I live in California and am considering moving some of my investing to the Houston area. Are there any members that are familiar with that area?
I live in Vegas, but am going to be investing in Houston primarily. Your best bet is to read up. Start with Chron.com (Houston’s paper). They have a great read on Houston areas.
Next, start googling terms.
Also hit HAR.com, which is the mls for Houston homes.
While I have never been there, I am started to pin point areas of interest now. Can’t wait to visit there in a couple weeks.
I am familiar with the Katy Freeway, Memorial area. I’ve been debating on continuing to invest in Austin or trying a few places in Houston. There are some great condos in the Memorial area that usually rent well. Houses are reasonable in Houston for what you can get and you can often find a renter to at least pay the mortgage.
I network with agents in that area who are CRS or GRI designees. A few of my clients are looking to purchase apartment complexes in Houston and I’ve been thinking about office space.
i have a property in Memorial area. prices are high but it rents
DeeinAustin;
How do I find a great lender is for NOO properties, purchase/rehab?
And why is it that you are not sure of investing in Austin?
Jose
Thanks Evergreen, Denny and Dee,
Are there any other websites, books, reports, articles, etc. that would be useful in getting familiar with the Houston market? I am particularly interested in the East Harris county/ West Galveston County area. I have quite a bit of demographic data, but what I lack is local knowlwdge, what neighborhoods are hot, local gotchas, etc.
I have three investment properties in Austin, so have been thinking about diversifying. Three properties aren’t a lot, but I really like the Memorial area in Houston and have been playing with the idea of opening an office there or buying a condo that I can rent throughoutmost of the year, but stay there when I visit. I usually visit Houston every other month, so it would be nice to have a place to stay besides staying with family. I’ve also looked at San Antonio since that rehab market is hot and still going strong.
I use Artine Berne for investment financing since he has a network of lenders, even private individual investors. He just bailed out one of my sellers with a refinance even though his score was awful and he had 5 months of missed payments. Phil Grove is another great guy who loans money for rehabs and new home builds.
Some good “regular” brokers I work with is a David at Cypress Mortgage and a guy at Wells Fargo. There are a number of hard money lenders that are listed on this site who I’ve heard good things about as well.
Saw that you needed info on the housing market in Houston. Most reliable resources:
http://www.har.com/cs_products.htm
http://recenter.tamu.edu/mreports/HoustonSLBay.html
http://www.houston-texas-online.com/htochambers.html
http://www.houston.org/
When I get there I plan to look over areas like copperfield, Sommerall (NW) and the woodlands(N).
I am mainly looking for 100k or less homes to rent out in decent areas that have upside potential.
My main thing is staking out an area and looking to buy on the low end in that area.
I read that the Woodlands was the number one selling community in Houston. No idea if that is true though 
From what I hear, Woodlands is pretty popular. I talked to someone a few months ago who mentioned new developments in the area. Seems to be growing fast.
http://www.melissadata.com/ssl/HomeSales.asp
http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrtop/home.htm
Realty Times has a daily update from realtors in the Houston market. I then get the zip codes of the areas I want and plug them into melissadata. It tells me the median price of homes by zip
As luck would have it, my new neighbors are familiar with Houston and they manage their parents rental props here. Looks like I picked the right areas of focus.
I was watching “what you get for the money” and they were showing 900k homes, which buys you next to nothing on the coasts. Then they showed a home in Austin on the lake, with a boat, dock, massive sw ft, land, and all sorts of crap for 900k.
Evergreen;
Just for my info, will you share some addresses on the properties you vistied in Houston and in Austin. I will be in Houston next week and would like to spend some time looking at the neighborhood and than compare to the property in Austin.
I assume you are saying that the properties in Houston offer more for the buck than the properties in Austin-Lake Travis.
jose
I’ve been working with another Houston agent and will be referring some buyers to her. I think I may buy some condos. She said they have good condos started around 30k that actually rent well. We may buy a handful of condos instead of a single family.
Condo for 30k in Houston? Where is that? Might be in a so-so area. I did a scan for 2/2 or better and there are tons all over Houston for 70k or less. Looks like most are built in the 60s and 70s.
Look like some people are very interested in the Houston Housing Market. I am a native Houstonian and know which areas are hot and which are not so hot. You can read all the demographics you want, but personal experience is better than any newspaper.
Yep, someone on the battleground who has been there for years is far better.
I have been in Vegas for 25 years now and know more than any resource, because they don’t print the good stuff
A 2/2 condo in my neighborhood runs $300k and rents for $1200. It is a lose-lose situation lol
Of course, appreciation in my area has been around 10% for many years.
Can you even get financing on a $40k property?
you can get some financing on 4ok, i guess depends on what it is. If its a condo or townhouse you will have hard time, but if its a single residence, you shouldnt have much problem