Investing in Rural Areas Near Houston

[Mark Sewell]

It guess I've stumbled onto something with my marketing reach, because I am getting leads lately from small towns about 30-40 minutes outside the city -- places like Wallis and Cleveland and so forth.  

Maybe this is a good thing, but I find it really hard to do comps on those properties.  I am wondering if others are investing in the smaller communities around us here and how are you dealing with the lack of data.

In particular, I struggle putting value on the land.  A lot of these little places are building-poor but land rich, eg. some crappy 2 bedroom sitting on a 2 acre parcel.   Or the house is decent but it has issues, like foundation cracking, etc.  

Anyway, if any of you are playing in this space, reach out and let's compare some notes.

[Matt Smith]

Rural investing for buy and hold has been very good to me over the years. Houston numbers falling short compared to the profits I've been seeing from small towns. Why buy and hold? Prices lower and rents good. As for financing, or refinancing, this is where the problems arise. Unless it's in the path of progress, banks will balk at lending, or refinancing. Comps will be tricky. So for buy and hold, absolutley. For flips, and or BRRR, maybe be prepared to hold in case they end up on the market too long. I invest in Brazoria, Kenedy, Karnes City, and Houston.