All Forum Posts by: Michael W. McCord

Grew up close to Garland. It's a blue collar area with comparatively little appreciation but good rental cash flow. Prices there haven't risen as fast as surrounding areas. Not a bad place to start getting a foothold in DFW

Hi Gina,

Is the end goal just to get another primary residential loan? That's seems like a lot of trouble since claiming a house and then unclaiming it really complicates your taxes and life in general. From what I've read on the forums, banks don't really care if you don't actually live there as long as you make the payments. While I haven't done this, I don't see why you can't get a primary residential loan with the intent of living there and then "something comes up" and you can't move in. While that is technically mortgage fraud, it would be really hard to prove there wasn't intent to live there.

Rowlett and Sachse are still fairly reasonable

I stopped doing sheriff sales in Dallas in 2014 when tons of people started coming in paying close to full price. It's not worth it for all the risk you take on. More often than not, you had to spend a couple thousand just to clear the junk out to truly see how much your rehab cost will be. We barely cash flowed when we bought houses in south Dallas for 30k. I can only imagine how people make money now. 

Naomi, Like you I made my money outside of real estate and only recently got in. I happen to be already doing what everyone on this thread has advised you. I have the lion's share in vanguard index funds that have done very well. I recently started putting a portion into crowdfunded commercial real estate equity deals on online platforms such as crowdstreet.com and realcrowd.com among others. Most of the deals on those platforms only have 25k-50k minimums to invest. I would keep most of your money with your wealth management group while you take the time to learn how to analyze deals on those sites. When you're ready take 25k as "play money" and invest in a deal and watch it perform. If it excites you and you find yourself following the sponsor updates, then you've found the right thing and can buy more deals. However, if you forget about your deal and let it languish, then you know that real estate is not right for you.

Congrats on a great start!

Sure @Nikolas Hamon @Eric James

I talked about it in the new deal diaries below:

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

Hey, I'm also in Richardson and also just starting out. Just did my first deal late last year.

Good job. Can you elaborate more on the sq. footage added? Is this a true condo or something else with a detached garage?

East Richardson has gotten pricey but definitely look at east Plano and Garland as well as Rowlett and Wylie. They are still reasonable enough to cash flow.

Plano gets a bit cheaper east of 75 and have some nice areas. In fact, the Timberbook area was rated one of the best places to live in Texas according to niche.com. if you're willing to go further east, Wylie and Lucas are still fairly reasonable with much newer housing stock than Plano. You are limited with highway options for commuting to Plano but traffic isn't that bad.