All Forum Posts by: David Sandvig

The one thing I would be careful about: inventory is very tight right now in Austin which could make the timeline of a 1031 exchange difficult.  That being said, I definitely think you can do better than $17k cash flow with $1M of equity in the Austin market.  You could always diversify too; you could sell your current rental, and buy two less expensive properties (one in San Diego and one in Austin/San Antonio).

I agree with @Drew Berman; free is best for me!  I used to use Cozy.co as a payment and issue reporting portal for my tenants, but I didn’t like what apartments.com did with it when they bought them out.

Before I had my real estate license, I’d only post my rentals to Zillow.  I use Zillow to find tenants, conduct the background searches, and for rent payment.

I use Stessa to track my portfolio personally (i.e. I don’t use Stessa’s rent payment platform).

As far as reporting issues and hiring contractors, I don’t have a fancy method/platform.  I just have my tenants email or text me and then I’d find someone on my own.  At this point I have a list of people I use for most issues in my area.

@Matt Buhr I started using Stessa, and I’m a fan.  It does pretty much everything I need (except actively track miles; I’m probably going to start using MileIQ or similar for that). It does do an annual tax export too.

I'm not currently house hacking, but I picked up a couple duplexes in Austin/the Austin area last year.  I definitely think there are still attractive LTR duplexes out there. Like @Jordan Moorhead said, they do take some hunting to find though.  If you're thinking about short term rentals, Austin does require a license if you're renting it out for periods less than 1 month though.

Definitely exciting news. Congratulations @Lawrence Briggs!!

Are One Construction has been good for me.  Very experienced, but newer to the area so his pricing is reasonable.

@Ola Ade What part of Chicago are you living in??  My wife and her two sisters moved from Chicago to Austin, Nashville, and Charleston (respectively).  I'd definitely recommend looking at all three.  I'm a little biased being from Texas, but Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are all great options as well.

That's an awesome plan.  I used the 121 exclusion on my first investment property.  I'm excited for you!

I'd love to join!  I've been investing in Austin for ~5 years now and would love to meet a few others/discuss ways to further scale up.

@Stephanie Yokoyama If it was me, I'd invest in the home over the condo.  There are a number of rapidly growing areas that are still within that price point.  Just to name a couple areas: Hays County to the south of Austin was the fastest growing county in the U.S. last year, and Cedar Park to the north is also rapidly growing.

If you were considering turning the condo into a short term rental, Austin does require an operator's license for short term rentals.