All Forum Posts by: Lisa P.

Thank you for your replies - I will check with the insurance company

We had a water heater leak that flooded one of the kids bedrooms.  Dry wall and carpet are being replaced so the 2 kids have to share a room.  Do you ever give a rent discount in this type of situation.  Right now the tenant is refusing to pay rent until it is done.  How would you proceed?

The value is between $575,000-600,000. We have a 15yr mortgage so to cash flow (if it ever could) we would have to refinance, which will likely raise our interest rate and make the probability of it cash flowing less likely. 

Thank you for you input!  It hurts me to sell it, but it does makes more sense to sell and, like suggested, invest in something that will perform. 

We are moving to San Antonio and trying to decide if we should rent out our Round Rock house.  It is a 4200 sqft house on .8 acres with a pool, great school district.  We really want to hold onto it and rent it out (I heard on the podcasts that people wish they had held onto every house they ever owned) but worry about renting a house this large and the liability we would take on with the pool.  

Is the current hotness of the Austin market and growth in Cedar Park pouring over into the Round Rock market?  We worry about looking back 10 years from now and kicking ourselves for selling because the market continued to heat up (or kicking ourselves for not selling because the market cooled).  

I realize that last paragraph involves a lot of speculation but any insights you guys have would be greatly appreciated!

Have you looked for a new house yet?  You will probably be disappointed in what you can buy for $400,000 in Austin.  I recently shopped around the Eanes and Westwood areas and ended up moving to Round Rock because the prices were so outrageous.  

If everyone understands that you only have one chance to put in your final and best offer, they are more likely to bid high if they really want the house.  It is what I did for our personal residence.  The house was perfect and I figured I would bid high enough to feel confident we would get the house, but not so high I would get buyer's remorse.  If I knew it was going to be an auction, I would have bid in increments of $1000 and would have probably gotten the house a lot cheaper.  But again, knowing I only had one chance to put in my bid, I offered a lot higher than I would have otherwise and the seller and I both walked away very happy.

Thank you Kristin. I did not know you could only get a HELOC on your personal residence.

Thanks Brant! I am going to look into a HELOC.

I have my iphone next to my bed and I stick the ear bud in my ear the moment I awaken.    I have Joshua and Brandon streaming in my ear all day and find myself saying "famous four" in a high pitched voice at inappropriate times.

Thank you, Elizabeth.  We thought about doing a cash out refi on our rentals, but our interest rates are so low right now, it would pain me to see them go up.  

I found Bigger Pockets about 4 days ago and have made it through 25 podcasts so far and I am pumped!  We bought Carleton Sheets, took classes and have read numerous real estate books and this is the first time I truly felt real estate investing could be a reality.  My husband and I have 2 rental properties that were our former homes and we are now ready to start making more real estate investments, primarily buy and hold.

We just bought our current home this summer so do not have much saved, but we have about $10,000/mo that we are devoting to investing in real estate.  We are currently researching a house and if we decide to make the leap, how should we proceed? So I guess my basic question is: what is the fastest way to come up with $130,000 when you have no connections?  Are we jumping in too soon?

So excited to have found Bigger Pockets and (once I make it through all the podcasts) look forward to getting to know everyone here.