All Forum Posts by: Turner Wright

Do a search for the keyword 'Houston' in Bigger Pockets to read up on several posts that relate to Houston's market.  Many people have already answered questions about whether it is still worth investing in.  You will get a mix of yes and no, as well, as what neighborhoods are better than other neighborhoods.  And, also click here for a link to REI meetups in Houston. My favorite is North Houston REI.

Hey Brian!  I hear Sunnyside is a great area to invest.  How did you find your property and why did you pick Houston to invest?

Houston is tough, but doable.  Find local meetups on meetup.com and follow their schedule.  Many have meetings online with really good guests.  What type of team do you have in Chicago and what are your plans here?

Hey Mark, welcome to the community!  If you are serious about real estate investing then don't waste your time reading fluffy, feel good material.  And, stay away from gurus, especially, self-proclaimed gurus.  Spend your valuable time, instead, studying about all aspects of real estate investing, like: 

1. -BRRRR, Flipping/Holding, Wholesaling, Owner-Financing, Notes, Driving 4 Dollars, etc. Learn what they each are, how they work, and how to do it.
2. -Read about the different lending strategies there are and invest your time talking to different lenders to learn how different they are from each other and the different programs and rates they offer.  
3. -Learn about lead generation and the different creative financing strategies there are to help you better close a deal with a motivated seller.  
4. -Learn how to calculate ARV and practice using the BP calculators.
5. -Learn how to calculate rehab costs.  
6. -And, while you are at it, join several local meetups, like North Houston REI and 713 Houston Area REI, and Facebook groups.

Bigger Pockets is a great resource to learn about all of this.  Between the articles, podcasts, videos, and endless discussions, you will learn a lot.  But, don't limit yourself to just BP.  There are books, too, but you don't need to buy them.  Use Google to help you understand better how thinks work and what different terms are.  Everyday, you should be learning about something.

If you need to be pumped up by a bunch of feel-good success stories then you are in the wrong business, in my opinion.  Real estate investing in Hard Work.  Sure, you can always just buy one or two houses, but if you are someone who wants 'financial freedom' or enough passive income to live on, then you have to buckle down and work your butt off!  Work it like you own a real estate business.  Just sayin'! 

Hello fellow investors!

I've noticed so many names of owners in my lead generation are named Current Owner in the Houston, TX area. Is this a tactic used by investors? Is this how they hide from marketing schemes by the REI community? Is it poor skip tracing? And, is it worth my time and money to market them?

I'm new and almost went with a mentor I met at a local meetup.  He took interest in me, because, I was willing to visit properties and knock on doors, as well, as having 20+ years construction experience.  He told me that the more I brought to the table, the more I would get out of a closed deal.  This included money, too.  One scenario he gave me was, visit properties he assigned me, put some money down on a closed lead, manage the rehab completely, and I would get 60+% of the profit on a flip or the cash flows generated.  He declined to work with him after feeling he was playing games with me.

Another possible mentor was a big-time wholesaler with a marketing budget of $20-30,000 a month.  He has a nice office on the west side of town and a 5-man team to manage the leads.  He offered to share every aspect of the business, including how it works and how I could grow my wholesaling business as big as his if I could drive4dollars and phone call leads.  His business was focusing, mainly, on the return calls/emails/texts of leads he was marketing to and not on identifying distressed homes or follow-up phone calls.  I was ALL IN and anxious to get started, but then COVID hit after the third meeting and we haven't met, since.

In both scenarios, I had something to offer; albeit, nothing to compare to the wealth of knowledge and experience they were willing to provide me!  But, this just goes to show how great and helpful the investing community is and how important it is to network.  Today, I have my own small-scale wholesaling business I'm building up every month.  It didn't quite work out working with mentors the way I wanted, but I'm glad I wasn't depending on them or anyone else to get started.  And, I'm glad I didn't fork out thousands of dollars to learn the business!

I'm not understanding your plan of marketing and pitching what looks like a good deal to investors in different forums for a split of the proceeds.  Ordinarily, you close on a deal and assign it to a buyer for a fee.  You will, either, go to your preferred buyers and/or promote the lead on different forums or groups.  But, you won't 'split' the deal with anyone, unless you are considering partnering with someone on a FLIP or HOLD for share of the cashflows.

Per Jhoana Olarte just an hour ago on another thread: 

Following a strong performance in June, single-family home sales soared into record-setting territory in July, leaping 23.0 percent year-over-year with 10,975 units sold – a record one-month sales volume;

• -The Days on Market (DOM) figure for single-family homes expanded from 51 to 56 days;
• -Total property sales soared 25.0 percent with a record-setting 13,043 units sold;
• -Total dollar volume shot up 33.8 percent to $4.1 billion;
• -The single-family home median price set a new record high of $271,830 as it rose 8.7 percent year-over year;
• -The single-family home average price jumped 8.5 percent to $338,350 – also an historic high;
• -Single-family homes months of inventory was at a 3.0-months supply, down from 4.2 months last July and below the national inventory level of 4.0 months;
• -Townhome/condominium sales were flat, with the average price up 9.9 percent to $223,190 and the median price up 12.3 percent to $183,000;
• -Single-family home rentals rose 2.9 percent with the average rent up 1.8 percent to $1,940;
• -Townhome/condominium leases increased 6.9 percent with the average rent unchanged at $1,659.

Source: HAR

She just posted this information and will, more likely, get a great response.  It's looking great for the foreseeable future, but these are just 'overall' numbers.  Certain areas are, definitely, not seeing this kind of action.  Follow her thread, here, and learn from others responding to her post!

This is great information!  A few of us were just having a discussion about the real estate market and how well it is doing.  As a Houston realtor, what areas around town do you believe are HOT and where are they NOT?  And, do you have an opinion where RE investors might want to focus their activity?

Welcome to the REI community! You are in an exciting position--learning and ready to purchase your first property! I suggest you network as much as you can, especially, with wholesalers who can find discounted properties for you. BP is a good start, but there are a lot of local Houston clubs you can join on meetup.com, like, North Houston REI, 713 Houston Area REI, Houston Wholesaler Network, and others.  Your two businesses will interest a lot of investors who may wish to contract your services on their own flips and rehabs.  Building these relationships will not only help you obtain more work for your businesses, but they can offer a wealth of experienced knowledge and information to kick-start your RE investing!

Also, as your are driving in and out of neighborhoods working on roofs and power washing, you should keep an eye out for distressed homes.  There is a great market in approaching owners with homes that look like they are not take care of who might be motivated to sell to you at a discount.  Download the Deal Machine app to log these properties and to learn who the owners are, skip-trace their contact information, and mail post cards to their home.  You can always knock on their door too!  Check out a video describing what the App is and what it can do for you, here.

Lastly, check out this presentation I saw yesterday hosted by Gabe Rodarte with North Houston REI, here.  His guest AG Gupta with Real Acquisitions goes over the Texas markets, job growth, where to invest, the Houston market, SA market, Austin, and DF market.  He covers a lot of information--very informative!

@Mark Sewell I agree that AG nailed it.  What a great presentation!  @Vinh Tran You missed a great presentation by AG Gupt with Real Acquisitions that answers your questions. It was hosted by Gabe Rodarte with North Houston REI, and you can view the video, here.  He covers Texas markets at the micro-level, including job growth, where it's hot, where it is trending, etc, just like you were asking.