All Forum Posts by: David Sandvig

I live and invest in Austin (and love it), but I've definitely talked with a few investors looking to San Antonio as Austin gets more expensive.  It's definitely a solid market as well.  The US News and World Report released their rankings for best places to live today.  San Antonio was ranked as #83.  They have a strong job market and consistent, sustainable growth.  In addition to the military bases, they have a number of reputable hospitals too.
https://austin.culturemap.com/...

https://realestate.usnews.com/...

@Ajay Mehta Texas Tax Protest charges 40% of whatever they save you.  This is the most attractive structure to me; I like that their compensation is tied to saving me money.  I saw one other tax protest company that was charging 35%, but for that little of a difference, I'm going to go with the company that was recommended to me.

I think this is getting a little off topic from the San Antonio vs. Austin discussion.  The Texas A&M Real Estate Center has some historical home price data in a nice format.  Here's the data for the Austin area: https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/...  And the site is pretty intuitive, but here's San Antonio's: https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/...

Both markets are strong, and there's a lot of opportunity to make good investments.  I think Austin has about as much upside as any market in the US.  Anyone that says they know what the market is going to do probably doesn't (myself included), but I have a tough time seeing how the market is going to crash in Austin unless the whole economy tanks from something like going to war with Russia.  If that's the case though, I don't think I'd want to have more money in the market either.

I’ve heard good things about Texas Tax Protest.

With Austin, the upside for appreciation is higher, but cash flow is almost non-existent. I acquired two duplexes last year in Austin/the Austin area that are barely in the green with cash flow (but they are both in the green even with a significant hvac repair).  I’m long term renting out all four units.  The appreciation has already been great though, and I imagine they’ll cash flow nicely in a year or so.

I’m not very familiar with San Antonio, but was actually talking with someone about their multifamily units there this evening.  The cash flow is definitely better there right now.  He said the city has consistent, steady growth. He also said that multifamily deals seem more neighborhood/location specific.

I'd recommend having a professional dispute it (like Texas Tax Protest or one of the other companies listed here).

I used to use Cozy.  I didn’t like when they switched to Apartments.com.  I would have people apply through Zillow or Apartments.com, use another service for background checks, and then set up payments/complaint reporting in Cozy.  I felt like that was too much platform jumping though.  I decided to just use Zillow since that’s where most of my applications were coming from.  I now use Zillow for applications, background checks, and payments.  I just have my tenants email or text me with issues, and store the lease in DocuSign (I.e. I don’t use Zillows leases).

I ultimately decided to sell my cash flowing SFR to buy two duplexes with that money. I had lived in the rental for >2 of the past 5 years though, so I didn't have to pay any gains on it and that was ultimately the deciding factor for me.

My friend’s company, Texas Tax Protest, might be able to help.  Good luck!

I think that's a good idea.  I've got 5 units in Austin. I generally look at rental properties that are already hardened up as a plus.  I don't think you'll alienate anyone by going all laminate; I've had one property like that and it rented just fine.  A couple of other ideas: sealed concrete can look nice and is very low maintenance.  I'm not sure if that's more difficult/expensive than laminate though.  I've got one property with sealed concrete that was like that when I bought it, and it makes for very easy maintenance.  Alternatively, I know some people add to their lease that the tenant will pay for a professional carpet cleaning as part of their move out.