All Forum Posts by: Ryan Kelly

@Kent Ford location, location, location, then everything else.

@Adriana Siu real estate is a long term hold, not a trade in my opinion. Your big advantage in the early years is tax depreciation and mortgage pay down. Higher cash flow comes in later years as rents in tge market go up and you benefit from your low interest rate. There are a lot of costs to sell and I would argue you’re in a good position to hold for the long haul. The rent declines in the market are temporary until the new supply gets absorbed and demand picks back up.

@Austin Styer along with @Wale Lawal's comments, I would focus on flipping a home that will end up in the median price range for a neighborhood, and not creating the Trophy home for a community. We're seeing lots of pain in the flip world with homes trying to sell at top prices for a neighborhood. They are hard to comp and harder for buyers to afford. Just make them nice and median-priced to find the sweet spot in the current market. Just my observations.

@Kent Ford Austin got hit by a combination of factors, but only because it was also the highest appreciating market nationally during 2020-2022. Austin nearly doubled in median home value in 24 months. As you stated, that leads to higher property taxes and higher homeowners insurance as well, and when combined with higher property values and a 150% climb in interest rates, it compounds affordability issues. There are some positive signs on the horizon. The home values have given back approximately 50% of their COVID highs from where we started in Jan 2020. On top of that, demand isn't really the problem, it's simply new supply having to get absorbed. Austin is still in the top 3 markets for apartment absorption rate, it's just that we added 60,000 new units in 2 years, so it will take a few years to get the supply and demand balance in check. It's not a cheap market anymore, but still has some strong business and population growth tailwinds.

@Neil Narayan Hays county is prime for growth and far behind the development Williamson county has had. I’m excited to see what the next decade will bring.

@Kent Ford Texas is not a market but a massive state nearly the size of Western Europe. There are dozens of metro area which all have different dynamics at play. Which market IN Texas will dictate your answer.

@Kevin G. Hey Kevin, welcome to Austin! We’ve got clients working on all these strategies and househacking is the way to go here. Happy to connect if you want to chat more about options in the Austin area.

@Colton Kotylo “finding” a home is not what you are paying a real estate agent for. We want our clients finding properties that fit their needs, that's why we market them online and everywhere we can. You are paying a Realtor to be your consultant through the entire process from start to finish including the full contract phase. They can help you with your legal rights, due diligence, and provide guidance when working with builders as well. I can’t tell you how many times we have had to go to bat for our clients in new builds, which too many people assume won’t have issues because they are new.

Second, quite often the builder is the one offering compensation for a buyer broker, so their fee could be covered by the builder and not out of your pocket. The Realtor is working on behalf of their broker, so the broker is the one who may go claim the fee.

Ask yourself - did you hire a Realtor to open doors, or for someone to help you through a legal process so you don’t get screwed?

@Izabel Wicker I’m happy to connect you with my client and colleague Ryan at Host Del Casa. They do a great job and have a lot of solid insights on the market. Austin is very saturated with STRs, so owners must go the extra mile today to boost occupancy. There is good news - October is a top month for rentals with ACL Fest, Formula 1, and Longhorn football.

@Shyam Subramanyan if you are not a “real estate professional” in the eyes of the IRS, you cannot use added depreciation to offset your W-2 income. It would simply sit in your passive bucket and rollover to future years, negating the benefit. Don’t spend the time and money on cost seg unless it can benefit you in the same calendar year.