All Forum Posts by: Stuart Chinworth

@Dylan Hattem Whenever someone mentions they want to invest in the DFW area, I recommend they take a look at some of the outlying areas first as many people go straight to the heart of the metroplex. From what I have seen some of these outlying areas can provide better cash flow, less competition and less regulations. Let me know if you'd ever like to schedule a call to discuss. 

@Louis Alexander Cocita I would recommend Real Property Management Trailhead in Fort Worth. 

Most of the established builders usually have no shortage of land to build on, which they have most likely purchased below market value. If you are able to find a builder to partner with, you'll need to find someone who builds the type of home that aligns with the neighborhood. 

Before making any recommendations on builders, we would need to know where the land is located (in city limits, in the ETJ, the county?) and what types of homes are in the immediate area. Point is, you may be looking for a starter home builder and getting recommendations for luxury level home builders. 

Lots to dig into here but my "knee-jerk" comment is, don't wait. If interest rates continue to fall, more buyers will come back on-line and prices will start creeping up. 

Where you want to invest and the asset classes you are looking at, will play a role in how far your capital can go. You will also need to consider the amount of time you have to allocate to management. If you can give us a few more detail, I think you will get some very good responses. 

@Gerald Dougherty I would agree with Preston that showing an occupied home is not unusual. Always good to remind prospective tenants that it will be cleaned before move-in and request that your current tenant try to keep the home as "show ready" as possible. 

If you are getting multiple showing requests, you could batch those all during a one or two hour period on a Saturday or Sunday. That would reduce the inconvenience to your current tenant and convey to prospective tenants that there is demand for this unit and they should act quickly. 

@Account Closed Zoning can get complicated very quickly. Hopefully the knowledge gained can be used in the future though!

Glad you were able to secure a meeting. Here is a link that might be usuful. Keep up updated on your progress! 

City of Dallas GIS Zoning Map

 You are very welcome! Let us know if you get any traction with that and how things are going. 

All I can say is I wish I had gotten my license in college! You must be a better student than I was because I recall a lot of wasted time that I could have been using to build up my business. 

You have a unique advantage, you know where students want to live and what they will be willing to pay for rent. I would start talking with every student I know to see if there parents had thought about purchasing a home to help offset some of the financial burdens of college. Then pick about 5 or so homes that cash flow, run the numbers on those and have the students send that data to their folks for consideration. You could also build a model that would show how much they would save when buying vs. renting (cash flow, loan pay down, depreciation, etc.). 

Typically with in-fill lots, your options are going to be driven by the local codes, current zoning and what the surround properties are zoned for. If it's zoned MF and the surrounding properties are also MF, that's your path of least resistance to getting something done. I would recommend starting a conversation with the city to get a much better understanding of what your options are. An architecture or engineering firm would charge a lot of money to find out the same info you can with a phone call to the city. 

Once you have determined what you feel is the best use for the property, I would then start backing into some numbers to help estimate a value. Look at area rent rates, construction costs, etc. to get a better idea of what the spreads are (thats what your buyer will care about). That will give you a good idea of what someone would be willing to pay for vacant land.