All Forum Posts by: Lynn Currie

J's info will probably be more detailed, but you might also be interested in my post, Video Diary of an Austin, Texas Spec Home

Multi-families located in the major Texas cities that make financial sense for smaller investors are about as common as a flying unicorn right now.

Great find @Shawn Duncan! I bet you'll unload this one quickly. 

I don't think getting an additional 7 months from a builder under their original warranty will happen. From their stand point, why would they? They've already sold the house and there is absolutely no benefit to them for extend it.

To help solve your problem though, my question would be, "what is the business problem the buyer is trying to solve?" 

• If the answer is that they just want to make sure that the things in their house work, they have 3 months left on the builder's warranty, that combined with the fact that another buyer has lived there for 7 months already should be sufficient to find the issues. Remember, appliances will have their own manufacturer warranties and the house's major systems (foundation, plumbing), fall under a longer term in most (if not all) states.
• If the answer is that they want just want peace of mind, purchase a 3rd party home warranty as part of the sales contract. I should note that doing this is likely a double warranty. Most of what they cover in year two is still under warranty from 3rd party manufacturers (because they are appliances, HVAC, etc). It shouldn't be that expensive and should cover most things in the house. If this is done, I find it best to have the buyer choose the plan. I think few people are happy with 3rd party warranties so empowering the buyer with that decision keep them from being upset with the seller later.
• Some other reason? Post it here and we'll try to help find a solution.

I agree with @Bryan Hancock

I also love this line in his first response:
"Elgin - Is still a small town with good sausage."

I only wish he had elaborated a little more about Taylor.
Taylor - Is too far north to be in the path of progress for Austin IMO. While it has world class BBQ, the sausage in Elgin is superior."

Evict.

Welcome @Matthew Atkinson! You're in the right place to learn.

As @Carolyn L.. Our focus is very inline with the BP spirit. We pick a topic that people want to learn more about and invite a speaker to talk on the issue. None of the speakers are pitching products, it's just good ol' fashioned real estate professional to real estate professional education.

We record the speakers and post them to help others learn from them. If you'd like to watch some videos of our past speakers, you can find them on YouTube. I have several more that have already been recorded and edited that I will be posting soon.

you might want to watch some of the videos  in the link in my signature. I documented a new build. The project is complete now, but I still need to finish editing and post the final couple of videos. 

@Karen Morgan

Congrats on the project!

I've done subdivisions with the city. 

The short answer is, subdivisions with the City of Austin are never simple. 

The longer answer is:

• There are 8 departments that work together to sign off and approve the subdivision plan.
• The subdivision will have to comply with the very cumbersome land development code that Austin has. 
• You will need engineers to do drainage studies.
• It will cost you at least $25,000 for the subdivision
• You will have additional costs during development because you will likely lose your water tap and your wastewater connection on at least one of the lots (I'm assuming that the existing connections will no longer fall within the guidelines of the land development code)..
• The city will tell you that this takes 6 months. I would plan on 18.

The easier solution, as others have mentioned, is to sell off each individual house under a condo regime. Creating this does not involve the city at all, it's done by a lawyer. 

This requires you to 

• get a survey
• have the lawyer divide the property into common elements, limited common elements.
• create an HOA. There may be no fees inside the HOA, but you will probably need/want one to control decision making on the common elements
• file the legal paperwork with the state
• This will take your lawyer about 2 weeks
• Cost on this will be probably be around $4000, maybe a little less by the time you've paid the lawyer and the survey company.
• Your sales price on the houses will likely not be any less for doing this. Assuming they are 2 separate houses, you can still list them in the MLS as houses instead of condos. Shared wall condos take a small hit on pricing per unit.

Hope that helps!

Lynn

One of my guys disappeared because he had an aneurysm. I never heard from any of his guys while he was in the hospital and I finally was able to get in touch with his wife. His crews were trying their best to keep everything on their plate moving, but they just didn't know how to handle a situation like this.

Your guy may be in jail, or he may be in the hospital, or he may be somewhere else. It doesn't really matter. Be a stand up guy here, regardless of what's legal. These are the tools this guy (presumably) uses to make a living. 

If you've got somewhere to hang on to them for a little while, hang on to them and see if he or his guys come for them. If not, or you don't want to, turn them over to the cops.