All Forum Posts by: Omer Husain

BBA in Finance from University of Houston, although I never did use my finance degree since I have been in IT ever since graduating in 2002. Have been completely focusing on REI since last September, and can't wait to grab my first of many deals!

You can go to meetup.com and find several groups there.

Appreciate the kind words @Ben Lobaugh.  I give credit to BP for having all the priceless information on the site to make well-reasoned decisions :)

Thanks @Ray A., hopefully one of these days I will finally buy my first investment property.

You are absolutely correct @Tom Cooper.  I did exactly that and the monthly taxes are coming out to $228.  Bummer for me!

@Steve Rozenberg Great feedback and advice.  I do have some goals written down on what I would like to accomplish and when, etc.  Believe me I am not going in this blindly, I have done tons of reading and research (for whatever it's worth), so now I feel I am ready to take some action.  Btw I will look for you when I'm in need of a property manager :).

Anyhow, I miscalculated the property taxes pretty badly @Rachel Pervis, and after re-doing the numbers, increasing the vacancy %, adding PM expense, the monthly cash flow is $26. Needless to say, I am running away from this one.  The hunt for my first property continues...  Thanks again everyone for their advice/input!

@Ben Leybovich I used 5% vacancy because of the area and the rental comps showed the average DOM 20 days, but you're right I should probably be more conservative in some of these calculations.  Also I can't say for sure if the property value will go up anytime soon since the Houston market seems to have leveled off, and with the oil situation, who know what will happen?  I did however use 2% per year increase for the future.  Thanks for your input!

@Rachel Pervis.  Appreciate the tip.  Let me figure the tax part out, and I will re-do the numbers then.  Thanks!

Hi @Rachel Pervis.  You are right, the property taxes don't seem to be accurate.  I took the number $671 from the Harris County tax site, but I don't think it includes the school, mud, etc..  Do you know where I can find the total amount paid in taxes for the year?

@Kyle McCorkel.  What percentage do you guys factor in for PM?