All Forum Posts by: Sharon Tzib

I just leased up a Katy rental for a landlord client of mine, and it took about 45 days. Granted, we were super strict on our criteria and rejected several dud applications, but just be aware homes aren't renting as quickly here as in years past, unless you relax your criteria, which I wouldn't suggest.

http://www.har.com/content/mls/?m=6&y=17&utm_source=HAR%2FMLS+Master+List&utm_campaign=45fa61a732-January+2017+MLS+Release&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5c0a7c027d-45fa61a732-252424337

Houston Real Estate Highlights in May:

• Single-family home sales rose 11.5 percent year-over-year with 8,156 units sold;
• Total property sales increased 12.3 percent with 9,744 units sold;
• Total dollar volume jumped 17.4 percent to $2.8 billion;
• The single-family home median price rose 4.4 percent to a record high of $235,000;
• The single-family home average price climbed 4.3 percent to $302,362, which was the second highest level of all time (highest was $302,629 in June 2015);
• Single-family homes months of inventory grew to a 4.1-months supply, the highest level since November 2012;
• Townhome/condominium sales surged 16.5 percent, with the average price up 3.1 percent to $206,363 and the median price up 0.9 percent to $163,500;
• Leases of single-family homes soared 31.0 percent with average rent down 4.2 percent to $1,779;
• Volume of townhome/condominium leases rocketed 46.2 percent with average rent down 6.7 percent to $1,565.

Well it's your home, so "technically" you can do any of the above with it, up to you. Renting a home for six months or as a corporate rental can be more challenging, however, since there is a smaller pool of tenants for those types of rentals, but HAR (Houston's MLS) allows you to set the term you want if you choose to advertise it there; Craigslist is very flexible.

Air BNB is a good option as long as your subdivision doesn't disallow it or something (I wouldn't buy a town home for this reason, HOA may have regulations against this). Since your schedule may not be set, it seems to me any kind of long-term lease, even six months, could be problematic if you need to return and someone is still in the middle of their term.

I'd do some research on Air BNB so you know the risks of having basically strangers staying in you home, coming and going, and the upkeep required. You are still going to need to have someone maintain the yard, wash sheets/towels in between guest (unless you require guests to do this before leaving), clean the house, etc. Basically you'll be running a vacation rental, so you'll need to put some thought into how you can accomplish this, or find a property manager who specializes in this type of property.

If you really want an LLC, you can get the mortgage in your name and title the property in the LLC's. Most lenders will allow this and many of my clients have done this. That way from Day 1 the property is in your LLC without having to circle back and do a quit claim deed.

@Anita Ahuja when I first was looking to branch out from California because rentals wouldn't cash flow any more back in '06, I settled on Indy from a referral of an investor-friend I had who had been successfully investing there for years. I purchased two properties, one of which I still own, and I've never been back to the property since. I don't feel a need to visit my rentals. Annually, I have my property manager perform an inspection and send me pictures, and that's all the verification I need the house is still standing ;)

Once you decide on a location, your first step will be finding a real estate agent. From there, they can usually hook you up with all the team members you'll need, like a lender, insurance broker, property manager, etc. (that's what I do for all my clients in Houston). Each subsequent vendor that you work with will also have referrals for you as well. Soon enough, you'll be able to find someone to do whatever it is you need in the new area.

My point is, I would not choose an area just so you can fly to it, because frankly, I think you're going to find you won't be doing that much, if at all, and your tenants certainly won't want you popping by all the time either.

As the years have gone by, one criteria I personally have developed is I don't like to invest in snow country. God forbid a tenant leaves in the middle of winter (had it happen once, broke the lease and bolted due to personal reasons). Took four months to get the house rented. No one wants to move over the winter. Longest winter of my investor life, and now I'd much prefer to buy somewhere that will have no chance of happening again. 

@Anita Ahuja when I first was looking to branch out from California because rentals wouldn't cash flow any more back in '06, I settled on Indy from a referral of an investor-friend I had who had been successfully investing there for years. I purchased two properties, one of which I still own, and I've never been back to the property since. I don't feel a need to visit my rentals. Annually, I have my property manager perform an inspection and send me pictures, and that's all the verification I need the house is still standing ;)

Once you decide on a location, your first step will be finding a real estate agent. From there, they can usually hook you up with all the team members you'll need, like a lender, insurance broker, property manager, etc. (that's what I do for all my clients in Houston). Each subsequent vendor that you work with will also have referrals for you as well. Soon enough, you'll be able to find someone to do whatever it is you need in the new area.

My point is, I would not choose an area just so you can fly to it, because frankly, I think you're going to find you won't be doing that much, if at all, and your tenants certainly won't want you popping by all the time either.

As the years have gone by, one criteria I personally have developed is I don't like to invest in snow country. God forbid a tenant leaves in the middle of winter (had it happen once, broke the lease and bolted due to personal reasons). Took four months to get the house rented. No one wants to move over the winter. Longest winter of my investor life, and now I'd much prefer to buy somewhere that will have no chance of happening again. 

I think @Lee Ripma did a good job of summing up your dilemma, but instead of paying 1M and acquiring 50 properties to reach your goal, you could consider buying say 13 $150K properties that cash flow $200 month, spending $390,000 in down payment ($449,000 w/ closing costs) and then snowballing the mortgages so that eventually they are all free in clear. This would give you about $10K/month in cash flow once you're done. You would, of course, be losing the mortgage interest deduction, but it's a way to increase cash flow without purchasing more properties or paying refi costs, etc. Just one more idea....

And while snowballing can go pretty fast once you get a few paid off, this strategy would probably take longer than ten years to accomplish, however, so take that into account (but maybe saving 1M would too, not sure of your financial capabilities).

There's limited multi-family inventory in Houston in areas where most people would want to actually live themselves, and even if you do find one, it will probably be older and require some repairs/updates, which may not be a problem for you, but you'll have to find a lender who can give you a rehab loan, or look for the elusive property that passes a lender's appraisal process and doesn't have any major structural or system deficiencies. In my experience, you may be able to cover about 50% of your expenses, but that varies from deal to deal.

I find that most buyers who start down this path here quickly abandon it and purchase a starter single family home that they can turn into a rental down the road. I've helped many investors do just that. 

Be careful in Houston of non-solicitation neighborhoods. It's usually well posted at the entrance of a subdivision, and the residents do not take kindly to folks ignoring the rule. I find door knocking is so off-putting to people these days that it would be self-defeating for me to even try it. Even door hangers make residents upset now because they feel like you are leaving a big sign on their property that they aren't home if in fact they aren't there to take them in fast enough. I mostly stick to the U.S. mail, and not trying to dissuade you, just wanted to give you some tips to be aware of.

@Jonathan Jaime Velarde there's pros and cons to investing in your own backyard vs. out-of-state. I personally have done both, and to invest out-of-state, you need a really good team in place to handle all those things you can't. Once you have a team set up, it runs on auto-pilot for the most part (although you will still have to "manage the manager").

More important than the where to me, however, is what your returns will be. I would not invest in CA just so I could be close to my properties if it was strictly an appreciation play. I was in this exact scenario in 2006 when I lived in N Cal and decide to purchase rentals in Indy.

No right or wrong decision, but the economy of where you buy, the returns you can get, and your confidence in assembling a team and sleeping at night with said team in place are all very important factors to consider.