New member from Dallas

[Jessica G.]

Hello friends,

My name is Jessica and I live with my husband and kids just north of Dallas.

In 2011, my husband and I became reluctant landlords when we needed to move to a different suburb, but but the house we bought in 2006 had tanked in value. (It's better now.)

Three years into it, I've realized what a great investment model this is, and we want to start buying more properties. Right now I'm in learning mode. We're hoping to acquire another SFR in the next year or so, and build from there.

I have lots of questions, but I'll save those for the appropriate forums!

[John Chapman]

Okay, @Jessica G. and @Curtis C. , my thoughts on Tarrant are as follows. First, my experience/perception is that it's easier to find deals with equity in them in Tarrant. That is, you can find deals at a discount with less competition. I believe this is still the case compared to Dallas, but I will say that it has gotten much more competitive compared to a year or two ago. Second, I like dealing with the cities in Tarrant. I have found that they building inspections/code enforcement is very easy to work with, and they are not looking to punish you for being a landlord. Third, I like the Tarrant appraisal district better than Dallas and Collin county appraisal districts. (I've got rentals in all three counties.) I have had a lot of issues fighting with Collin County over appraised values, but Tarrant is much more reasonable. If I had to guess why, it's probably because the millage rate is lower in Collin, and Collin needs the higher appraised values to support the tax base. Fourth, I like the courts/jury pools better in Tarrant. (Collin County is very good on this point as well.) Collin and Tarrant are both very conservative jurisdictions with conservative jury pools. If there's a personal injury case, landlord/tenant dispute, or an eviction case, I would much rather be in Tarrant or Collin County as opposed to Dallas if I'm a landlord. (If you do this business long enough, you will have something like this happen.) I really don't say this to knock the Dallas Courts, because they are good as well. It's just that I like the other two counties better from a landlord perspective. (BTW, these are very real considerations that lawyers take into account when valuing cases.) Fifth, I believe that Tarrant has a lot more room to grow (property value wise) than Dallas. It's more affordable, and one can live in the mid-cities and literally commute to Dallas or Fort Worth. That's a pretty great location. Sixth,it's kind of hard to mess up in Tarrant. Even the really bad parts of town aren't as bad as the bad parts of Dallas.