All Forum Posts by: Neil Narayan

Austin is No. 1, rising from sixth place a year ago to first in overall real estate prospects and from fourth to 1stt place in local expectation of investor demand in 2020. In identifying Austin as a top-tier city several years ago, our analysis considered many salient features: its slogan (“Keep Austin Weird”), deep pool of talent, unique and popular lifestyle, and ambitious commitment to business and real estate expansion. Austin has the highest projected population growth rate for the coming five years among the 80 markets we analyze. Development is booming and the landscape studded with impactful projects: Apple is building a $1 billion North Austin campus; a multideveloper transit-oriented development is underway near downtown on Lady Bird Lake; the new Dell Medical School recently opened at the University of Texas; and a major airport expansion is underway. Capital is abundantly directed toward Austin—so much so that some locals wonder about the underwriting assumptions of outside investors. Transaction activity in Austin is above what it you would expect from a market of its size, and 2019’s early results are above the three-year historical average. Our survey respondents rate Austin a solid “buy” for industrial, offices, and apartments for the coming year 

http://austin.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/10-02-19-austin-top-ranking-no-1-commercial-real-estate-market-in-us/

I don't agree with stopping pocket listing as it should be the Seller's decision. 

I started out the same way. Look for rooms for rent posts on CL to get an idea of how much to charge. You will have high turnover as with more roommates you'll have more issues with folks getting along etc but it should cover your mortgage and then some :)

@Olivia Wong

According to Fox Business Austin is the #1 Top City for Real Estate Investors: While Location is key to all things real estate, the real secret sauce is Jobs. Real estate investors follow the people. Fast forward to our outlook for 2020 and Austin is in the top spot .... Hottest US Cities for Real Estate Money

@Ramsey Blankenship in my opinion the happy medium would be to purchase around Austin. The outskirts should be more affordable and the appreciation in Austin will have to grow outwards as more population moves here bringing up the prices in the surrounding areas. I am already seeing this phenomenon as the fastest growing areas are outside of Austin now. 

When you are in Austin, look me up and I can give you some pointers.

Other options may be to take a personal loan (higher rate but you only need it for a short term) or borrow against the equity in your personal residence (higher risk but again short term) or borrow from a hard money lender. 

@bharathraj One tip would be if there are any major maintenance items to have them addressed before the appraisal. Also if you can meet with the appraiser and share your plans with him on the lease, that may help as well.

@Robert Shaw San Antonio is a huge area and the AR would be too generic to make a meaningful decision. It would be more beneficial if you could narrow down your search to a specific area i.e. zip code or neighborhood and look at the AR at that level. Otherwise your data would be too skewed. 

This is part of Code Next i believe so not sure when it will get adopted :|