All Forum Posts by: Michelle Felux

Thank you for all of your replies! There are a lot of good points to consider on the pro-federal assistance tenant side too. I might look further into that as well just to have a more well-rounded knowledge of how that works. 

As of right now, our property has not been through that program's screening, so that is the answer I've adopted. I definitely send them the tenant requirements, though, and would definitely rent to them if they met the criteria. For the future of this particular house, I might look more into the program because our most recent tenants screened out perfectly and then straight up abandoned the house in terrible shape with a one day notice! I like the idea of an incentive to not do that sort of thing.. 

Thank you! My response today was that we don't currently participate in any third party housing assistance programs... 

We have a single family house in Converse and get multiple questions about if we accept section 8 housing vouchers. We are fairly new to being landlords, so aren't really very familiar with how the program works. Also, we feel there is additional risk that we don't really want to take on with Section 8 tenants. 

I have read that there was a federal lawsuit filed against Texas that would make refusal of Section 8 housing illegal - discrimination of income source - but currently, is it illegal to turn them away?

Don't want to wind up in a sticky situation if we can help it!!

Thank you for all of your recommendations! I will explore these groups within the next week or so. I did find one that had CRMC credentials - Liberty Property Management - we got some of the pricing information from them and plan to explore just a little bit more to see what other options exist before making a decision!

My husband and I are fairly new to property investment and currently have three rental properties in addition to our full time jobs. We find that it's difficult to get out to show our properties when prospective tenants are available to see them. We arrange to have mass showing events on the weekends, but sometimes wonder about the use of a property management company to handle the tenant search, tenant issues, etc. 

Can you offer advice on property management companies - are they worth it or not? If they are in some cases, we are interested in recommendations or experiences.

@Matt Horwitz - thank you... with an impending tropical storm now looking to knock on my rehab's doors, life is proving to be even more challenging than it was before!

@John Barr we do have a mortgage on the homes, two are conventional and the big rehab is hard money. The big rehab is probably going to come in around $200 ish cash flow per month... when it's finally over!! I'll PM you for the info, I am splitting exploring options.

@Jason Hirko It's good experience, but there is still an infinite amount of knowledge I need to absorb! 

Hello everyone! I'm new to the REI world, but have always been interested in real estate in some form or fashion while working on my formal education and looking to jump into the Rat Race (ha!). I am originally from Tyler, Texas, but as a military child I moved around quite a bit - an experience that I believe has really added value to my life. I was able to meet a variety of people and learn that change is good, not something to be feared all of the time.

I entered the job world as an office manager for a local real estate office, while I simultaneously started my own wedding invitation business. It wasn't a wild success, but it was profitable enough to bring in around $14,000 per year, which was extremely helpful at that point in my life. Fast forward four more years and I find I have bought into the idea that working for someone else was going to be more beneficial to me than working on my own business. I have been working as the Clinic Operations Analyst at a small hospital here in South Texas for several years, and while the money is good, the lifestyle is not. As many of you probably have come to realize, being stuck in someone else's rat race is not the way you want to live your life. So, last November, my husband and I started investing in real estate. 

We started with a turn-key rental that brought us around $450 per month in cash flow and it was an energizing experience. However, we knew that in order to bring enough cash flow so that one of us could do this full time, we would need at least 6 rental properties. We didn't have the equity for that, so we wanted to begin pursuing value plays. Our first equity capture strategy property is a 1940's house in a neighborhood that is turning around. HOWEVER, we were naive. The original bid came from the seller and was off by half.... we have struggled with contractor issues and inspection failures and it has been the biggest learning experience ever! We are hoping the education we have gained by doing this in real life will help mitigate the disaster it has been in the future. While that is going on, we acquired a small rehab property in an area where cash flow from rent is again around that $450-500/month range. We are still working (more slowly than we'd like) on turning that place around, but it is going to be much smoother than the first! 

We are looking to acquire a fourth once we catch our breaths and then re-evaluate our strategy for trading up our properties into Multi-Family investing. We will need all the help we can get! I am currently looking for CPA and Real Estate Attorney assistance to look into setting up an LLC and investigating different ways to acquire and sell REI properties other than MLS listings.