All Forum Posts by: Eric Cossey

Hello BP Community, 

I unfortunately have some flood damage on one of my rental houses due to Hurricane Harvey and is not covered by flood insurance (Yes, I understand this was not a great business move on my part, but I had a brain fart). Can anyone help me in understanding the best way to recover some of these costs as part of tax deductions? I just found out that FEMA will not provide grants for rental properties, but their has to be SOMETHING I can do?

Any help is appreciated during these tough times. 

Can anyone provide any 2016 results on this topic? I would assume some great long term data has been collected at this point. 

Greg Wang As with everything else, their are many variables that can go into that cost per square foot. If you are looking for simple middle range town homes $150 is probably a good budgetary number. I have built SFH for $70 a square foot with standard finishes, so the 150 number might be right if it includes the property, general contractor and some higher end finishes. I am having a hard time finding any newer middle income town homes to compare it to.. The majority of the ones I have seen are higher end units. I would really like to build new in the Baytown area near the industrial areas.

Cherry Meekins Welcome to BP.. Newer investor with considerable construction experience. If you figure out your strategy and want to bounce some ideas around, lemme know!

John Hixon and Nikolas Ferreira I am very interested in hearing more about your wholesale deals. I have met with two large wholesalers in Houston and I agree with everyone's synopsis. Their is very little room in any of the deals and If you are doing HML, their is absolutely NO room in the deals considering the risk involved.

Greg Wang I too am interested in a very similar strategy. I am sitting on the sideline right now with the money and pre-approval for the deal but I am missing a few pieces of the puzzle. I have an extensive background in construction (UH Construction Management) and would very much like to build my first 4 plex ASAP. I would be very interested in talking to you to figure out how we can get this going! I look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome Edith! Sounds like we are on the same page. I have been knee deep trying to synthesize all the information for the past 6 months. Good luck and let me know if you need a partner or just want to talk through some things!

@ Justin R.  

Sorry if my question seems elementary, but in your P&L breakdown you mention Maintenance 8%, Vacancy 5% and Utilities $2400/y.  I understand that if you have the documents to back it up, you can write off specific instances of maintenance on your taxes, but are you saying that you write off each of these as a "blanket" dollar amount?

Sorry for the newbie question. I am just trying to understand how investors can target 30% cash flow on a house when they end up having to pay 30% in federal income taxes. I am depreciating, using mileage and any repairs completed on the house, but my income taxes still reduce my monthly cash flow by 50%.

I noticed the same thing. I was looking at properties that were 150k in 2011 and now are 250k. Even though they have been reduced 15% in the past few months, I'm holding out to get a better buy-in price.. Hopefully I'll have some more capital to buy with by then also.... I agree in the locations mentioned in the thread.. I am looking at SE, Midtown, and anything near the Woodlands for a good deal.. Good luck!

I don't see your contact info, but mine is eric.cossey at gmail.com. If nothing else, maybe we can team up and bounce ideas off each other while navigating the Houston market. Early Retirement here we come!!!