All Forum Posts by: Bart H.

Not sure what section to put this in. 

Anyways, I have 37,000 left owed on my 10acres and home, which just appraised at 83,000. My interest rate is 6% adjustable to 14%. I would like to refinance the 37,000 with a fixed interest rate, and also get a lower payment, which would make some room for some other investment ideas I have going on. But it seems nobody wants to refinance this amount.  As soon as you say 37, they immediately are  uninterested. I have considered pulling all the equity out, refinancing the whole amount, about 64,000, giving me somewhere around 25,000 equity, and putting that towards my other ideas, but in the state of Texas you are not allowed to have Ag Exemptions when you cash out a refi, meaning I would have to cancel my ag exemptions on my acreage, which costs me thousands of dollars and raises my property taxes tremendously. Local banks want 8-10% interest.  Really don't know what to do here. It's holding up a lot of other ideas i'm trying to jump on though. Suggestions?

@Bart H. would certainly love to know which bank that was.  That would be a great bank to know about here locally.

@Nate R.

It seems that you are also benefitting from appreciation. I agree that without appreciation, REI is mediocre at best. It is a lot of work and time to get into REI.

Austin is a great place for the right balance between cash flow and appreciation. 

Any investment comes with risk and reward. Higher risk, higher reward.

Lower cash flow means higher risk, higher reward. 

It takes a while to realize that. 

For any person, I think the balance needs to be individualized based on your financial situation and risk tolerance. There is no right or wrong, just a good or bad speculation. It is a speculation either way.

@Nate R. was I in diapers? WHAT!?!?  Look kid, I own RE in SF since 1994- and prior, during and after 2008. I've made a lot of money here. You used to live in LA.  you should of invested back then or in 2011-13, but you chickened out. You missed the boat and consequently your anger towards CA is palpable....it sounds like bitter lemons to me.

As for your "answer", of course using high leverage is risky, but it's risky everywhere. And in SF you don't need to use high leverage. The appreciation is so high you can still keep plenty of equity and pull out cash for your next deal. You conveniently ignore the disproportion of up years (5-7) vs 2-3 down years each cycle that chart shows. That's a safe investment environment if I ever saw one. 

Austin has been expanding very fast with too much new construction. I predict it's gonna boom and bust like Phoenix, vegas, Miami, etc. tend to do in the next downturn.  Austin is (finally) a city in TX that has shown actual appreciation, so I see where your cockiness is coming from. But for the last time, appreciation in a well known, highly desirable and impacted market like SF is not speculation; it's an established reality. (It's a tough market to break into; but once you're in it's a great wealth generator.) That chart shows a long history of appreciation, and for many reasons. But if you think for a minute that you can make more money investing for cash flow in TX vs SF, then please pass your pipe over...cause you must be smoking some good sh*t!

I’m actually doing a rehab right now where I need this layout.  Thank you sir!!

Is there a minimum height above that toilet for code purposes?

Joe Scaparra

Actually, speculation is fun, especially if you became multimillionaires by speculation.

Why not?

@Manolo D. @Bart H.

Not seeing how that would work

Hello all,

So I am 29 and I currently live in Las Vegas. I have been reading/researching a lot about REI but haven't quite made it over that hump yet to actually execute and buy my first property. I have a couple of questions to ask for people out there who are established investors or have recently bought their first rental property and would like to share their story with me.

I currently make about 53K a year and I would say I have about 10k to put down on my first rental property. I am wanting to buy a single family home as a buy and hold property to produce cash flow. I eventually want that property to snowball to buy further properties. As a new resident to Las Vegas, I have noticed this area isn't to new investor friendly as I think the housing market here is kind of inflated (as with any big city). As a first time buyer i would like to buy in an area with a lower housing market that will be reasonable for my down payment and that will produce a good ROI. Im leaning towards investing in the central Texas area but not hard set for that area either.

Based off my situation, what are some things you all can recommend to get started?

I can also raise the down payment up to about 12K if that gives me a bigger cushion but would like to stay at the 10k or lower range. Is this a reasonable down payment to start?

What states do you guys recommend investing in as a first time buyer?

How much do you guys recommend setting aside for rehab and maintenance cost?

What are some of the ways you guys bought property from out of state?

I dont want to drill with questions buy I am motivated and ready to get my feet wet and hit the ground running. I am just a little hesitant to get started as I really dont know where to start even though I feel I have a good grasp on the concept of REI.

Any and all advice you all can provide will be golden to me and much appreciated.

Thank you, and looking forward to hearing from you!

@Bart H.Thanks everyone's suggestion.

@Jay Hinrichs @Andrew Johnson @Bart H. @Curtis Bleeker, Just want to follow on the flooring question. Based on your experience, how much more does it cost for using tile/lino/vinyl? like 1.5-2 fold range? How much does it cost each turnover?

Another question I have is pets and the number of pets. I was told my tenants have 4 dogs. Some people say "no pets allow", some people say if you limit pets, you will have less tenants apply for your property. What is your experience?

Many thanks!