One story house vs. 2 story house. Which one is easier to rent out?

I’m looking into purchasing a brand new home in San Antonio. This is going to be an investment rental property. Given almost the same square footage and almost the same price for the one story and 2 story, what would be easier to rent out? The 1 story has only 1 car garage, and the 2 story has 2 car garage. Need advice from all of you experienced landlords.

I also have 12 rental properties in San Antonio. My experience was one story is much easier to rent out. The reasons as following:

  1. Lower utilities bill

  2. Older persons don’t like stairs

  3. Young parents don’t like stairs

And some other reasons, which I am not so sure. But they always call and ask if the property is one or two story. (I started put one or two story in the ad now) If I said is two stories and that was it.

I only have 4 one-story home. I wish I can own more one story VS. two story home.
But 2-car garage is a big plus. That is a hard one to decide. On the lower end home, one car garage is ok, but on the higher end (over $130K) should have least two cars garage.

Man…a high end home for $130K, that doesnt even get you a 300 sq ft studio apartment by me…

I do not know TX, but if there is a good mix of 1 and 2 story homes by you, I would say either can be just as good. I am from the north where everyone is use to a 2 story home, but now i live in Fl where there are very few 2 story homes unless your living in the million dollar areas.

yes, 130K will get you higher end rental in San Antonio.

I just purchased a brand new 2600SF Pulte Home in Nov 05 (5/2.5/2)
for 131K and leased in Dec. for $1375. But you can’t get that kind of deal today. That same house is selling at least 155k+ now.

Now you know why everyone is coming to San Antonio TX. By the way that is 2 story home, and it was too good of deal to pass.

I bet many of you wish you live in San Antonio,TX. It’s nice place to live and invest in RE.

I hear you have a high property tax in TX…like 4% of the sale price, of course Fl is catching up, right now we are around 2-2.5% but its going up in Jan 1 % thruough the state for a hurricane relief fund to help the insurance companies out.

The porperty tax is just over 3%, and is going down by .5% the next two years. That is another reason why more investors is coming to town.

Thanks for the reply ILoveRE13. Since you know SA market very well, in your opinion which part (NE, NW, Medical Center area) is more desirable for investment property. I’m concentrating in the Medical Center area, but would like to hear other opinions.

I like NW area, along the loop 1604. between I-10 and Hwy 90. That is growth area. And 78250 zip code is my concentration. Medical area is little high for me and is hard to find a good cash flow.
But it is good for appreciation. Do you want good cash flow or appreciation? Personally, I want both. I want my cash flow no less than 15% return annually on my initial investment. Sometime it can go up to 30-40%. You can’t get that in the bank.