All Forum Posts by: Scott Sutherland

We live and primarily invest in south Austin. But as other have stated, the cap rates are crazy low in Austin. Cash flow is non-existent except for short term rentals. I agree San Antonio would be a good place to find better cash flows. Also the towns in between Austin and San Antonio like Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, and Lockhart are worth checking out. House hacking as mentioned is also a good strategy but personally I prefer to have my own space. On the house vs duplex front... I prefer duplexes because they perfom better as pure rentals, vacation rentals, and allow for condo conversion exits. Also our duplexes have appreciated faster than our single family houses while outperforming on cash flow.  

Hey Dakota. The owner occupied duplex is one of my favorite strategies. It's how my wife and I got started in Austin 10 years ago.

 Going to the outskirts of Austin will definitely improve your cash flow. Typically appreciation is lower in the outskirts but total return could be similar to Austin with much less capital outlay.

What area(s) are you thinking of? Happy to help. 

S

@JoJo Tucker we self mange our vacation rentals in Austin. We do mainly 30 day plus rentals to avoid hotel taxes and license requirements.

@JoJo Tucker My wife and I bought our first home together in 2011. It was a foreclosed duplex in Austin. We owner occupied and financed using 3.5% down FHA and rolled our closings costs into the loan. I also collected the 3% commission as the buyer's agent so our total out of pocket was $1500. After about a year we converted the other unit to Airbnb and used the extra cash flow to upgrade the property. We still own that duplex today.

@Austin Hughes great info. Would you be willing to share the contact of your NR portfolio lender? We're approaching that phase since we have 8 conventional loans and are keeping one slot open for a  new personal residence.  LOL on the half court shot. Great story. 

@Thomas Clinch it was a friend of a friend that wanted to sell as-is. Rent was only $1700 per month so we rented it out for a year and sold it (long term gain) and used the proceeds to buy a duplex that does cash flow.

We purchased a home in Pflugerville a couple of years ago. Purchased for $180,0000 rehabbed for $12,000. Appraised for $237,000. 75% ltv using delayed financing program.  $178k loan. So we ended up at 92% LTC including rehab

@Rob Stein Angie Francis at Stepstone Austin

Check out Stepstone Realty

Do you do double closings or employ any other "creative" strategies? If so, I'd recommend midtown title. 

However, if your closings are vanilla then Independence Title is a good choice.