Perspective on Spring Texas?

Question

Evening all,

Would love to hear thoughts on investing in Spring Texas, looks like exciting things are starting to happen for this town with Exon Mobile setting up their headquarters in 2014. Bringing high employment.

Properties look great with good price point. Question is will it be a good rental market? As prices are reasonable I wonder if those moving to the area will be looking to buy vs rent.

I am in my early days of discovery but would love to hear perspective from others.

Thanks, hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Yvonne

Sam Craven · Answer

I live in the woodlands, 2 exits north of spring and have renovated and wholesales homes in spring/woodlands.  (and all over Houston)

Exxon is in fact moving their world HQ to spring.  Its not a maybe, the buildings are already going up, and personelle are already buying homes in north houston.  They are closing a lot of location across America and moving them to Houston.  12k jobs are expected to be added by Exxon alone.  But there has aleady been addition of other energy jobs to the area.  Anadarko has their HQ in the woodlands and they are building another tower next door to the current one and they are expecting to add another 3k jobs.

So to answer your questions yes, spring is a great place to invest.  It has houses to fit every investor from 50k ARV to $250k and up.

If you are looking to learn more about spring reach out to me, more than happy to work with more out of state investors looking to take advantage of the area.

Sahn L. · Answer

Rental market in Spring seems pretty strong. I recently bought a brand new single family home for about $168K with 20% down. We got two applications in two days and moved a well-qualified tenant in within a week of putting it on the market.

Jeffrey Butler · Answer

Spring is a suburb of Houston.  The rental market in Houston now is very strong as are home sales.  Most homes I've inquired about in the last three weeks, rehabbed or not, are getting multiple offers and selling the first day they are on the market.  I had three applications within 2 days the last time my duplex had a vacancy.  It is in central Houston and Spring is about 20 miles north of downtown, but I would consider Spring a thriving community now and the new Exxon campus will add to that.  I would find a realtor local to Spring and talk to them about the rental market, but given that Spring is part of the larger Houston metroplex, and Houston is economically diverse, I would suspect that quality rentals would always be in demand there.

Levar Wilson · Answer

Interesting, as Spring is very close to where I live.  I did not know about the Exxon Mobile headquarters relocation.  I would assume that by having a headquarters building there, it would bring forth jobs for those in the areas of business, energy, safety, technology, and community development they employ.  Given the approximate 30,000 employees in the Houston branch, the question remains how many would want to make the short relocation to Spring.  From a real estate perspective, I can see how the prices of homes could increase given the possibility of such an influx of personnel.

Marco Santarelli · Answer

Hi Yvonne Sheehan,

Welcome to BiggerPockets!

A large employer can definitely create demand for housing units, both buy and rent.  However, be sure and confirm that it's a done deal.  You don't want to speculate by making assumptions based on news you've heard.

The better question to ask is: Is it a good rental market now, and can you find good investment opportunities today?  I tell my clients that a real estate deal has to make sense the day you buy it.  You should never have to wait for an event to happen in order to turn a real estate purchase into a "deal".

Feel free to post any other questions you have.

Continued success!

Robert Steele · Answer

Yes please beat that dead horse. It's my favorite topic of dinner conversation at the moment. The Dallas housing market is hotter than I have ever seen it in the last 13 years I have been investing. Apparently the home builders need to play catchup after their long snooze.

Lyall Storandt · Answer

Yvonne Sheehan Hey Yvonne, welcome to Bigger Pockets!

I don't want to beat a dead horse here but, yes, the rental market in Spring (and Houston in general) is arguably hotter than it's ever been. ExxonMobil is closing their downstream headquarters in Virginia and consolidating a bunch of offices here in Houston to coincide with the construction of the new office complex in Spring.

If I had to make an educated guess, I think the rental market may have an initial spike as families relocating to the area may rent initially while looking for more permanent housing. For the folks moving down from Virginia, they'll quickly realize that their cost of living is being cut in half and will most likely look to capitalize by purchasing homes as soon as possible.

It's a good time to be a rehabber in the area.

Paul Crowson · Answer

Welcome to BP Yvonne Sheehan I have a rental in that Exxon area of North Houston, just recently re-leased....I had over a hundred applicants to choose from....and the rates have gone up since last year!   but I would very much agree with Jeffrey Butler s observations!

Levar Wilson · Answer

This sounds awesome, Sam.

Levar Wilson · Answer

Yvonne Sheehan:  Here is something that could help you out:  http://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/fair-market-rent/

Perspective on Spring Texas?

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