Househacking in Houston SFH

[Alejandro B Yoon]

Hey all, I am about to finish college in Austin and accepted an offer to work in an Accounting firm in Houston in May (near West University place), I am already preapproved and now analyzing the market and plan on lowballing some sellers in a few weeks. For reference, I am a licensed agent and have managed my mothers rentals in Austin who rents by the room (I introduced her to RE investing when I got my license a few years ago). So I am very familiar with how to analyze a deal and what to look for.

I've been visiting Houston every week and looking at areas and analyzing rents by contacting apartment buildings and other rent by the room listings, and currently in-between Golfcrest/Bellfort/Reveille and Meadowbrook/Allendale; both seem like decent neighborhoods with lower crime and aren't over 20 minutes away from my job. I was able to find a few 5-6 bed houses listed at <280k that are rent ready but ideally need 5-15k of work. Also been doing some numbers and it seems like both properties would cashflow pretty well but I don't think I will see much of an appreciation in value of the home after fixing floors/walls/bathrooms.

I am curious as to what to expect with appreciation in Houston, the higher CPI reports are telling me that the FED will keep hiking rates and prices will continue to drop as purchasing power decreases, and either way I don't see much of a margin to be made with the ARV of comp properties. Is most wealth from Houstonians RE investors made from cashflow or appreciation? What strategy are you guys using in your RE journey?