All Forum Posts by: Jacob Pereira

Nobody knows for sure what the future will hold, but if you look at current population tends, lots of people are moving to large and mid-tier cities in Texas. That, combined with how difficult our local city council makes it to build here, makes me think that Austin continues to be a great city to invest in. The only downside is that you'd be coming in behind the curve, since we've seen significant growth for the last eight years or so.

If you're going to be active in managing your properties, you pretty much have to get a truck. I just bought a pristine 2006 Nissan Frontier for $6k, so it's definitely doable. Heck, if you want to come pick it up, I'll sell you my 1999 B2500 for $3k.

In the Austin area it's easy to get carried away looking at appreciation and just buying up whatever is available and hoping it will go up, but as many people here have said, that's pretty risky. I'd recommend you look in the 78724 area; I currently own two fourplexes there, and am in the process of upping rents to the new market rate of $900 per month per unit ($3600 per building). About half the fourplexes there are owned by absentee landlords and still rented out in the $700 a unit range, so there's an easy value-add to be had. I've seen a few for sale under $300k in the last few months, so you can certainly still get cash flow out there. Feel free to reach out and I'll see if I can find you some more info.

I actually thought Nashville was a hot market, like Austin, where I invest. Is that not the case? In my market, I offer everyone a two-year lease, and I just tell them that it's a guaranteed rental price for two years, rather than a likely increase after year one. Most people don't take me up on it the first time, but then when they get the 10% increase after year one they think harder about it.

With construction costs already being so high, is anyone else concerned about the new administration's policies there? President Elect Trump is looking to expand infrastructure spending and also deport a lot of people, both of which will increase construction costs. What are other BP members doing to prepare for this?

i know you're unhappy with the response, but @Chris Mason is sharing good information; I invest up the road in Austin, and we tend to only respond to the top 5-6 offers, and almost never bother with the lowballs. In a world where houses stay on the market longer than a weekend people might bother with an offer 20% below asking, but in the current Central Texas climate most of us don't have the time or energy to deal with the less serious offers.

@jay Heinrichs, thanks for doing this. I think it's a great thing, and I hope to someday be in a strong enough position where I can make this my yearly tradition too.

Hi John,

I didn't look up the whole regulation nor did I research case law about the issue because I would never rent a property with fewer than 1 room per two people, but the way the regulation you quoted was written it does appear to allow multiple people to live in areas other than bedrooms. I agree it's a bit ambiguous, and maybe there is other wording that clarifies, but the way I read it, all they're saying is that they acknowledge that adults can live in areas other than bedrooms, and that kids can stay with parents. They do specifically say "a third person" but they don't exclude a fourth, fifth, or sixth, at least to my understanding.

Not saying I'm right, necessarily, but the way the regulation you quoted is written, it doesn't say you can't house many people in a room, provided you have 50 ft per adult person after the first two. Heck, when I was in the Marines, we housed 70 people in a squad bay that was about 20x60, although I suspect that they may have been exempt from standard landlord rules.

I'm in agreement with the majority that you shouldn't allow eight people to stay in your one-bedroom, but I just learned from John here that it is legal, provided you don't have local regulations barring it (and you likely do). If I'm reading this correctly, you only need 420 sqft of habitable space to house eight people (120 for the first two, and 50 per person for the other 6). I wouldn't do it, but it appears to be legal.

Meh, I know people on BP generally encourage everyone to be a harda** and never help out a tenant and try to find every way possible to make their lives difficult, but unless this guy is an absolute moron, he can hang a TV in such a way that it does little damage and won't fall. I wouldn't even bother with telling him that he has to fix the holes when he leaves. Some joint compound and paint (I assume you still have some touch-up paint left), and no one will ever know it happened. The amount of time you're taking thinking through his request, asking us, talking to him, etc. is more time than it'll take to fix a few little holes in the wall.