IT Professional · Houston, TX · Member since 2015 · 101 posts · 47 votes
hi there,
I am pretty new to real estate investing. I would like to find my first property in Houston in invest in. I am positioning myself to be buy & hold. From talking to people and listening to pod casts, it seems like multi family property would be a better deal than a single family property to get my hands on.
I would like to get some feed back on that from those who invest in Houston area. Is that true here in the Houston market? Would I be able to find those deals on har.com? What's the price range for those?
I would like to hear the pro's and con's from those who have managed/invested in multi family properties in Houston as well.
Investor · Cypress, TX · Member since 2014 · 496 posts · 205 votes
11y
With small multi (2-4 units), you can often get higher cash flow relative to price vs single family. But while you still have only one roof and one insurance policy, you have multiple tenants, water heaters, AC, stoves, etc. so your maintenance is higher, too. And your turnover. You need to look at the numbers. Also, be careful buying these in managed communities where they are essentially like condos. There are plenty of posts on the downsides of condos.
Apartment buildings with 5+ units is a different animal. Plenty of info on that on BP too.
Investor · Cypress, TX · Member since 2014 · 496 posts · 205 votes
11y
With small multi (2-4 units), you can often get higher cash flow relative to price vs single family. But while you still have only one roof and one insurance policy, you have multiple tenants, water heaters, AC, stoves, etc. so your maintenance is higher, too. And your turnover. You need to look at the numbers. Also, be careful buying these in managed communities where they are essentially like condos. There are plenty of posts on the downsides of condos.
Apartment buildings with 5+ units is a different animal. Plenty of info on that on BP too.
Professional · Cypress, TX · Member since 2015 · 309 posts · 17 votes
11y
@Iman Yu, I would say that a 2-4 unit property may be easier to manage while you get more experience under your belt. If you need help looking at any properties or property management, just let me know.
Manvel, TX · Member since 2014 · 309 posts · 127 votes
11y
One thing to remember when listening to podcast guests discuss small multi-families is that we do not have near the quantity of those as they do in some places. On the recent podcast with Brie Schmidt, I think she said that properties in the Chicago area were more than 50% multi-family. I hope I'm not misquoting her! In any case, Houston has nothing like those numbers. It's probably because this is Texas, and we have lots of land. In parts of the country where the population is more dense, it would make more sense to build multi-families.
IT Professional · Houston, TX · Member since 2015 · 101 posts · 47 votes
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@doug McLeod
Thank you for your input. Those are great points. I'm mostly interested in duplex at this point. I noticed on har there isn't an east way to filter those down. Are there other venue that we can use to find small multi family properties like duplexes in Houston area?
IT Professional · Houston, TX · Member since 2015 · 101 posts · 47 votes
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@Leigh Ann Smith I'm noticing the same thing that you've mentioned here. I am looking in mostly area right outside of Houston area. I am looking for properties between 110k to 150k range in areas like Pearland, Spring, Baytown or Katy area. I am not seeing much in that range as single family properties...I definitely don't see nay multi family ones.
Houston, TX · Member since 2014 · 34 posts · 9 votes
11y
@Iman Yu I am not sure why you can't find SFH in 110-150k range. I think we have many SFH in that range in each town you mentioned. It won't be at the prime location in those particular cities though. Property at about 100k can be rented about $1100 or $1200 so it won't be too hard to cash flow. 2-4 units is just hard to come by in Houston, specially one in a good area.
Manvel, TX · Member since 2014 · 309 posts · 127 votes
11y
@Iman Yu, we have visited some houses referred to us by wholesalers, but we haven't found anything yet that worked for us. Or, I should say that there was always someone willing to pay more than what we thought was a reasonable price!