All Forum Posts by: Joseph Cacciapaglia

This would be very unusual in San Antonio, but may be something that varies by market. It may be useful to contact a couple property management companies in the area and ask what their policy is.

Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur is my all time favorite, and should be required reading if you aspire to do any commercial deals. Even if you don't, it's great for the general mindset in approaching deals.

I've had a few clients do this with their contractor. I know one was paying $150 each time. I think you're better off tying up the property ahead of time, based on your own rough estimates, and then getting your contractor to come bid during the due diligence period (assuming you have something like this in your state). Otherwise you can spend a lot of time and money on a deal you may never make.

It's very unlikely that the agent that sold you your home is going to be the best agent to help you with an investment property. I know there are some great niche shops in Philadelphia, or at least there were when I worked there several years ago. I'd recommend finding one that sells a lot of investment properties in town. They should have MGMT, lender, and contractor contacts to share.

I love the idea, but have found the execution to be difficult (for my skill set). I'm just finishing up a container home build to use as an STR. It's on a wooded lot, but in San Antonio. I had originally planned for it to be a tiny home, but ran into deed restrictions that made me pivot. I've had a ton of issues with the build, which caused over a year of delays, but should have it done shortly.

I chose something close to town to ensure plenty of guest demand. I think it may be difficult to make it work if you're too secluded. Guests need to be searching in the area in order to find you. 

I started moving my investments from NJ to TX a few years ago, and I just sold my last one in NJ this year. I've found the state and many municipalities to be far too skewed in favor of the tenant, to the point it wasn't worth it for me. Long term, that may be a solution for you.

In the short run, make sure you are working with the right attorney. I found that in each county there are really only one or two attorneys that are any good at evictions. If they're not involved in tens or even hundreds of evictions each month, they're probably not the right one.

Quote from @Charisma Machado:

Andrew, thank you for posting the article and your Post. Those opportunities are alive and well here in the San Antonio, TX. market and something I am currently looking into. Cheers!

I'm finishing up my first ground up build here in San Antonio. It was much more challenging than I expected, but I also made a lot of dumb decisions. I had bought 2 other lots to do the same, but have since flipped them. I still think there are good opportunities to build entry level homes here, but definitely not quite the opportunity it looked like initially. I plan to start another by year end. 

I'm interested to hear where you're seeing these opportunities right now, and would be happy to compare notes.
 

Quote from @Tyler Sample:

Quote from @Nate Sanow:

My suggestion is add value, be encouraging, and don’t sell. 

 Thank you, I was talking more along the lines of what is allowed... I have had at least one post removed from an insurance-related forum unfortunately.

Any sort of self promotion is prohibited. As long as you're answering questions directly and it doesn't sound like you're pitching your services, you should be fine. Even if you're really trying, you'll have one deleted occasionally. I find just talking about the things I do and where I do it is enough to generate a ton of inquiries on here though. I took a break from BP earlier this year, because I got way too busy.

I would strongly recommend against putting your entire savings into an STR with a high LTV. Real estate investing should be done from a position of financial strength. I think this is especially true when it comes STR, because of the seasonality that's often involved.

I think it's very unlikely you'll be able to furnish/decorate the house properly for only $25K, unless you plan on doing a lot of Facebook marketplace type shopping. Our average 4 bedroom costs $40K to get up and running, ignoring rehab costs. I've had clients spend close to double that, when targeting the higher end of our market.

You have a good chunk of cash saved, and I'm sure you could find a deal that would work well that wouldn't commit 100%+ of your funds. We regularly find opportunities in the $300K range in my market (I'm in San Antonio), and I'm sure there are plenty of other places with similar opportunities.

In general, I don't see a great reason to go all in, when you have plenty of opportunity to place a smaller bet to start.

You'll find San Antonio is a great market for STRs at the moment, but maybe not so much on the multifamily side, depending on what your cash flow expectations are. Choosing the right agent for a remote investment can be very difficult, so I thought I'd share a few questions you may want to ask:

- What percent of your transactions are with investors versus retail buyers and sellers? If they're only working with investors occasionally, it's tough to really grasp the nuances of the business.

- What percent of your business is STRs versus Multifamily, etc.? Even among agents that sell mostly/all investment properties, you'll see a wide range of experience in different asset classes. 

- What investment strategies are currently working in San Antonio? Anyone that's doing a lot of investor transactions should know the answer to this. At any given time, there are 2-3 strategies that are working better than others. 

- How much of your business comes from repeat clients? Investor focused agents should be doing a ton of repeat transactions. If they're not, it's because they're selling duds. Almost everyone that buys a great investment property from me starts looking for another one pretty quickly.

- What is your relationship like with your recommended PM? I interact with my PM team on a daily basis, and it keeps me up to date on the issues that clients will run into after the close. Especially for STR this is extremely important. There are so many ways you can go wrong with them, if you don't buy right.

Please feel free to DM me if you'd like to talk through these.