New Buy and Hold Investor from Conroe, TX (North of Houston)

[Christopher Burton]

Hey BP Community! My name is Chris and I'm looking to get into Real Estate Investing in my local area. I've enjoyed reading through a lot of threads here on BP, and I've listened to probably about 1/3 of the podcasts. I'm looking to buy and hold in the Spring/Woodlands/Conroe/Willis area. I feel like I have a good amateur knowledge of deal analysis from my reading and podcast listening, but I still am having a hard time finding any deals in my area.

My criteria are 100-150K home price, bought at 10% below market (or bought at 15-20% below market, including rehab cost) with price:rent ratio being around 1-1.1. I've been looking mostly at stuff on the MLS with another local investor/broker, and have spoken with another local investor. Any tips on better ways to find deals? I've just been looking for a few weeks, so perhaps I just need to be more patient. Thanks for the help, and it's great to be part of the community!