Dallas area: Rent to Price ratios

[Jyotin Gautam]

Looking for all  your input on "Rent to Price" ratios for Dallas area (surrounding towns like Plano, Irving, Burleson, Crowley, Little Elm, McKinney...). I'm looking primarily at SFRs but open to high cash flow  2unit/4unit properties too.  Would like to get input on aspects such as:

a) Rent to price: Is a 1% or higher ratio a good rule of thumb for initial screening of SFRs or can we do better (for B-level properties). I'm thinking that detail caprate/COCR calculations can be done after the basic filtering. If you're an active investor in this area, what other metrics would you recommend?

b) Property managers: Is Yelp a good way to find reliable and reasonable ones?

c) Towns to focus on: From a cash flow point of view, what areas would the experienced Dallas investors recommend ? I want to strike a good balance between area's safety and ROI - should feel comfortable visiting without needing to looking over the shoulder or worry about high burglary rates :) Good schools are a bonus too, but ROI trumps.

Thanks

- Jyotin

[Andrew Herrig]

I try to buy rentals around 1.2-1.3% in Dallas. It is certainly do-able, but you will not find those kinds of deals on the MLS. I am finding these properties mostly in the inner-ring suburbs, houses built in the 1950s-1960s, and B or C+ neighborhoods.

In A neighborhoods, you are going to have a tough time hitting a 1% rent/price ratio.