Calling all Houston real estate gurus. Hey guys I just graduated and am looking to purchase my first (house, apartment, townhouse, loft). I am looking to spend like $150k. This will be an investment purchase. I want to buy and then lease it out. I was wondering what property is hot in houston as far as return on investment? Are there any areas that in your opinions would be wise to invest in right now for a nice future return? Keep in mind my price range. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot.
My advice is to look at neighborhoods with strong deed restrictions and covenants. That is the best way to preserve your investment value over the long haul. They will be in the larger multi-builder developments. Of course they may restrict rental property. Look for areas that are built out, without a lot of acreage left for future construction that will be competeing against your home for future sales. Like: First Colony in Sugarland. Look for a continuing employment base close by. Like: The expanding warehouses on Beltway 8 West, the container port in the Texas City area, The Med Center, The Energy corridor. Look at new freeways about to open. Like I-10. It may be a little too late but houses with I-10 access may have been held down in value but will become more valuable once the freeway is finished. For rental property maintenance costs are the key. 20 year old paint plumbing and appliances are expenses about to happen. Now I personally don't think 1 rental property is a real good investment, There is no efficiency of scale, no diversification, risks associated with rentors and no liquidity since you will have to hold it 5 years just to get your closing costs out of it. The value of housing is in it's utility, the living in it. Unless you can acheive some scale (10 or 12 houses?) where you don't have to take complaints and do repairs yourself you better be prepared for your rental property to own you. If your not going to live in the house, I rather see you put your cash into a private issued REIT. You don't get any of the depreciation for tax purposes but you don't get the headaches either. They do have some 'Return Of Capital' tax advantages. Here's one I personally invest with:
www.Zillow.com Don't need to thank me, just give me my 3% commission. No really, fork over the 4.5 grand now.
I'm a realtor, if you need any advice or anything, just message me. I would stay away from zillow not very accurate.
My wife is a realtor with Keller Williams and would be happy to help you out with any information that you might need. Here is her contact info: Angela Brown Keller Williams Realty 281-704-2581 angelabrown@kw.com
I like Dubious' advice the best. If you want a house to invest in, buy one and live in it. Renting is best left to professionals.
It's accurate on some, but not on many. Do a search on opinions about zillow and you'll find alot of people not liking it. I personally wouldn't recommend, but that's just my opinion.
You could always use it as a little vacation home for two out of 5 years and rent it out for the rest and if you make a profit of $250,000 and your single you can keep all of that money with no tax. It's up to $500,000 for married couple. Your $150,000 investment probably wouldn't get you this much, but you never know.
Thanks so much for your advice guys. There is so much I didn't know that I am looking into. This is one of the reasons I love Clutchfans.
the Houston market is over-saturated with sellers right now, which is making it even harder to lease a home, in general (some areas are the exception to the rule, but those type usually bring cash buyers, which the sellers will like more than someone who finances, like yourself)
Zillow is way off-base in several newer neighborhoods in the DFW area. There are cases where it's off by $30k+ on home values. You can use it as a guideline, but I'd put more faith in looking at comps in the area as a better indicator of a house's worth.
Yeah, I've talk to and work with a lot of For sale by owners, and they really believe in Zillow. Not much I can tell them, they work fairly well on some, but I've heard of some that were 10k-25k off, so I really wouldn't recommend it. But that's just me.
Holy cow. That stupid thing just valued the house I sold last year for $15,000 less than I sold it for.
A real estate agent here in the DFW area I know knows the guy(s) that started zillow. He said it's still being tweaked and can be off. My house was built in 2004 and it shows there are 2 houses with my address and neither of them are in the correct location on the street. lol. Any of you guys looking for land/acreage around Houston? I'm looking in the Dallas area and may casually also look down there. I'm not sure where to look down there yet.
far suburbs ...you can get a nice acre/gated community in Magnolia or Fulshear for about $20,000 there is a ton of acres in Magnolia right now
Nice. Acreage up here is all over the place. From $20-$40k for 1 acre to 20+ acres for $60-70k or so. Hehe. One thing I had been looking for is a community that will allow you to build whenever you want. Parts of Gunter, Tx. allow that (far north of Dallas). I'll have to look into the Magnolia area, although I think you pass Mars and Jupiter to get to it.
I can highly reccomend Magnolia - I grew up there for 10 years. It's only minutes to The Woodlands and I-45, has pretty good schools (nice facilities), is country living at it's finest, and doesn't take more than 45 minutes to get to Houston.
