All Forum Posts by: Doug Reed

Excellent points -- I will heed your advice and schedule a meeting soon.  Thanks again for the input!

Thanks @Grant Greene.  I was planning on going to talk to a mortgage specialist at my credit union for my first purchase, but will probably wait until I have more cash so any preapproval/prequalification will be current when I need to make a deal.  

I've read in several places that many would-be investors start the purchase process without first doing their homework w.r.t. financing, and are stopped in their tracks when they discover they can't get the kind of loan they need to make the profit they require.  I don't intend to make that mistake :-).

Thanks for the heads up, @Mike Walker.  I'll look into those -- the Wednesday meetings are not too far from my neck of the woods.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

@Ashley St. Gelais, thanks for the advice.  I've read much to the same effect, but for better or worse I already love where I live and don't see myself uprooting in the next couple of years for a multi-family purchase.  It's not such a bad problem to have, really :-)

I've thought about renting out my place, but based on my P+I, HOA, and taxes, I don't think I can rent out my current place and be cashflow-positive.

Hi!  I'm a computer engineer from Austin, TX.  Except for owning my own home, I'm not a real estate investor yet.  I'm looking to change that in the next year or two.  Like most of the other Austinites on BP posting introductions, I'm mostly looking outside of the Austin area (San Antonio, Kyle, RR, Killeen, etc) for my first rental property because of the crazy high housing prices in this city.

Since I'm a computer geek and can't distinguish myself by bringing a wealth of REI know-how to the table, I leave you with a few fun observations from the last 24 hours:

1. You can export search results of MLS listings in .csv format from at least one other major property searching site for free; and,

2. You can download historical rental prices, property appreciation/depreciation, etc. in .csv format from a different major property searching site for free.

I essentially scripted the finding of my current condo, and hope to adopt a similar strategy to finding deals on rentals.  That's long term, though -- for now, finding a single good deal on a cash flowing property is good enough for me.  

Thanks for reading!

I wonder -- does it concern you to be near Lackland (or any other bases) where long term value might take a substantial hit if the base experiences cuts?  I drove through part of Marina, CA last month and the remains of the base there was haunting.