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Monthly Archives: August 2018

Do You Have Anything for Rent?

diagram of houe

We buy houses. We renovate houses. We sell houses or rent them out. But whatever we do has to make sense. Right now, it’s getting harder to buy rental houses in many Texas markets. That means it’s getting harder for tenants to find houses they can both afford and want to rent.

One thing Austin and Cameron have in common is a shortage of housing most people can afford. I’m avoiding the term “affordable housing,” because of the connotation of it being subsidized.

  • In Cameron, many teachers and other professionals commute in to their jobs because as even the school superintendent noted, “I could rent houses in the $900-$1000 range in no time.” There just aren’t many houses in that price range, and those that exist stay rented. We were able to relet one of ours before the previous tenants moved out.
  • In Austin, our available rentals seldom stay on the market for more than a few days.
  • Tenants are staying in place more than they used to. A few have even been asking for two-year leases or longer.
  • Nationally, many older folks (and young singles) are having to take on roommates to afford their rent, ala Golden Girls.

Why Are Rentals Scarce?

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How Not to Sell a House

Simple enough even the family pet understands.

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Here’s a cautionary tale for all you investors who have to move fast to get a house you really look forward to selling or using as a rental. A quick summary is: don’t move too fast.

We Found a House

As you know, we’ve been looking harder than usual in Milam County, because we think the area may start to do better economically soon. We found a house we really liked. You would have liked it, too. It was in pretty darned good shape, in a really interesting neighborhood that did NOT smell like meth (one of our criteria!), and had really great curb appeal (however, we are not showing a photo, for reasons that will become clear). And there was a bonus empty lot behind it.

We made an offer on the house for a bit under the asking price, knowing we could easily rent it out and it would cash flow nicely. Once it was accepted and we were in the option period, we immediately ordered an inspection.

That Was Smart

Now, sometimes, especially in houses you know are a big ole mess, you don’t bother with an inspection. But we had a couple of questions about this property, so we brought in our favorite local guy and he looked around. The house was, as we had thought, in pretty good shape, but…

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Church Conversion Progress

Here’s what the sanctuary windows look like up close.

Thanks for all your interest in the project we are planning to work on, to convert a church into our offices and another purpose. I’ve sure enjoyed all your comments and ideas! It surprised me when Facebook marked my post about it as “violating community standards,” but I now chalk it up to an overly enthusiastic robot. We are strongly leaning toward making the space available as an event venue for conferences, concerts, weddings, funerals, meetings, and such. We have a lot to learn about that, though!

Inspection Results

Since last week, we got the church inspected. Anyone who’s ever dealt with inspections knows that they tend to produce bad news. And with older buildings, they tend to come up with deferred maintenance issues. The Hermit Church was no exception!

Some things we expected, such as the baptism tub tends to leak (that will get removed, anyway). But we now know why it was so hot when we went there the first time. The air conditioning unit for the upper level is as old as my oldest child, the one with the college education and career. It has been limping along for years, and there is evidence that it’s been topped up with freon way more often than is good for the environment, just to keep it chugging along.

This is the main office, which we assume will belong to Lee. Maybe I’ll put my desk in there, too.

To fix that will require more than five thousand dollars. The total repairs needed were more than twenty thousand dollars over the amount Lee had budgeted. That’s why I said in yesterday’s post that Lee was having angst over the purchase. He contacted our real estate agent and said we would probably have to back out of the deal, since the repairs would be too much for us. (At the same time, Lee was still having Mandi pack up our current offices, which meant we’d “get” to work from home.)

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A Quick Update

One of the units in the duplex Carol and Russell are looking to sell.

We have a few small tidbits that don’t warrant an entire blog post, but we do want to keep y’all updated. So:

  • We had the inspection done on the church venue. It revealed a lot needs to be done (like an air conditioning replacement, since the unit had been limping along with massive doses of freon, which is not good). Lee is now engaged in soul searching.
  • Carol and Russell are working to sell their duplex in Round Rock. It’s done so beautifully, thanks to Russell’s love of gardening. Check it out!
  • Lee has agreed to serve on a team that’s working to improve the downtown area of Cameron. That’s a great idea, especially after seeing how much money is to be made in Fredericksburg, a much smaller town as Anita and I vacationed over the weekend. I’d be OK without going that far, though.
  • Russell continues to do MLS Monday every week, and we are finding some interesting properties. We did bid on one last week, but it fell through. That will be a longer post one day.
  • Lee went to court yesterday. Don’t worry, it was to support a fellow renovator. It all got postponed. Sigh. Maybe in a few months we’ll have something interesting to write about.

Any questions? If not, carry on! And call us at 512-807-8777 or Facebook message us if you need us!

 

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Herding Cats! What Will Happen to Shadow and Patsy When We Move?

Did anyone consult ME on all this? – Joe

Sue Ann and I have talked at length about where our office kitties should go, since we have decided to move offices. Neither of us can stand the thought of not having them around, but we have to make a decision in their best interest.

The move across town to the church may not suit them. We can’t keep them inside there because Lee is so allergic to cats. We can’t just leave them here to fend for themselves. We don’t do the abandonment thing. AT ALL!

They are outside cats, but will try and slip in on occasion. Even though they want to explore the office a bit, they prefer it outdoors really. There is just way more stuff to do. When it froze after Christmas, Shadow stayed in one of the bedrooms at my house. She was separated from my dogs, and had her own spot, but she was not happy being stuck inside. She ended up only staying in for about two hours and I had to let her out. She was going nuts in there.

We just don’t believe that either of them will be happy to stay inside all of the time, so they have to be able to go outside at least sometimes. We also talked about how hard it is hard to move an outside cat to a new outside place. The best way to do that usually is to keep them in the new house for a little while until they settle in and know where they are being fed for certain. As mentioned above, we can’t do that without Lee getting really sick.

Who could take care of our baby kitties the way we do? Sue Ann and I love them both tremendously, and we want to still be able to have them around and see them. Cats have not had very good luck at the Ranch and Sue Ann worries about their survival out there. And though Sue Ann’s sister lives next door to the office, we didn’t want to burden her with any more cats to deal with, since she already has a lot of vet bills. What are we to do?
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