Newbie in Houston Area looking for my first buy & hold property

[Iman Yu]

Hi, 

I've been interested in getting into the Houston real estate investing market since the beginning of 2015. 

Now I am at the point where I want to be actively looking and I have a general idea on my budget and what type of properties I want to get my hands on. 

Here are my thoughts on that:

1) budget is 200k or under

2) single family 

3) buy & hold property 

4) minimum repair required 

5) purpose is to use it for rental property (cash flow) 

Am I on the right track with these criteria?

I am not looking to get rich quick but I am interested to get this deal started if I can get some ideas on what areas I can look at and what tool I can use to get my search started. 

Thanks!

Iman

[Lyall Storandt]

@Iman Yu Hey Iman, welcome to Bigger Pockets!

You've got a good start in terms of your general criteria, but like @Kevin Wood said, you'll want to get a bit more specific and focus on a certain area(s) to get to know what's available / moving in that part of town.

I've written more detailed posts about this in the past, but what I'd recommend is searching for brick 3/2/2's and larger in established areas zoned to good schools. This will give you the opportunity to appeal to the greatest number of potential tenants, which will allow you to be more picky as a landlord. Also, by being located in a good school zone, you'll be able to attract families who could potentially be long-term tenants. Good schools will help your resale value should you ever decide to sell as well.

Let us know if there's ever anything we can do to help.

Best of luck!

- Lyall