All Forum Posts by: Lynn Currie

Wow J, look how you shrunk when in Austin! ;)

@Bill Gulley I went to J's first summit and am speaking at this one. While he says that "There may be pitching of products, services or properties at this event!" last time it was in the form of sponsors having tables setup in the lobby area. I can't recall a single person on stage pitching any wares.

Obviously I don't know the full plans for this year's summit, but I know J pretty well . We've had several conversations and I'm confident that it is going to be full of great information and networking for investors.

The project got stalled for the time being but the plan still to take advantage of the 60' and go up 4 stories @Karen Margrave

Just booked my flights. Looking forward to seeing you fine folks in Oakland!

@Kevin Kelly there is a good meetup on Tuesdays at lunch-time that you might want to attend. You can find it here http://www.meetup.com/Austin-Apartment-Investing-Meetup/events/231747093/

@Karen Margrave

I'm doing more and more custom projects, it seems. 

I did a lot of research and ultimately decided to build on a flat-fee model for ground-up houses. The fee has 2 levels, mostly depending on the size/cost of the final house. I charge 20% for change orders, but only do so on change orders with substantial impact. In other words, if the change order doesn't cause me more work I'm not going to charge for it, but if they want to move a wall that is already built, there will be a charge for it because they've changed the scope of the work and it requires more of my time.

This model immediately builds trust with my clients. They know what my fee will be and I have no incentive for them to spend more money. One of the things I require from them though is that pretty much all design decisions are made before we break ground. They can work through things like tile choices during construction, but we're not going to design a showcase staircase in the field like I'd do with a spec. 

@Ryan Ford

Call the guys at 3rd Angle Investments. They started in Austin and have expanded into Dallas. They're total rock stars.

@Tiffany Miller

Convert and sell off separately. That's generally the best money because you have 2 buyers and it doesn't stop you from selling to one seller if they come along.

The city is not involved in setting up or approving condo docs so you don't have to deal with them. A lawyer does it. I use Julie Alexander www.aalawaustin.com for my condo docs but there are several others in town that do it.

@Sergey Vasylkov

The best ROI house hacking model I've seen in Austin is to buy a house with multiple rooms and rent by the room. If you don't want to live in that environment, you might want to find a small apartment for you to live in and buy a house to rent the rooms to others. I know a couple of folks that are doing it with 4 bedroom houses.

I wouldn't touch a flood plain property in Austin, but other people like them. The problem is that we actually flood, the properties get damaged, and even if you have insurance, the down time to get it fixed just equals lost money. 

As a side note, I helped someone repair their flooded house in S. Austin last year. It took 45 days before they got the payment from the insurance company so the rehab went really slowly. The other challenge is that in this market, contractors are already busy, so to fix fast it's going to be really expensive.