Newbie Investor in Houston Looking For Any Advice I Can Get

[Mark Gilford]

Hello all.  I am a transplant from New Orleans and have been living in Katy for about 3 years.  I have always had a passion for real estate and am at a point where I want to jump in and start building my portfolio.  I have helped a friend flip a few houses in New Orleans after Katrina so I have a little experience with that but nothing with the buy and hold strategy.  There is so much I am unsure of but I started listening to the BP podcasts, reading the books, and exploring the forums and am slowly starting to build up my knowledge but have a long way to go.  A main theme I have been hearing is to just take the plunge and buy the first property.  It seems the Houston market is a tough one to start in but am willing to give it a try.  My thought process is to focus on Duplex properties around 120K by hospitals or universities that need some rehab.  BP has definitely given me some ideas for prospecting and knowing it will take a great deal of hustle I am ready to execute.  I just wanted to introduce myself and would definitely appreciate any advice or knowledge anyone would like to pass along.  Hopefully I can have a chance to meet some of you as I am always game for grabbing a cup of coffee (or whisky) my treat.  

[Axel Norvell]

Hi @Mark Gilford! I'm a beginner as well looking to build a buy & hold rental portfolio.

I've learned a ton so far from books, BiggerPockets, and meetups.

So far I've been to a few local real estate meetups in the area, and here's my thoughts on each:

1. Wholesale Nation:
https://www.meetup.com/HPP-Wholesalers-Network/events/
This is a wholesalers meetup, but I personally found it pretty valuable. They gave me a lot of insights into the working of a deal, how to find deals, how wholesalers think of different types of investors (flippers, landlords etc). They also didn't try to sell me anything which is a huge bonus.

There was also a lot of people from a variety of backgrounds. I have a great conversation with one guy who has been landlording for over 10 years. He actually finds all of his deals himself by browsing facebook, craigslist and other websites.

Overall would recommend.

2. Quest Trust Meetup:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/740282-texas-real-estate-educational-physical-meetup-for-beginners

This meetup was just ok in my opinion. To be fair, I arrived a few minutes late, but from what I saw there wasn't much of a meet and greet component to it, more of just a presentation on a platform they were selling.

I did get good learning and insights from the speakers who had an open QA where anyone could ask questions. After the presentation, a few of us had a good long conversation with the speaker.

I got the overall vibe and feeling that they were only there to sell you on using their platform which seemed to be built around the more passive investor who just wants to put money in and get money out.

With that said, I still met a few people from this meetup who I intend on keeping in touch with. That alone is worth going.

3. The Event in Katy
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-event-in-katy-tickets-69013458111

This was a great event that combined both meet and greet with a talk from an experienced local investor. There was also a good mix of wholesalers, investors and hard-money lenders.

4. Jet Lending Event (I'm planning on going to this):
https://jetlending.com/real-estate-investing/

A hard-money lender and investor I met with referred me to this event, so I'm going to check it out

I hope that helps highlight some good REI meetups for you!