All Forum Posts by: Caleb L.

Welcome to BP Jeffrey! Can't wait to hear what you'll do and accomplish. Remember, nothing comes from nothing, take action and you'll reach your goals!

Cozy looks the best by far. I also hear Avail.co is good too. Avail is free for the most part, and has a little more features than Cozy, although avail's pricing is different. They charge by unit. Check them out! 

What makes a good real estate investor. Or any investor for that matter: 

"What you do need is the right temperament. You need to be able to detach yourself from the views of others or the opinions of others. You need to be able to look at the facts about a business, about an industry, and evaluate a business unaffected by what other people think. That is very difficult for most people. Most people have, sometimes, a herd mentality which can, under certain circumstances, develop into delusional behavior. You saw that in the Internet craze and so on. I’m sure everybody in this room has the intelligence to do extremely well in investments." - Warren Buffett

"You have to come to your own conclusions, and you have to do it based on facts that are available. If you don’t have enough facts to reach a conclusion, you forget it. You go on to the next one. You have to also have the willingness to walk away from things that other people think are very simple.

A lot of people don’t have that. I don’t know why it is. I’ve been asked a lot of times whether that was something that you’re born with or something you learn. I’m not sure I know the answer. Temperament’s important.

If you don’t know the answer yourself don’t expect somebody else to tell you. If you don’t know the answer yourself and somebody else says they know the answer, don’t let that fact push you into coming to a conclusion about something that you don’t know enough to come to a conclusion on." - Warren Buffett

Don't follow the heard. And invest in stuff you understand. 

"You have to do what works, what you understand, and if you don’t understand it and somebody else is doing it, don’t get envious or anything of the sort. Just go on and wait until you find something you understand." - Warren Buffett

You also need to have the discipline when investing in anything. Discipline will help you make smarter decisions, always.

Wow! I analyzed the same deal as you! This is super helpful, because we both have studied that house! 

In terms of population, I think the record speaks for itself. From 2000-2005 the population went from 1,446 to 1,173. From 2005-2010 the population went form 1,173 to 984. And it's been up ever sense. It wouldn't be my first pick to buy a rental in. 

The cost of living is pretty good. Not to expensive. But, it's a relatively small town, with small median salaries, and hardly any population growth. 

Here is my analysis for the duplex: 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/calculators/shared/1366217/8d35ed9f-563f-4946-a1fa-41d5db1a2426

I don't see how this meets the 1% rule, as you say. My rents were based on what it is (currently) renting for, and what others are renting for in the area. It would be harder to find tenants if you raise the rents higher. 

I was also conservative on the vacancy, repairs, and CapEx rates. I like to make them higher if it's a multi-family property, usually about 6%-7%. But I stuck with 5% in this case. I would also have to buy it about $100,000 under what they are asking. (Probably not a good idea and a waste of time) 

I'm not interested in this property for the reasons I just explained. Although, maybe you know something I don't . So keep at it if you think you can improve it. 

Speaking of improving, I didn't give any money for repairs in the PDF report. So, if you can make it look better, give it some nice features, than you could possibly raise the rents! 

I'm currently interested in the cities of Georgetown, Hutto, and Leander. Hint Hint ;)

If you have any more questions about Jarrell, or any other city, let me know!

Good luck!

I live in Georgetown, TX. Super close to Jarrell! I've studied my market, along with Jarrells. Here are some tips when investing in Jarrell: 

1) Jarrell only has about 1,500 people. When the 2008 recession came, in 2010, 1,000 people left Jarrell! So, know where your buying. Is it a place that people "want" to live in? 

2) Jarrell can be split into two sections, City Center is the best area to have a rental/house in. Low crime, highest appreciation rate, great schools, etc. 

3) Jarrell is a good market, just make sure your accounting for vacancy, repairs, etc. 

4) What's the address?

@Nicholas Aiola

Hello, 

My question regards S corporations. Is the S corp better for wholesalers? How would taxes be done each year? Do I need to take a salary each year? What is the % of my earnings can I issue as dividends? Sense dividends aren't taxed, let's say I make $50,000 in a year of wholesaling, can I take a $1 salary and issue $49,999 as dividends? 

Thanks!

I think everyone has said the same thing 156 times.

It is possible to get great, if not more education when your not in school. (It depends). 

If your home schooled, usually you get a lot more experience, and a lot more free time. For example: My sister was home schooled, and she graduated college four years before other people, and went on to be a professor. Along with gaining 10x the experience than the average student. 

Kids these days, even adults who have left college don't know how to do basic stuff like, doing laundry, basic social skills, organizational skills, etc. Which all are covered, and  more when home schooling if you do it the right way. 

If you can't change to home schooling, and if you can't get a lot of internships in different areas, than stick with school and wait till you graduate. You can make your decision to go to college or not later. But finish HS.

I like to use Zillow.com to find what other houses have sold for in my area. You can even get as deep as entering your zip code, and they'll tell you what houses have sold, and at what prices. There is even a map that shows (where) the houses have sold. Which is really important because it tells you where people are buying houses (within) that zip code! It's really useful for finding comps and finding what zip codes are hot, and what neighborhoods inside those zip codes are hot! 

Here is the link. I put my city in the search bar, so just erase my city and type in yours. Than go to the button to the left of the price button, and click "sold" and it should come up with all the sold houses in your area/zip code: 

https://www.zillow.com/georgetown-tx/sold/house,ap... 

Hope this helps!

I don't have any rentals, yet (going into wholesaling to save money for rentals). I plan to use Cozy as well. It seems a lot more efficient and it's FREE for the most part. 

I have also considered Avail and Buildium, but both of them are more expensive, and does the same job that Cozy does for free. Although, Buildium offers a little more advanced software which offers more tools for taxes, inspections, etc. 

When I build my rental portfolio, I will most likely switch to Buildium. But Cozy looks awesome!

I'm not familiar with this area, so I couldn't comment on cash flow. The only thing I would recommend is that you raise your vacancy and repair rate. It looks pretty low, for me at least.

When I analyze multi-family properties, I like to raise the vacancy and Capex/repair rate because I'm dealing with multiple units, some will be vacant, while some will be full at the same time.

In your case, your only allocating about $40 per unit for vacancy, and about $40 for repairs per unit. And if the area is as rough as @Chris Carson said, than I recommend increasing your repairs/Capex and vacancy rate.

(Lastly, don't forget about taxes! You haven't allocated any money for taxes in your calculation, which I strongly recommend.) Try fixing what I suggested and see what you get. It will most likely be a more realistic cash flow and cash-on-cash return.

Good luck!