All Forum Posts by: Zee Abbas

If it’s a full gut, then it would behoove you to do a traditional forced air system. 

@Joshua Storm take a look at a crime map and check out neighborhood reviews for Acres Homes and the local schools. MFs are popular because they’re usually cheaper per door than SF and you have only 1 roof. In Houston, this is not the case. It’s cheaper to buy single condos in different neighborhoods than to buy 4 in one. 

@Joshua Storm I've been analyzing the Houston MF (2-4 unit) market for almost 2 years now and my outcome is that there simply aren't any listed properties that make credible investments. I've seen this one when it came on the market as well. If your sole goal is to live for little then this satisfies that, but the ROI as a fully tenant occupied property is too low (and frankly your money will go further elsewhere even if your making a monthly rent payment). My primary concern is the location of this property and the quality of tenant in this neighborhood. The fact that the seller is only selling as cash or conventional lends me to believe that it won't pass an FHA inspection and you would be in for more than 10k in rehab. I would also say your projected rents are on the higher end just by looking at active nearby listings but having a realtor run some rent comps can help you get a better estimate. My #s are generally in the same ballpark as yours, but I use higher vacancy (1 month + fees), lower maintenance (assuming post rehab you don't have many issues and you can do them yourself), higher closing cost, higher interest rate, and lower rent. This would not meet my investment criteria but it may meet yours.

Heat pump window units are your best bet in this situation. Place one in each occupied room and once your issue is solved, keep them in storage or sell them.

@Douglas Gratz I have no new construction experience. Instead of going all out on your first build, why not build a smaller house on a cheaper lot to get experience? Maybe that will push your project back by a year but it will give you the chance to see the process. 

@Nader Hachem A "deal" depends on your investment criteria. If you're analyzing deals you should have a set of criteria such as IRR, payout time, ROI%, etc. If the property is exceeding all of your criteria accounting for the figures everyone else has mentioned above then it's a deal. Conversely, it's possible that while the property may meet your net profit goal, it hasn't screened against a capital efficiency criteria.

@Hossam Elaskalani there just aren’t that many properties in large population centers that cash flow or cash flow enough to make an investment worthwhile especially if you are only putting 3% down. You would really have to believe in substantial amount of consistent appreciation to make it worthwhile. I suspect that your market may be like that as well. But I encourage you to run the numbers and benchmark them against the S&P.

@Hossam Elaskalani I was in your position a few years ago. I'd suggest some type of house hack either with a SFH or better yet, a MFH if you can afford it in your market. But frankly, in my opinion, buy and hold REI is not as attractive as it used to be in most markets.

Consider that it will take you approximately 20 years to recover the initial investment of 39000. Aside from tax considerations and exponential appreciation, your cash investment is better suited in the market, which by 30 years will be worth over 500k+ assuming 9% return.

@Mark Vesu I think your decision depends on your asset allocation considering the rest of your portfolio. Returns will be less as you age due to trading return % for surety, which is prudent investing. REI is a resilient investment type, but if all you have are low performing duplexes then it may make sense for someone in your age group to swap to a different investment. It just depends on your risk appetite.