In Houston, you can either invest locally or explore strong Texas markets like San Antonio (affordable duplexes, strong job market), DFW suburbs (duplex-friendly zoning, growing economy), or Houston suburbs (Spring, Cypress, The Woodlands for good schools and tenant demand).

Does focusing on macro trends (Population growth, rental and appreciation growth, good jobs) offset the 1% rule?

Maybe start with some smaller jobs before going all in.

The combination of its growing tech & healthcare sector, long-term resilience to climate change, and relative affordability makes it an interesting place to start our real estate journey.I spent a big part of my career in hospitality real estate consulting at a Big 4 firm, but I left to explore new opportunities and decided it was finally time to take the leap into real estate investing.

In my day job I’m an ops professional who manages a tech stack and efficiency is important.

Tech is still wicked strong in CA but, that's being challenged now in a way never before, and getting some traction.

In the past 10 years, Ocala has greatly improved the employment base, adding tons of logistics and distribution jobs on top of the medical, service and equestrian jobs that we have always had. 

And if they have been at the same job for 10+ years where you know you’ll be able to garnish their wages easily.

Another factor is we both work full time jobs so it’s difficult for us to scale as quickly as we would like to but if we can take these early profits that would change things. 

This way I can see pictures of the applicant, their living conditions, people they're associated with and their job.