All Forum Posts by: Thomas Fraiz

I found a SFH on a large lot that has a detached 4-car garage in the back. The house is actually in pretty good condition and doesn't need much except for some cosmetic repairs and maybe reframing in the kitchen/living area to open up the square footage a bit. My biggest interest in the property is converting the garge to an ADU, which I think can bring in ~$1200/month in rent.

Does anyone have experience doing this in the Houston area? Specifically looking for any recommendations for contractors who have done similar jobs and can navigate the permitting process efficiently. Also wondering what snags people have run into with regard to zoning laws and/or deed restrictions, etc.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Put together a quick word document that outlines a market analysis for small multifamily and/or single family rentals. What other information, metrics, etc. am I missing that you would want to know about an area prior to investing there? What other sources of info have you found helpful when doing market analysis on a new area? Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Market Analysis

Zip code:

Crime data (www.crimereports.com/)

• Gross assessment:
• Invisible borders?
• Drug abuse?

Schools (www.greatschools.org)

• Elementary:
• Middle school:
• High school:

Employment characteristics (www.city-data.com/)

• Unemployment rate:
• Employment appears permanent/stable or temporary?

Population characteristics (www.usa/com/rank)

• Population:
• Population growth:
• Population density:
• Population compared to other cities in state:
• Fast growing area?

Housing characteristics (www.census.gov/construction/nrc)

• Housing starts?
• Building permits?
• Analysis: Overbuilt Underbuilt Stable

Transportation

• Access to freeways?
• Access to public transportation?
• General road condition:
• Presence of major intersections?

Major local businesses (proximity 3 miles)

• Grocery store:
• Major retailer (Target, Walmart, etc.):
• Additional shopping:
• Restaurants:

Price-to-Rent Ratio (www.zillow.com/research/data)

• Median monthly rental price =
• Median sales price =
• P-R Ratio =

Vacancy rates:

Property tax rate:

100-year floodplain? (https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search#searchresultsanchor): Yes No

Thanks so much for your feedback, guys. I just started my journey into real estate last week, so your comments are much appreciated. I attended Brandon's webinar for The S.M.A.R.T. Way to Invest in Rental properties last night, so some of the assumptions that I made were taken from the "quick and dirty" examples that he worked through with us. It sounds like some of the assumptions I made are reasonable, while others would clearly need to be refined before seriously pursuing this as an opportunity. 

@Marcus Auerbach your insight for Capex and repair expenses were helpful as it really helps me to have the determining factors clearly defined + understanding how those expenses are so closely tied to property condition.

@Jaysen Medhurst I appreciate the points you made about some of factors that weren't included in the analysis. For many of those I was unable to find the information/not sure where to look. When you're unable to find certain pieces of information for an initial analysis, do you tend to omit those or just make your best guess? As far as researching the foreclosure, this was an area where I wasn't sure what resource to be looking at. I used $55k below the asking price because, from what I could find, the property was listed at what the estimated property value is, so it seemed odd to me that the presumed full amount of the loan was still left to be paid. Do you have a preferred go-to resource for foreclosure research?

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.