KnowYard Community

You are objectively wrong and I feel sorry for your taste buds. The honey BBQ chicken strip sandwich at 1am is a top 5 fast food item ever made.

Trades. HVAC, plumbing, electrical. Most will hire you with zero experience and train you. Starting pay is $18-22/hr but within 2-3 years you're at $30+. Texas needs tradespeople badly.

Same thing happened to me in January. 3 years, great reviews, gone in a 10 minute call. The market is rough but not dead. Took me 11 weeks to find something. Apply everywhere, even stuff you think you're overqualified for.

It's not theater. Something like 60-70% of people who protest get a reduction. The appraisal district overshoots on purpose because they know most people won't protest. Don't be most people.

Look for areas near good school districts. Even if you don't have kids, school district quality correlates with neighborhood safety and maintenance. It's a useful proxy.

Any medical facility. Not as a doctor — as everything else. Phlebotomy cert takes 4 months and pays $18-22/hr. Medical billing is similar. Hospitals are desperate for support staff.

$200/month HOA and they can't even maintain the common areas? Request a financial audit. You're entitled to see where that money goes.

Any southern home cooking restaurant. The ones with the big plastic pitchers on the table. That's where the real sweet tea lives.

McDonald's sweet tea for $1 is the best value in fast food beverages and I will die on this hill. They put an absurd amount of sugar in it.

This is why I specifically bought a house with no HOA even though it meant a longer commute. My trash can sits wherever I want and nobody sends me letters about it.

The best BBQ I ever had was at a family reunion where my uncle cooked it in a homemade smoker made from a oil drum. No thermometer. No YouTube education. Just vibes.

Pro tip: photograph every flaw in your house. Cracked foundation, old roof, stained carpet, outdated kitchen. Bring photos to the hearing. Condition matters.

Handyman work on TaskRabbit or Thumbtack. Hanging TVs, assembling furniture, minor repairs. If you're actually handy you can charge $50-75/hr and stay booked.

Show up to HOA board meetings. Seriously. Most boards are 3-5 retired people with nothing better to do. You show up with 5 neighbors who are also sick of it and you can vote them out.

I deliver for Amazon Flex on weekends. $25/hr base plus tips. Use your own vehicle. 4-5 hour blocks. It's not exciting but it's reliable money with a flexible schedule.

Facebook marketplace for house rentals. A lot of smaller landlords don't list on Zillow or Apartments.com. Some of the best deals are private listings from owners.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. I waited 2 years for prices to drop and they went up $40K instead. Timing the market is a myth. Buy when you can afford to.

The unequal appraisal argument is your best weapon. If your neighbor's identical house is appraised at $50K less than yours, that's hard for them to justify. Use their own data against them.

Mowing lawns. Seriously. Especially in summer when people don't want to be outside. $40-60 per yard, you can do 6-8 in a day. A truck and a mower is all you need.

Read your CC&Rs cover to cover. Half the violations HOAs send out are either not actually in the rules or they're enforcing selectively. If your neighbor's trash can is visible too, document it and bring it up.

Drive through the area at night before you sign anything. If you feel uneasy at 10pm on a Tuesday, trust that instinct.

Older suburbs that haven't been "discovered" yet by flippers. The apartment complexes built in the 90s-2000s that are well-maintained but not trendy. Those are the sweet spot.

The real answer is that it depends on what trade and what degree. A CS degree from a good school pays more than plumbing. But a plumbing license pays more than a generic business degree with $40K in loans.

I used one of those companies that does it for you — they take 25-30% of savings. Got my value knocked down $40K. Worth it because I hate doing paperwork.

UPS warehouse and driving positions. Warehouse starts around $21/hr, drivers make $35+/hr after training. Union benefits. It's physical work but it's legit.