Rental Market/First time investor

[Wajid Dawood]

Hey everyone,

Just to give a little insight about myself, I've been working for about 4-5 years now in IT, and have been living in uptown Houston for the past 2 years. The rent I'm paying is high enough to be a mortgage payment so thought why not just buy a home and build some equity.

I am really thinking of "House hacking", buying a home, living in it for 1-3 years then put it up for rent. However, I'm not too confident on the rental market in each area of Houston. People tell me to buy inside the loop, but homes there are too expensive and for the most part too old for the price I'm willing to pay.

I'm looking to spend around 200-245k on a 3 bed 2 bath home, and was looking in the Rosenberg or Richmond areas. Any advice why or why not this would be a good or bad idea? Once on rent I'm not too concerned about cash flow ($100-300/month), but more worried about occupancy rate and just getting the mortgage paid off.