All Forum Posts by: Scott White

I've worked in tech for more than 25 years and got a degree in a completely unrelated field (Advertising). Honestly, in my experience, career success is much more about what you've built, the connections you've made, and "soft skills" (empathy, listening, humility, follow-through, recovery from mistakes, etc.) than where you went to school. I really have no idea where most of my colleagues did college (except when they talk about football). 

Here in Austin, I know a good number of people with advanced degrees who in their early 30s are working at the juice bar or driving Uber, so "lots of college" doesn't always equal "dazzling success". I'm much more a proponent of learning by doing and continuous self-education (reading, podcasts, new types of projects, etc.).

I guess there's something to be said for completing the gesture you've started, but there's also the case to be made for hitting the 'pause' button and leaning into a vocation that seems to be calling to you. You've got lots of years ahead and you can always 'unpause' if you feel moved to do so later.

Ultimately, the decision is up to you, but my main advice would be to approach whatever you do with a spirit of genuine curiosity, humility, and openness. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and simply deliver on what you've said you would. There's ALWAYS something new to learn, and at the end of the day, you do what you do for and with people, so be especially mindful of your connections with others. Approaching life with a spirit of helping and building value generously really does come back to you in time.

I just finished my first reno in San Antonio, and my handyman introduced me to Allen & Allen for wooden siding in classic styles that aren't readily available at big box stores anymore.

I also discovered the joys of pro-level paint from PPG. Head-and-shoulders above big box paints in terms of coverage and workability. And color-matches from someone who does this professionally are way better than some kid who's received a few hours of training at a chain store.

Home Depot, on the other hand, fell flat on its face during this project. It was an endless comedy of errors, not just the SA stores, but the entire HD org as a whole. Misdelivered appliances, spontaneously canceled orders, store managers (multiple) telling me they're unwilling to make-right problems from other stores or HD.com because they're measured on separate P&Ls and it'd impact their performance (like I care as Joe Customer).

Favorite part was that because some of my 43 trips (really) to HD stores involved returning a few unused items, they decided I was a scammer and cut me off from further returns for the next three months, unless I want to file a written appeal with some third-party agency. Once again, store manager "can do nothing". So, I've got a pile of to-be-returned items sitting in my bedroom at home, which I'll try again to return in July, ugh ...

Chris, thanks for the confirmation on the concrete patio cost.

Anthony, I'm gonna look into the slope toward the house next time I'm on site.

Marian, great idea regarding the Lowes sale! Your comment even spurred me to look up foam paver bases, which I hadn't heard of before. Thanks!

Thanks for the replies! Sounds like a good start would be to scrape a flat spot and put out a simple 4' x 4' grid of concrete pavers, and maybe some stepping stones out to the yard. As you say, it'd meet the immediate need, and be easily expandable later.

Looks like I'm about to pick up my first buy-and-hold investment house! Yay!

It's got a large 18' x 21', 378sf covered area in the back, currently bare earth, which basically serves as a steady source of readily-available mud to track into the house.

What are some inexpensive options to create some sort of 'patio' out there, mainly for mud mitigation, but also for a bit of outdoor living?

Currently, my leading contender is installing some sort of metal edging, rolling out ground cloth, and then spreading out a few yards of crushed stone. From what I can tell, this would run around $250 for materials and involve some labor or sweat equity. Maybe I'd top it off with a big $50 Persian rug from Craigslist to give an area where a chairs can slide in and out around a table.

Another option is to do a small 'landing' deck outside the back door, maybe 6'x8', and then a paver pathway out into the yard. Maybe $650 for this installed by a handyman?

The Google tells me that installed price for a concrete patio would be about $11/sf ($4,158), a basic pressure-treated deck would be $12/sf ($4,536), and brick would be $15/sf ($5,670).

What would you do?

Hi Skylair, and welcome! Awesome that you're getting started with this, and let me specifically applaud your intent to get some investments cooking BEFORE having kids. While wonderful in so many ways, kids are a tremendous draw on both your time and your finances. Mine are grown, but if I had it to do over again, I'd definitely have deferred having them for 5-10 years and dedicated myself to getting passive income streams in place. Knowing the financial bases would be covered month-to-month via passive money will free you and the rest of your family from so much stress. 

Plus, it looks like you work in tech like I do, and if you're like me, I generally like my job and am in no hurry to leave. So, if you could keep that gig and eventually use it to shovel money at real estate projects while maintaining a modest lifestyle in the short term, seems like a recipe for a really cush life in the 10-20-year timeframe. I know that sounds really far away, but trust me, it comes quicker than you think, and there's a lot of living left to do on the other side of it.

As far as specific thoughts, here's some stuff you can do in the near-term:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/757/topics/66...

Good luck!

I live in 78745 and it's a great area. Super easy access to downtown and both of the north/south arterial highways. I can be at Barton Springs in about 15 minutes.

Now, 78745 is also a large-ish ZIP and things get a bit dicier when you get south of William Cannon and east of the railroad track that divides the ZIP vertically. I'm on the local NextDoor email list and almost all reported crime in the area happens in those places. That being said, they're almost all car break-ins and Amazon porch pirates with a few burglaries thrown in for additional fun. Certainly not a warzone by any stretch.

As far as the future goes ... well, 78704 is full; east Austin inside the 183 loop is full; so folks are turning their eyes south. I'd be surprised if in a few years it's not 100% gentrified.

Hi Martin! I'm a few months ahead of you on this journey, and here's what I'd recommend:

1) Spend a few months focused on your education. Listen to real estate podcasts when you drive. Read books. Sign up for the BP newsletter and set up some BP keyword alerts and read this stuff as it appears in your mailbox.

2) Start modeling out mock deals so you can understand how the numbers work. I do this by finding houses on the MLS and then running them through dealcheck.io. Do this a lot, like 100+ times. After a while, you can begin to look at a listing and generally know if it'll work or not.

3) As you do steps 1 and 2, pay attention to what strategy (buy-and-hold; flip; BRRRR) and property type (single-family, multi-family, land, trailer parks, etc.) appeals most to you and your resources. Pick one combo and really begin to deepen your knowledge.

4) Start really drilling down on some of your paper deals. Get better tax numbers from the local CAD office. Drive over to the house and stand in the front yard and look at the immediate 'hood. Call for insurance quotes. Talk to property managers about neighborhood quality what they think it'd rent for. Talk to lenders about how funding would work. Make a detailed list of renovations and find out qualified numbers for how much it'd cost.

5) Start thinking about how you'd organize your business infrastructure - your LLC, your bank accounts, your accounting software, maybe a dedicated Gmail address and Google Voice number for your business, etc. When in doubt, talk to professionals about helping you get these things set up.

6) As you talk to people, plug them into Google Contacts or similar, along with notes and who else they're connected to. You'll be surprised how quickly your network can grow, so you want to make sure you're keeping good notes about who's who and how you interacted with them.

If you'll dedicate a few month to a program like this, you'll be able to make much more respectful use of industry professionals' time when you engage them. Think of the difference between showing up on a realtor's doorstep and saying "Help me make a million bucks in this real estate thing!" vs. "Hi, I'm hunting for 3/2 SF homes 1100sf+ in class B/C neighborhoods with a target acquisition price of $60-110K needing under $20K in repairs with an ARV of $150K for a BRRRR strategy."

Hope this helps!

I'd love to hear from some San Antonio property managers about the rentability of manufactured housing. Wonder if the numbers would hold up? Curious ...

Home automation and security is one of the fastest-growing consumer product segments. You can't so much as buy a smart bulb or read a NextDoor newsletter without subsequently being overwhelmed with marketing for Nest cameras and similar, with hundreds of thousands of folks installing them to guard against Amazon package thieves, auto break-ins and the like. Point being, home security cameras aren't just for drug dealers and doomsday preppers anymore.

I wouldn't sweat it over a couple screw holes.