All Forum Posts by: Wayne Kerr

Our rents haven't been decreasing - but they haven't been going up either. Still have a few people thinking it's 2021 and trying to charge 2-300 more than the market - those are sitting. Fairly priced units will sit for 2 weeks or so. 

I would say things have slowed or even decreased very slightly. 

The crazy thing is - insurance costs have increased significantly here and property taxes just went up as well. It does make the local area not as "hot' for investing as it used to be. 

New construction is up, a couple luxury neighborhoods (500k+) and a couple new mid sized apartment complexes (1000+ f/ 1 bedroom). And there's a 147 unit section 8 apt complex being developed as well - in an "affordable" area. 

DOM for selling is up to ~80 days. I actually have a house on the market that has been listed for about 60 days - still gets interest and a couple offers, but nothing worth entertaining (if it doesn't sell, I'll just rent it out again). Solid house and a good location, so a little surprising to me. But with the election and the time of year, it makes sense. 

Quote from @Scott Mac:

[1]  A down vote button seems like it will lead to Cliques forming in the background, with people getting together to downvote certain individuals based on like or dislike of the individual. Vigilante style.

[2]  This is an open dialog site. If you disagree with something or do not like it instead of using a downvote button to hammer someones numbers (Which some people cherish) You can simply state your thoughts in the open forum without affecting their numbers. No one is preventing you from doing that.

[3]  It seems like an open door to racism. We all know that this business can be done successfully by anyone, and is. Forming little groups in the background to down vote certain individuals comments based on skin color, or religion, or perceived political leanings seems like something we could all do without on this forum. Over the years I've seen this happen in other groups, not just with numbers but with responses also. We seem to be free of that here. To the benefit of all of us. And just avoiding it for this issue alone seems like a good reason not to do it.

In a nutshell I think a down vote button would not serve to further communication between us which is the goal of the site. Helping each other. 

So I think a download button let's throw a monkey wrench into the good that this site does for people.

Just my 2 cents.

Just wondering...would a downvote button also be sexist? Homophobic? Transphobic? All of the above, or just some of the above? 

Quote from @Joe Villeneuve:

The thing is, that exact argument can be used for upvotes. Take the Ohio crew here for example...anything remotely related to Ohio/Cleveland will be upvoted by that little crew regardless of it's value. 

What's your monthly budget to live how you want to in Indonesia? 

What's the cashflow from each house?

I would be very hesitant to pay off anything with such a low rate - the sub 4% rate I wouldn't touch. 

I love upvoting good posts. And I love reading good advice, strategy and what have you...however we need a way to separate the bad and the spam from the good. And it needs to be easy. 

It's time for a downvote button. 

Bigger pockets has updated the site but left off a crucial piece. It's time. 

100% Truth 

There is so much "fakeness" in social media these days, it's absolutely unreal. Everyone would show themselves to be truly exceptional, when in fact, the probability of that is impossible. 

I spoke with a guy that has a large following (125k+ on IG), offers classes, 1 on 1s - the whole works. You'd think he himself owns millions of dollars of RE. Negative...Owns a part of a trailer park, which accounts for 85% of "his" 22 doors, then some 60k houses. Then talks about "forced appreciation" and "forced equity" - look bud, your 60k house will never be worth 300k lol. You can't force equity when everything around you is also worth 60k...doesn't matter how nice you make it. He lives in a big house. Then come to find out his wife's father is incredibly rich (how dare we think any money came from the wife's family). Just LOL. you'd think he's exceptional...far from it in actuality.  

The only thing that seems to garner lots of attention is the "extreme". Have to get attention to get the clicks. Have to get the clicks to get money. So everything has to be as extreme as possible. When we're constantly bombarded by extremes everywhere (the richest, the poorest, the fastest, the youngest, the easiest etc) it seems to be not so extreme. Then the frustration comes in - the 26 year old millionaire syndicator who owns 500 doors and is on the beach 300 days out of the year doesn't seem so extreme anymore. Then the frustration comes in. 

Long story short - 99% of the stuff on social media is completely fake and procured to be as extremely successful as possible.  

I'm about halfway through "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuc k" - it's been a decent read so far. It does explain some of this sentiment 

So this is actually fairly straightforward... 

99% of houses don't make good rental properties - your original primary will not make a good rental. $2900 (mortgage payment) - $2500 (projected rent) = -$400 (monthly cashflow). Add in property manager, repairs/maintenance, CapEx, vacancy etc and you will be deep in the red. This would likely be a bad investment in your position.

I would personally plan to sell your primary and purchase a new primary. 

Take advantage of that VA loan again too - much better terms than going with a private lender/DSCR type loan.

You can always house hack, buy a multi family, do a trailer park and live in a trailer etc. You may even consider doing some budgeting and see if a smaller house or even (dare I say it?) renting makes sense...

Quote from @Nathan Frost:

Agreed on the taxes, and I didn't know that about the HELOC...interesting. Is that a HELOC on your primary or investment properties?

They do make a few cameras that work off of the cellular network as opposed to a wifi - I think they are fairly affordable as well. That may at least notify you that something is going on at the property. I'd put fakes in plain view, then hide your real ones a bit. And if you can, put one that's a little distance away. 

I had an issue where someone spray painted over a fake camera in plain view...they didn't know I had a trail camera keeping an eye on that camera. We caught them because they lived in the neighborhood and could identify them by their car. Not enough damage to make it worth it to pursue them, but the trail camera worked as intended 

I would personally ask for a price decrease based on whatever estimate they got for the installation of that equipment (assuming you can get a loan without those things - depends big time on the bank - my local banks would do it for me). 

If not - yea, let them get installed, do the inspection and go about it. 

I had a house in an area like this (previous HVAC was stolen while the house was vacant) although it doesn't seem nearly as bad as your area. I put up a mix a fake and real cameras. Had a couple of cars towed when they parked in the driveway. 

Nothing you can do about people knowing it's vacant though. And most of the time police won't even pursue something like this with any sort of effort. It definitely causes some anxiety anytime the place is vacant. 

I'm actually selling that house right now - I stay away from that type of area now. B class and up for SFH and C class and up for MFH. MFH I haven't had as much of an issue. I'm guessing because the population density is higher with more neighbors and all that.

And I see you're located in Texas. I'd look closely at the Texas market as opposed to Detroit. You're having issues and you haven't even closed yet. The issues are just starting and the area is literally telling you what it's going to be like before you close. I'd seriously think about whether or not is makes sense to pursue that market in that location. 

Quote from @Wale Lawal:

@Erick Hennings

Houston's emerging neighborhoods include East End, Third Ward, Heights, Spring Branch, Independence Heights, Alief, Cypress, Pearland, Richmond/Rosenberg, and Conroe/Woodlands. These areas offer a mix of renovated bungalows, new construction, and industrial conversions, with increased demand from young professionals. Near the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, these areas offer rental properties and investment opportunities.

Good Luck!

Can you explain the similarities between the Third Ward and the Woodlands? 

Cypress and Alief?

Spring Branch and Conroe? 

These are quite literally opposing areas in nearly every facet.