All Forum Posts by: David Hines

I think that is a terrible idea and I don't know the laws in your area, but a listing agent could get in a lot of trouble for asking you not to hire your own agent. An agent's duty is to protect their client's interests, not maximize their commission. If you want someone to represent your interests, hire your own agent.

I am a property manager and investor located in the Cypress/ Katy area. I will PM you so you have my contact info. Let me know how I can help you.

@Alexander Parada I understand that, but those are all things that wear out over time. The point of setting aside money every month for cap-ex is that when they wear out in 10 years or 20 years or whenever, then you have the money ready to go to pay for the replacement. Even though they are new now, they'll still eventually need to be replaced. It doesn't need to be a huge amount $20 a month means you've set aside almost $5000 over 20 years. Not enough to replace a roof, but it will come in handy when your water heater or A/C need to be replaced.

@Alexander Parada

Your monthly maintenance cost seems right for the area and property value, I would also include an amount set aside each month for cap-ex (new roof, major ticket items). You may run into issues with managing it yourself from out of state. The rentals I own are in Cypress and Katy. The properties I manage are in those areas as well as Houston.

I think you need additional information to make a decision. What is your expected maintenance cost? What is your monthly cap-ex cost? Does your realtor cost include monthly property management or just lease up? Have you factored in vacancy costs? Even without these costs, you're looking at a roughly 7% rate of return. Whether that is an acceptable return or not is entirely up to you.

@Ann Rau

I am a real estate broker and property manager in the area. I just sent you a PM so you have my contact information. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you in your home search.

Check out the Houston Association of Real Estate Inspectors, I've never had an issue with an inspector I've hired from their list. You can find them at HAREI dot com.

I agree that vacancy is always better than leasing to a bad tenant. In my experience as a property manager, I usually run about 2-4 weeks in vacancy. This time frame does not typically include the first month after I've listed a property. I make sure to list the property during the final month of the current tenant's lease and have had many vacancies of only a few days by following this policy.

I have used Buildium for the last couple years and have been very happy with it. I especially like that I can use it for rent collection, direct deposits to owners and the transaction fee is only 50 cents.

While they aren't the cheapest when you first buy them, Kwikset has locks that are easy to rekey without installing a new set of locks. I've put them in all my properties and I'm very happy with them so far.