All Forum Posts by: Linda Hastings

Comal Hays REIA meets this Saturday! Weather permitting, we'll be at Panera Bread outside, under the covered patio. There's plenty of room to spread out and spring temps are forecast in the 70s.

This month, we'll discuss changes in the Central TX marketplace. The housing market has seen a fierce rebound, since last month's winter storm. Higher PSF prices are now the norm. New construction costs, fueled by huge demand and high dollar material & labor rates, keep rising. We'll look at what this means for your investment strategy in 2021.

Whether you're a seasoned pro, looking to do your first deal, or a total newbie to the real estate investment game, we hope to see you this Saturday at our March meeting! We ask those who attend to purchase a food and/or beverage item from Panera, to support their business.

Special thanks to meetup co-chairs: @Mike Walker and @Chris Koble

Keyword alerts: New Braunfels, San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, Wimberley, Canyon Lake, Seguin, Dripping Springs

See these threads

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

@Mark F. If I remember correctly, he said they were hoping to get them out by March 1.

@Ross Kerne Sorry for the short notice. @Mike Walker also posts to Meetup and a Facebook group, which happens a little sooner. Feel free to PM me if you want the details for those as I don't think BP allows posting them here. 

Our standing meeting time for years has been the last Saturday of the month from 10am-12pm. The venue varies, but we are hoping once renovations are complete at the San Marcos Public Library that we will be able to go back to meeting there.

Comal Hays REIA will hold its first meeting for 2021 this Saturday! If the weather permits, we will meet at Panera Bread outside, under the covered patio. Currently, rain is in the forecast, so we may shift plans and meet inside. We understand some people will not feel comfortable meeting in person; however, there's plenty of room to spread out.

This month, we'll continue our roundtable discussion format. So much change has occurred since we last met in October. A new administration. New tax laws being proposed. Residential inventory levels are even lower than last year. Plenty of new construction forecast for 2021, if the current price of lumber doesn't outpace demand. Interest rates are at an all time low, but employment has suffered in many U.S. markets.

Locally, the Central Texas boom sees no end in sight. Tesla & Oracle shifted their headquarters to Austin. Samsung, Apple & Amazon are all expanding across the metro. What this will mean for the current decade is anyone's guess. We look forward to discussing these topics and more, as the market nears a post-pandemic economic recovery. Come share your thoughts about investing in 2021.

Whether you're a seasoned pro, looking to do your first deal or a total newbie to the real estate investment game, we hope to see you this Saturday at our February meeting! We ask those who attend to purchase a food and/or beverage item from Panera, to support their business.

Special thanks to meetup co-chairs: @Mike Walker and @Chris Koble

Keyword alerts: New Braunfels, San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, Wimberley, Canyon Lake, Seguin, Dripping Springs

A few observations...   yes, there are a ton of new homes being built, but the infrastructure is not keeping up. Bealls just went out of business at the end of last year. If you want to shop anywhere besides Walmart, a discount clothing store, or the grocery store, you pretty much have to drive to San Marcos or New Braunfels. 

I'm not familiar with the duplexes on Austin St, but the other ones mentioned are being built really close together with not much street parking. That many houses that close together that are all being marketed to investors as rentals and not to owner-occupants tends to lead to the quality of the neighborhood (and thus property values) going down over time as tenants don't usually have the same pride of ownership as owner-occupants. It also means that later when you have a vacancy, there are going to be half-a-dozen (if not more) other properties right there that all look the same as yours listed for rent, too. How do you make tenants look at yours instead of the other guy's (that looks exactly the same)? Lower your rent. Not an investor's favorite thing to hear. I saw this exact thing happen with a new construction neighborhood north of Houston.

@Manish Mehta I sent you a PM. 

Are you wanting to split the lot? Build another house/ADU? If so, be sure to check with the local planning and zoning department to make sure you can actually do what you are intending to.

It’s really common for parcels of vacant land to not have an address. Typically one isn’t assigned until someone builds on it. 

As for due diligence, check out @Seth Williams’ blog (retipster.com), if you haven’t already. He has a lot of really good free content related to land flipping. 

Since it is zoned ag, have you tried contacting any lenders that specialize in land and farm loans? Not sure what your plans are with the land and if that would work. I know there are some in Texas that specialize in that kind of thing; surely there would be some for your state, too. 

I have also heard of a company called Light Stream that will (or at least did) do loans for land. Never used them, so have no idea what their rates and terms are: 

https://www.lightstream.com/la...