All Forum Posts by: Andrew Neal

Hey @Victoria Lilly I agree with @Allan Bishop Jr. in that I would choose Dallas. I lived in LA...It's not for everyone and definitely not investor friendly for many reasons but probably the biggest being price. My wife is from Dallas and we visit at least once a year and I love it.

One thing to keep in mind when researching properties in the Dallas area is property taxes are CRAZY high in comparison to a lot of places. Home insurance can also be quite hefty so just make sure to factor those in accurately.

Everyone wants to rag on taxes in California yet I can insure my house for next to nothing (maybe $60 a month) where a cheaper home in Texas may be closer to $300 a month. Also their property taxes are about double what mine are.

I would also agree that waiting to get your license in the state you will be living in might be the best option.

@Caleb Haney I don't think it's a bad thing. As you eluded to most people talk about it because it has become sort of trendy. Similar to how in this day and age being an "entrepreneur" is "cool" while most will never do anything about it.

There are plenty of properties to go around and any number of strategies people can deploy. So what makes a good deal to you may not be a good deal to me. 

A vast majority of people will never buy a single property, another large chunk may purchase one and lose money or otherwise have a bad experience and will quit. I think it's the people here on BP who get educated, develop a game plan and most importantly tirelessly execute who will be left standing.

This year's HGTV dream home giveaway is in one of my all time favorite places (Northwest Montana - Whitefish). The prize includes a roughly $2 million dollar home, some cash, and a car. If you won, what would you do? Also there is a cash in lieu of prize of essentially $1 million cash if you forego taking ownership of the property.

I think I may keep the property, use it a few times a year and otherwise rent it out via STR.

Thanks for the responses. To clarify I didn't plan to reach out through Airbnb. If anything this thread highlighted why I'm glad I never made real estate photography my profession. Everyone knows a friends friends son's cousin who bought a camera at Best Buy and will shoot photos for peanuts haha.

Random question: I am a published real estate photographer and have shot quite a few luxury homes ranging all the way north of 7-8 Million. I always wonder if I should message Airbnb hosts who have cabins in the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area that I already plan on visiting anyways and just see if anyone would be willing to trade a night or two in exchange for professional photos (possibly video also if the property is expensive enough). 

If you received a request like that and for a weekend you weren't booked anyway how would you respond? 

haha thats awesome @Rhonda Blue I'm glad the move has worked out well for you guys. I went to school at Fullerton so I am familiar with the lake Forest area as well. I worked in the tv/entertainment world for a few years before making the move back up to nor-cal and settled into marketing/design/video. When I was visiting family in the Dallas area we filled up for around $1.75 and I honestly couldn't remember the last time I saw a gas price that started with $1 haha.

Thanks for the insight @Account Closed so typical ;) . 

Lots of great responses from so many of you, thanks for sharing. So many Wisconsin folks haha. I can say with 100% certainty my wife would never go for moving somewhere that cold! 

@Ali Boone I actually live in Brentwood Northern California, though I used to live in Santa Monica and used to have to explain that there are two Brentwood's in California and one is not a real city (SoCal one) and the other is a nice little town on the outskirts of the Bay Area. I favor small town over the "Culture" of a big city any day haha.

I see @Llewelyn A.'s points about appreciation and IF we were to leave I would consider keeping our primary residence and renting it out knowing full well that once paid off it will be worth well over $500K without much appreciation let alone even modest appreciation. On a pure dollars and cents point of view though investing here is not feasible partly because the average price of a home is over $600K but also because they are all negative cashflow even if you bought low and fixed it up. House around the corner from us was built in 1910, purchased 6 months ago for $415K and completely gutted plus new roof etc. (probably about $100K worth of rehab) and is now listed for $2,500 rent, I'm no math wiz but thats sounds like an appreciation play and not of interest to me.

Only thing that really keeps me in California at all is my family so who knows if we will ever leave. 

A lot of this is market dependent. I am smack in the middle of the millennial age range (33). I live in one of the hottest markets in the country (Bay Area). Once married I scraped all our pennies together to save for a 3.5% FHA down payment since I knew rates were crazy low. We sold that house 2 years later and tripled our initial investment without touching anything on the house. Also, renting is extremely expensive here but our mortgage is about even with what a comparable rent would be. I may as well pay rent to the bank and buy down some equity while getting some great appreciation.

Many of my friends (myself included) purchased homes once we got married. It's almost a requirement because of cost, buying here on one income is difficult unless you are making well over $100K.

Awesome @Gavin Welch my good buddy owns Complete Kitchen and Bath there in Lakeland! One of the BEST guys I know. 

thanks @Jack Medford are your duplexes in the same area you moved to in Wisconsin?