All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Bailey

For people who have investments in the wards: third, fifth, second.. Do you live there? How bad is it? And the Near North side? 

I'm finally looking into getting a loan and these areas seem to be all I can afford at the moment. Wondering if I should just wait or if these areas really are going to be up and coming??

I will be doing owner occupancy so it's got to be a somewhat decent area. I live in Westchase now, not the nicest area but it's around everything.. and I drove through Third Ward today and it looked very, very rough.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc would be appreciated!

Very true and on point! I miss it.. minus the winters. Definitely taking it into consideration as I continue to save for my 1st investment.

My home city! Wonderful place and is only growing. I've been thinking of investing there as well even though I'm in Houston . It's continuing to grow and I wish you the best of luck!

Hi everyone,

I'm new to educating myself on MF investing and as I'm researching and running numbers for my 1st investment I have a few questions.

I'm in Houston, TX and looking for smaller units (2-4)- It's likely I'll live in the unit with my husband so we can do some repairs which will be needed to get something in our budget. 

First part of my question is.... After mortgage, insurance, everything is paid... How much are you putting away from emergency costs and repairs, and how much are you looking for in profit for these smaller units? Maybe I'm not looking for the best deals.. but when I run the numbers it seems most of the time only a few hundred dollars would be left over. If our goal is to eventually have this as a full income- it seems we would need A LOT of these smaller units to actually have a real income coming in. 

For those investing out of state- kind of the same question. How much put away for property manager, emergency funds, and what are you looking at for profit for door? It seems when adding in the property manager-- you would be basically breaking even? I know it all depends where you invest but we are looking around a $200,000 budget to start with.

It seems the cheaper properties equals cheaper rents so just trying to wrap my head around how to make this a positive cash flow without having to run numerous smaller units.

Thanks

Jennifer

Just like someone else mentioned above.. Do you have any issues renting to low income tenants? Also, does hiring a property manager eat into your profit?

I was looking into Memphis and also Pittsburg/Philly have A LOT of super cheap duplexes but being so far away I worry about the property in these areas being taken care of without having an eye on it. Even with a property manager- seems like they won't treat it like their own. 

Thanks for the inspiration :) How has it been managing properties out of state? Would you recommend it or is it a headache??

Well I have my husband's income but it will not count because he just received his work permit and won't be counted when applying for a loan. Plus a good savings . So technically I can afford it in case I'm unable to rent the units.. it just doesn't look like it based off just my income. If that makes sense .

Whst exactly do you mean by underwriting?

This is very helpful! I actually have been meaning to meet with my friend's lender who I'm hoping to get more insight. My goal until the end of the year is to pay down as much debt as possible. Ideally, I would get something under $250,00 but that's finding a good deal in the Houston market but it can happen!

I have a lease on my car and will have most of my student loans paid off by the time I apply so I hope that helps. I'm just hoping it's not going to be a deal breaker based on my income, which likely won't dramatically increase any time soon.