Is houston a god place to invest in real estate?

Question

Houston TX is a large city. Does anyone have any experience investing there? What’s the property value like? Is it increasing?

Brian Foster · Answer

@Lee V. Interesting question Lee. Perhaps you should consider some of the companies that have invested in Houston already as well as ones that continue to do so. Huge amount of capital being spent by big players in the Chemical industry (Big Oil & Gas) in Places like Baytown and on the East side of town. Amazon, FedEx, Dakin making major investments on the West & NW side of town.

In 2016 Houston edged out NYC as the most diverse city in the nation due to all the people moving here to take jobs that are being created at historic rates.

The Oil & Gas sector shed >80,000 jobs in 2015 & 2016 and yet we started 2017 at the highest employment levels in the areas history.

Infrastructure developments like the Grand Parkway as well as a high speed rail between Dallas & Houston.

I'm possibly biased ;-) , but I think Houston is one of the best places to invest in the USA and possibly the world.

JD Martin · Answer

I suspect most of Texas, all of the South and a good part of the Midwest are God places to invest. If you're looking for a God place, you probably should avoid Portland and San Francisco, however ;)

The question you're asking is way too vague for anyone to even attempt to answer it intelligently. What sector of real estate? What part of Houston? Commercial or residential? What class of real estate? ETC.

Edd Gilbert · Answer

Since Harvey came to our area a lot of flooded homes have changed hands at approx. 50% of ARV.  As someone else mentioned, the problem is finding a honest contractor that doesn't have 50 homes in front of yours.  I am a realtor in Baytown (east of Houston) and I haven't seen as big an uptick in business as I expected.  Many deals are being done by folks going door-to-door with cash in their pockets.

Blake Fossen · Answer

Lee,

Check out the podcast below. Lots of great info on Houston’s market backed by some good statistics. I️ just moved to Houston and am looking to connect and get into the market.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/passive-real-estate-investing/id1006557991?mt=2&i=1000394458819 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/passive-real-estate-investing/id1006557991?mt=2&i=1000394458819

Steve Foster · Answer

It's a sprawling metro area, a very diverse city (real diversity -- people come to Houston from all over the world)  with countless urban and suburban areas.  No zoning in Houston proper, so you can have pockets of high priced homes down the road from a scrap metal yard.  Not always, but usually, it seems to work (at least to me).

Good deals can be found, although it's tougher than it used to be.  I've found a lot of competition lately on the lower end of the spectrum from cash buyers who might not be reporting all of their earned or unearned income to Uncle Sam, because they sure appear to be making a killing in RE and throwing a lot of cash around.

Account Closed · Answer

Id say anyone with a rehab crew could do quite well. All that insurance money floating around. It sounds like the locals are confirming what someone could conclude, which is that Houston is the 4th largest US city, it has been growing, its industries are energy sector which tends to be stable and a large and significant sector of the population needs somewhere to live, while many homes lay in waste. Sounds like opportunity for REI to me. But with all REI, it is harder to invest from out of town, not impossible, but harder - too hard for me anyways - I suppose some of us have figured that one out.

I would suspect rehab costs to go up due to demand for labor and materials. Materials might be high at first, probably will come down, but you never know. Labor will be high at first and might not come down for a long time. It is easier to move materials than it is to move people. Maybe rents are higher too?

Nothing like destruction to spur an economy.

Jeff Richardson · Answer

We are in DFW but have buying in Houston because the COC returns are so much better right now. We do not buy the flood properties and are still able to find great deals.

Fred Heller · Answer

@Lee V. It can be depending on your expectations. It's getting harder to find good deals as prices have gone up steadily for the last several years.

Steve Rozenberg · Answer

Houston is an amazing city to purchase, we manage close to 800 rentals here and has seen a large influx of investors from out of state wanting to purchase many of these latest flooded homes because basically they are on sale.

The challenge is not finding the deals but right now finding the man power time to get them to get them ready.

But yes I can tell you the deals that are crossing my desk by wholesalers and people wanting us to help them is that all indicators are that there are great deals here.

Darrius Singleton · Answer

Houston is definitely a good place to invest in. It is pretty much recession proof. There are no zoning laws. It's very diverse in many ways. I may be bias because I have lived here for 12 years but, its amazing. Multi family is definitely the best investment in my opinion.

Is houston a god place to invest in real estate?

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