8 Tips to Airbnb Out Your Space & Generate Passive Income
If you have extended travel plans, why not rent out your whole home? Or, transform just a guest suite - ideal for busy Austin City Limit visitors in October. Here’s how…
This $89K Pre-Built Tiny Home Covers My Entire Mortgage
Steph, here! I’m excited to share one of my latest investment adventures: purchasing and rolling a pre-built tiny home onto my property.
What’s a Sneaky Duplex? How to Generate Income From a Private Room in Your Home
A Sneaky Duplex is a House Hacking strategy, specifically the act of adding an exterior door to a bedroom in your home to make it a separate space for short- or long-term rental…
Teacher Turned Real Estate Investor Via House Hacking (Sneaky Duplex Reveal)!
House hacking is supplementing your mortgage, taxes & insurance (henceforth referred to simply as “mortgage”) with monthly income. While I was paying only half of my mortgage, my house was appreciating in value because I bought in a rapidly appreciating area. Learn how I did it!
Buy a House with a Friend: Real Estate Partnerships Explained
People partner to buy their homes all the time - it's just been, traditionally, with a significant other. But there’s no rule stating that you have to be married to someone to buy a house with them. Your friend may be a better real estate partner than a spouse! Read on to find out how partnerships work, what makes a great partner and how to protect yourself with an operating agreement.
How a Home Warranty Can Save You Time and Money as a Homeowner
A home warranty is a policy that helps cover the cost of maintaining and repairing household systems and appliances. It differs from a home insurance policy, which is required by your mortgage lender, and covers the loss of your home and property in the event of a fire, flood or other natural disaster. Read how Celeste picked the right warranty for her primary residence, and it saved her big time!
Our 2021 First-Time Home Buyer Stats
We’re so excited to share our favorite statistics for our first-time home buyers from 2021! First-time buyers made up 76% of our clients, and we’re so, so proud of all 85 of them. Despite the market craze, they trusted us to help them accomplish their goals and our numbers show that it is still 100% possible to buy your first home with low money down.
4 Tips for Budgeting for Big Purchases
For most of us, a house or a college education are the most expensive things we'll ever buy. And when you're trying to save tens of thousands of dollars for your first house, you need a different budget than when you use to save for a beach trip with your friends. Here are four tips to save faster and smarter for those big purchases in life!
Small Income, Big Debt: How Kara Paid Off $30,000 in Debt on a $20,000 Income
Kara graduated college in 2011 with $25,302 in student loans, no job, and a degree in English. She shares the 4 steps she took to pay off her debt and find financial freedom!
How to Build a Tiny House: From Costs to Construction
Our founder Steph decided to build a tiny house in the back of one of her investment properties. Learn how she planned, stayed on budget, and made back her investment with our Tiny House Guide.
How to Buy Your First House and Make it an Investment
That’s right - your very first home you live in can be an investment property and help you MAKE money, all while avoiding wasting money on rent. So how do you do it you ask? We’ll break down exactly how to buy your first home with an investor mindset.
Buying a Fixer Upper Beach House With My Sister
Learn how Kristina was able to use equity from her home in Austin to buy her dream beach house with her sister in 30A; the panhandle of Florida. She also discusses how they not only bought a house from afar but also renovated and manage their Airbnb remotely.
How Much Money Do You Need to Buy a House?
Many people think there are lots of hidden fees when buying a house and it’s often what holds them back from making any moves. In some ways this is correct, but in reality it’s because there’s a lack of education around home buying. Read to learn exactly how much it costs to buy a house!
How To Navigate a Hot Housing Market
It’s hard to know how to progress during this chaos, and it is definitely an overwhelming time in Real Estate for buyers, sellers, and agents alike. But y’all, we’ve been at this for a minute now - so we’ve got you!
7 Tips for Buying a Home with Multiple Offers in a Hot Market
Bidding on a multiple offer home in a hot market can be super discouraging - especially when it happens over and over again. So we’ve compiled a list of 7 tips that will help you beat the competition!
Should I Buy a House Now or Wait?
Rent is something you consider on a monthly basis. But have you ever done the math and realized how much you’ve actually spent on rent? Here we break down 11 years of rent spent by one person in Austin, and what would have happened if she bought a home instead.
How I Made $84,000 Refinancing My Home in Austin
One of our founders, Kristina, used the process of cash-out refinancing to pull $84,000 from her home. So what exactly is cash-out refinancing? How did she get that much money? What will she use it for? Click to read her entire story, step by step!
How I Bought a 1 Acre House in Central Austin in my 20s
Jenn Carey, a Open House Austin agent and investor, walks us through her process of buying a north/central Austin home that was on an entire acre of land! From the search to the cost - read all about it here!
Transforming A Home into a $40k Yearly Airbnb Money Maker
How did one of our founders, Steph Douglass, turn an ugly house into one of the hottest Airbnb’s in Austin’s east side that now earns her over $40k a year? Read to see her entire process, from start to finish.