All Forum Posts by: Ryan Kelly

@Pratik as @Neil Narayan mentioned, cash flow is very challenging due to the property values, property taxes, and soft rental market. Large down payments or extreme discounts from sellers would be needed to reach cash flow neutral stages. The rental market is expected to stay flat or soft through 2025, then is estimated to start appreciating again once the new supply of multifamily housing reaches traditional occupancy levels. As for appreciation, the Austin market is stabilizing to the higher interest rates and we could see a mild appreciation for 2025. 

@Eric E. I invest with PPR and other income funds through my IRAs. There is no UBIT because your investment isn't leveraged with a mortgage or debt. You are investing IN debt, not WITH it. Hope that makes sense. 

@Olga Daisel I think I would focus on getting your Westlake home and using other funds to purchase rentals that make more economical sense. I haven't seen any quads in our metro make more than $2k per unit (unless in 78704), let alone $7k, so not sure where those metrics come from. The second challenge would be finding land in a decent enough area where building a rental makes sense. Right now, Austin rents have softened and rent returns are very challenging. 

I recommend buy a primary home where you want and invest where the numbers make sense.

Here's a list of things to track:

- Formal lease application

- Formal signed and executed lease specific to your state

- Payment history (I recommend using online rent collection like Apartments.com, RentRedi, etc)

- Maintenance requests and receipts

- Accounting for all rental-related expenses (repairs, utilities, etc)

The more you treat it like a business, the more helpful you are to your CPA come tax time. 

I second Texas National Title, along with Capital Title, Capstone Title, and Indepemdence Title. All solid operations in the Austin metro area. 

Based on your budget, it's pretty simple. I would focus on OKC for the best bang for your buck. It's a more affordable market and lower property taxes, so you may actually have a chance to cash flow. You won't find anything close to the Austin market with that budget. 

@Ashley Kehr I use a combination of Apartments.com for rent collection, RentSpree for tenant and background screening, and Stessa for accounting. I've looked into the one-stop shop tools, but none are quite as good as these individual tools yet in my opinion. 

Welcome to BP@Chris Magistrado! I've been in Austin 33 years and happy to connect anytime. 

@Brandon Stelling I would recommend reaching out and connecting with various commercial brokers who specialize in each of these spaces. They typically will have data and newsletters as well they can send you.

@Timothy Finney welcome to Austin! We've helped lots of clients with house hacking around the Austin metro. I'd be happy to connect and chat in more detail about opportunities.