and we all just went thru a tragedy so if they need help I am working with them. One paid the rent on the spot and thanked me the other asked if they can pay it next week and I said yes
Post: Late rent after Hurricane Harvey
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Im giving my tenants one week grace period
Post: Hurricane Harvey slowing down my REI
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Originally posted by @Cody L.:
Originally posted by @Rhiannon Then:
Cody L. was wondering how Harvey affected you. Glad it wasn't bad for you. I think it's too soon to tell how many people will need housing or not be able to find it. I know many people with no home to go to.
My mom got over two feet inside and 6 feet outside. She had to be rescued by boat. Many people I know in SouthEast Houston cannot go back to there homes. My mom doesn't know what she is going to do next. Would you pm me?
If you want to go to our website you can see what we have and you can have your mom call our office. Not sure if I can give that info out here but it shouldn't be hard to find. Our leasing team is just leasing@ my company.com and if you go to our website there is a post about harvey.
you know i was thinking about this, theres tons of new capacity in big multi units that i would imagine are getting filled up real quick... 6 month leases so people can just fix and leave... it already had a big hangover of inventory so your comment doesnt shock me...though its VERY interesting and counter-intuitive and hard to imagine
Post: What will the hurricane do to Houston RE?
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
To those following this post... My house ended up not getting water inside I was very fortunate... Many neighbors got one or two inches
Some friends got 6 feet of water which is insane
Any house bought or rented will need a full gut no doubt
We are going to see a shortage of supply labor etc then ultimately level off and weakening.
Houston market was absolutely softening prior to this and will likely level off and go weaker
This city will probably not see a massive Exodus like Nola did
Post: What will the hurricane do to Houston RE?
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
It's Funny this topic came up my wife and I had a long discussion about it the last few hours.
Post: What will the hurricane do to Houston RE?
- Investor
- Tarzana CA and Houston, TX
- Posts 326
- Votes 130
Originally posted by @Brandon Turner:
Hey everyone,
I don't wanna be inconsiderate in the wake of this horrible hurricane but I have a legitimate question.
My sister is moving to Houston in a month and currently house hunting. Should I tell her to wait? Or will this drop prices? Any insights?
What happened to New Orleans RE after Katrina?
I live in Houston Sugarland specifically and invest in Los Angeles...I'm literally watching the water build up and approach my property...without a doubt I'll have water inside in the hour.
I really feel every year is a new historic flood here. The housing has softened definitely there will be a short squeeze to come there's tons of damaged homes...I'd say rent for now and next year when everybody forgot about this mess and has rebuilt consider buying.
If you can find a distressed seller then be ready to deal with faulty foundation, mold, flood damage. Without a doubt the flood insurance will sky rocket even more than we've seen
Pm me for more details I'll try to reply if I can at some point