All Forum Posts by: Tress Pearce

Hi Debra, thanks for your reply. Yes, I have been to Waco several times. Almost moved there before we moved to McKinney. I have watched several BP webinars on rental property and how to calculate the magic number. Just wondered if any BP members had any inside info about the rental property in Waco. I have heard good and bad things about renting to students, so, I was wondering about that, as well.

Hey Kevin! How are you? I was on BP a few years back when we lived in Austin. Just thought Waco might be a better place for a rental, since it has gotten so expensive in McKinney. Hope to see you soon and we'll chat about it.

I am finally ready to purchase my first rental. I live in McKinney, but, real estate here is pretty high, so, I thought Waco might be a better place to find a rental at a reasonable price. I will be using a property manager, so, the distance from home is not a huge issue. Is it better to buy a house with students in mind, or not? What neighborhood would be best if it's not a student rental? Thank you!

Thanks for replies! Lynn, I want to be my own GC because hopefully, it would end up saving us money. I do have a support system, in the way of our architect and someone else who is a real estate consultant.

Hey Y'all,

I'm fairly new to BP and have a question specific to Austin, TX. My husband and I recently purchased a house in Travis Heights that is a teardown. We are considering not hiring a builder and GCing it ourselves. The trouble is that we do not have a construction background and the building market here is pretty hot, so we have been told that we may have trouble getting sub-contractors to do the work. And even if they will do the work, they will charge us a premium, because they are busy and we are a one-off. 

Any thoughts from anyone who has experience with this? Thank you in advance!

Hey y'all! I am very new to the site and looking to buy a duplex or some type of rental property here in Central Texas. I am slowly educating myself, but thought I would ask the question. There are two condos available, near a university. They are currently rented until July 2016. They rent for $775 per unit. They are $79,000 each. The HOA is $155 per unit and covers water, trash and landscaping. Does this sound like a good idea to purchase one or both? What would be the appropriate down payment, 10% or 20%? I am looking to create good monthly cash flow. Just don't know the formulas yet to know if this is a good idea. Thanks, in advance, for the advice.

Great! Thank you, all, for the good advice.

I am thinking about buying a house in Austin. It will eventually be our primary residence, but, because we are in a lease situation until next year I wanted to put it on HomeAway or something similar to cover the mortgage, etc. until we are able to move in. Anybody out there from Austin have experience, good or bad, with that? The house is in Travis Heights.