All Forum Posts by: Joseph Cacciapaglia

Unfortunately, I don't have any pocket listings that meet your needs at the moment, but I do have some unsolicited advice about this market:

I know it's very competitive here in San Antonio, but I still have plenty of clients winning bids with financing contingencies. It is definitely a numbers game in this market though. I'd say on average we're $20K over asking price in the areas and price point that you mentioned. Have you made more than 10 offers that far over the asking price yet? 1 out of 7 to10 for very strong offers like that seems to be about my average right now. Of course, the rest of your terms need to be strong too. It sounds like you're already working with an agent, so they should be able to let you know what "strong terms" means today.

Another mistake I see out of state clients make is using a preapproval letter from a lender that no one here has ever heard of. Most of my delayed closings come from out of state lenders, so this causes some bias against them. I see that you're a lender, so I'm guessing you may be using your own company. If that's the case, you may just want to get a preapproval from a local lender or national bank, even if you plan to use your own company.

http://www.lawofficeofmichaelv... Michael is my favorite real estate attorney here in San Antonio.

We always wait until after closing. As long as you bought in a nice part of town and it's rent ready, you shouldn't have to worry about it taking long to rent here in San Antonio. If you're not able to show the property right now, then there is no real reason to advertise. Tenants tend to want to look right now, and then apply on the spot. Are you using a property manger? They should be able to fill you in about what you can and can't do at the moment.

@Zack Arzouni I'm in the middle of building a shipping container home that I plan to use for STR in San Antonio. I've run into several issues already, but I'm still happy with the decision so far. I've made a bunch of videos about finding land, team members you need, and stuff like that. I also have some videos about some foundation planning issues that basically derailed my build. They're all on my youtube channel, you can search my name. I don't think I'm allowed to post a link.

 If you're building a very small home, with a single container, then the $200/SF is probably right. The larger you get, the smaller the $/SF should be. I think the concern with what has been carried in the containers is a somewhat manufactured fear by companies that are selling the one trip containers. The more I researched this issue, the more it sounded like monsters under the bed. That being said, we are still going through the recommended steps of sealing all of the exposed surfaces with an airtight sealant. We first pressure washed every surface, which to me seemed like that was probably enough to begin with.

We'll be hooked up to all the city sewer/plumbing/electrical. This costs the same as with any other build, and is baked into my figures above. It will vary a ton by where your lot is.

You could get your license and work as an agent part-time. If you focus on working with investors, then you'll gain a lot of the right kind of experience. I started part-time several years ago, and now make more $/hr than I did as an attorney. I had already been investing for several years, but working with successful investors taught me a lot, and helped me form a better investing strategy. I started training another part-time agent last year, and it didn't take her long to start closing deals, despite having a day job. We're in San Antonio, so it's a pretty hot market, but I think it's probably doable anywhere.

I'm using 4 containers and building a small addition between them. It will be a total of 1,247 SF. I'm using 40' high cubes. My budget is probably not relevant, because I'm doing a ton of things to save money that aren't easily repeatable. I'm bartering for some services and also picking up second hand materials whenever possible. I think if I backed all of that out, it would probably end up close to $100/SF, but I'm going to be well below that (unless I run into a lot more problems). That's going to be a completely move in ready home, including HVAC, full kitchen, 2.5 baths, etc.

I'm also using a ground screw foundation, which despite causing a lot of delays saved me a decent chunk of change. I'm sealing the existing plywood and metal floors, in lieu of installing flooring, and I'm also leaving the exterior corrugated steel as the siding on most of the build. I bought old rusty containers that were a little tougher to work with, but I think the end product will be a really unique look. They cost me $1,800 each, which is a steal compared to the 1 trip containers a lot of builders use.

I think containers get really expensive when people try to make them look like a regular house, or a high end modern home. If you're happy with a rusted steel look, with a general reclaimed theme throughout, there are a lot of savings to be had. I'm planning to use my builds as STR so they don't have to look like a regular house, and I actually think it's better if they don't.

 So far it's been pretty challenging. There have been several delays, but I've made some progress. I've been making regular videos about all the issues here: https://www.youtube.com/channe...

I think taking cash out of the other one first sounds like a good idea. I expect San Antonio to do very well in the long run, so I'm a net buyer in this market. All of my successful investor clients have taken a similar stance. By taking cash out but keeping your other property, you'd be able to expand your portfolio without having to give up on continued appreciation of the property you already have.

@Valerie Longoria I think it's interesting that you've made $20K in only 2 years of ownership, but are worried about the cash flow. We're in a rapidly appreciating market here in San Antonio, so if you've got a positive cash flow, your total returns should be great, just due to appreciation, until that slows down. Before you make the decision to sell, I would suggst looking at how hard it is to find a good BRRRR deal in this market. A lot of the profit has been bid out of BRRRR type deals in the last several months. I've seen several investors investing in essentially zero cash flow BRRRRs, just to expand their portfolio and get more exposure to the market growth.

As @Dan Hunter hinted at, I would also suggest you look at your rental rate and be sure it's market. We've experienced a lot of rent growth in the past two years. If you haven't bumped your rent each time you renewed the lease, then there is probably room to push that. You're only a couple rent bumps away from having a decent cash flowing property.

Also, have you looked into refinancing? You may be able to reduce your payment, or pull out a little bit of equity and keep the same payment, if your rate is higher than the current rate.