Wife and I purchased our first home in 2018, basically when we bought our house, the original owners also owned the property next door (this is all in town in Luling) as well, that property is a two bedroom room and as well as a separate garage apartment at the back of the lot, that's accessible through our alley. At the time we bought our home, the property owners said they weren't selling the place next door, they were going to fix both properties up and let them remain as rentals as they had been. Fast forward three months, and they sold the property to a young a kid, whose not doing a great job maintaining it. Frankly it's embarrassing to live next door to. The guy next door has agreed to sell us the property for 130k, and we want to maybe buy it, renovate both units and rent them both out, and most of us, control who our neighbors are and how they're using the property.

Financing isn't a issue, and we estimated with the help of my contractor uncle we'd need six month and about 75k to renovate both properties.


Is there anyone that can maybe offer up advice on things we're probably not considering as far as being landlords, as well as advice on the best "business model" for rental properties.

Do you have a confident understanding of the market rental rate and demand?

Do you plan on living in your current home long term or will you turn this into rental at some point also.

I didn't mean actually restrict anyone from renting, but more so control over wether or not there are junk vehicles pulled up in the backyard or the grass stays mowed, which is what we're tired of seeing.

We plan to stay in our current house at least another three years, we will sell when we're ready to build our forever home. This property next door if we purchase is for a long term investment property.

A local realtor we go to church with who sold us our current house, she said she thinks the house would rent fairly easily for 1k a month, and 7-800 a month for the garage apartment. I'm curious on what the end goal needs to be as far as paying the property off. I've read online about paying the property off in ten years. We're looking at purchasing the property for 130k, and borrowing an additional 80k for the renovation. We're going through a family friend for the funding, once the renovation is complete we would be refinancing at a lower rate. I'm basically looking for info to figure out the future return on investment, if there is any, or just some blunt feedback on the prospects. If it's not worth, it's not worth it, I'm just looking for sound business advice here.

Isn't there a flip side to that too though? Easier to keep an eye on things, convenience, etc? I hope so anyway as we're renovating the house next door to rent out.

My advice is do your own research on rental rates, value both as it sits and post repairs, how saturated the rental market is, etc.

Getting any of those wrong can be fatal.

Take up cs78's offer to chat as there are multiple variables in play here


In an ideal world 1% a month is a good target number so for the 2 properties would need to generate ~$2100 rental off 210k investment

Really need a lot more info


Such as


What are the property taxes annually for both units ?

How much is rental insurance for both units ?

Will you self manage them ?

Are you replacing major systems such as hvac on the remodel ?


If SHTF and they stayed vacant could you cover the note for an extended time period without being in a financial bind?

We rent two properties right next to our business. Love it. It's not living next door but we're there 5-7 days/week.