All Forum Posts by: Richard Helppie-Schmieder

@Patrick Rabalais Both areas you are looking in are great. Let me tell you my investment strategy here in DFW. I purchase homes in good school districts before up and coming areas where I can value-add through a remodel. Here are a few points to my opinion:

1. If natural appreciation is 3%, the home that has a higher value will you net you more over the long-term

2. If you ever need a fast exit (if DFW ever turns into Detroit), the homes that will always be more desirable are those in great schools (Plano is one of the best) and with a great remodel you can unload property fast.

3. Tenant pools tend to be less of a headache in more affluent areas.

Hi Ki, from my experience here in DFW, the people with the keys to the deals are multi-family brokers. These brokers typically spend years and a lot of money building relationships with owners to make that $5mm sale down the line. It may be tough to compete with someone who's sole business is finding these deals, but kudos to you if you figure it out!

Contact David Thompson at 972-567-9433. He insures all of our rentals and his communication is on point. Let him know I sent you!

@Gabriel Lopez this is awesome to hear man! Taking the first steps. Have you been pre-approved for a loan or are you capitalized enough to purchase a home cash? I have been investing in DFW for 10 years as a buy and hold investor. I have found about 50% of my holds on Zillow (yes they cashflow, some as much as $1,000/month), 30% off market direct to seller through established relationships with them, 20% from pocket listing of realtors and about 10% from wholesalers. Yes that is 110% because every day I give 110% lol.

Find a real estate litigator. Remember winning is easy, collecting is difficult. It may be best to chalk it up as a learning experience and move on. Never pay a contractor any type of deposit until services are rendered (with the exception of windows due to materials unable to be returned and they are size specific).

Hey @John Dean, were the permits green tagged for rough-in? Or just opened and nothing ever inspected. There are big cost differences for these.

@Eric Inigo I think their concept can be effective if there are enough people to fill their vacancy. As long as you are getting market rent or better and have great options to terminate contracts as needed in case they fill with bad tenants, poor management of your property, etc. it seems like a viable option for passive investing. You can most definitely make more by doing on your own, but their model of getting room mates together in a house who don't know each other seems like a management horror story to me. Do you have a specific property in mind that you own and are referring to for their services? Maybe I can add some insight if you do on the specific area and my investment strategy.

 Short-term or long-term PM? 

@William Hughes If you have the extra cash laying around, go for it! This area is hot, I just picked up a SFH over here, but I think there are plenty of other investment opportunities out there that have better returns than this. But again, if you need to park a few million bucks somewhere, go for it, and let me know when you buy it so I c an check it out!

@Cillora Hicks First off congrats on taking this first step! It can definitely change the trajectory of your life. If you are able to skip the hard-money route and find a home that has value where others aren't looking, that could be a viable option for you as well. For instance, I just had some friends buy their first home with 5% down and it had a detached garage apartment in the back over in Casa Linda. They are going to get every dollar they put in back in year one. I suppose my encouragement for you is to think outside the box. In my opinion, hard money is a too expensive and with prim rates below 3% right now you can find much much cheaper money out there. Feel free to PM me with any questions you have. I love helping local DFW investors where I can.