Top Spots to Flip in San Antonio and Why

Every person who has seen a show about flipping real estate and comes into my office has the same idea of what they want to do in the business.  "I want a 3/2/2 with 30% equity, Northeast or Northwest side of town, that I can make at least twenty grand using hard money, and needs only cosmetic updates."  My response is always, "Yeah, me too.  If I had something like that I wouldn't sell it to you, I'd keep it myself...  It turns out that no one is going to give you $20,000 to carpet and paint a house, if you want to make money you're going to have to put in some pretty serious work."  To help new investors figure out what and where they need to be looking at I've comprised a list of areas I see moving.

Monticello Park

Check out my article about Jimmy's rehab project.  He got that house under contract in less than two weeks.  When I run comps out in Monticello I can't find a house in decent shape that has been on the market for more than 30 days which is your number one reason to buy here.  Houses have after repair values of around 170-220k but move unbelievably fast.  Most properties have mother in law's quarters as well adding an additional structure with a 1/1 apartment in the back.

http://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/Districts/Monticello.aspx

Windcrest

I have another article on buying houses in Windcrest that I posted earlier in the year.  You're going to be doing foundation repair 95% of the time, average age of the population is around 60, and you're going to see a lot of wood paneling and intercom systems.  ARV's are around 180-200k and days on market are around 60.  Lot's of retired vets from Ft. Sam live here and if you're doing any roof replacement you're likely going to throw a 30 year composite on it, just try not to choose green as a color. 

Tobin Hill

This area is dynamite and red hot for investors looking to flip.  Located between Trinity University, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio College, downtown, the McNay art museum, and the Whittie, this is and will be the spot for investors to seriously capitalize on rehabbing houses for the foreseeable future.  As of today you're going to see two types of houses in Tobin, ones that have been rehabbed and are being purchased by families returning from the far North suburbs to be closer to downtown and those that are falling apart and are ripe for the picking.  Lot's of pier and beam which means you're going to do some foundation correction but on the light side, it's a lot cheaper than slab work with low costs if anything goes wrong with plumbing.  ARV's from 150-200 depending on size and days on market 

45-60.

Monte Vista

Similar story to Monticello Park and just North of Tobin Hill, Monte Vista is the next neighborhood on your way to Olmos Park.  ARV's in the area look around 250-400k, depending on size, but you can expect to be doing a lot of work to achieve those prices.  Most houses with investor potential are going to need not just your average cosmetic and foundation repair but reconfiguration of interior layout in addition to major exterior work.  On the plus side, they sell quick at right around 60 days after listing.  You can expect to see some strange things when looking at these houses like copper roofs, three story houses (uncommon for San Antonio), basements, etc.  A lot of these quirky items can have major resell value and should be considered an asset rather than a deterrent.  Just remember the location of Monte Vista is ideal and that a good rehab will sell.  I envision a rehab here as being a house that was built in the 40's and trying to bring it up to a new build house today on the interior.

Alamo Heights

Best area to buy in San Antonio, enough said.  You can't overspend in Alamo Heights.  If you spend 15k on a kitchen instead of 5k you can simply raise your sales price 10k and get your money back.  You can't do that on a 135k house on the Northside.  You can add a couple hundred square feet to the house.  Why not? The price per square foot that houses are selling at is actually substantially higher than the cost of adding square footage to a house.  78209 zip code with AHISD schools are the most desirable houses in town.  It's been my experience that most investors in this area are going to be pros in this area and that newer investors are more hesitant to take on a project here.  It doesn't need to be that way with a good contractor and a good backside agent.  This is one of the best areas to attack using hard money financing.  As far as stats - you can rehab a house and sell it in Alamo Heights for anywhere between $250,000 and $1,500,000.  I see the average as around 400k with about 45 days on the market.

Northwood

I didn't even know this area existed until I started getting into the business more aggressively.  Close to 410 and Harry Wurzbach you can find houses worth 350k-450k.  A little bit farther south you can find houses in the 180-250k range.  Days on market in both the North and South areas hover around 60 days.  Some houses are NOT in AHISD which is important to consider for resale.  There's nothing exceptionally tricky to take into consideration when flipping a house here aside from that it needs to be well done.