Good investment areas - Houston

[Michael P.]

So we've never owned a house. We're in a good position, have enough saved up. We're thinking about house hacking so we can get the first house as a primary and understand a bit about the process. We don't really know much, but it's getting to the point where I need to experience and move on something before I can better my strategy. Questions come up though, I had the spring area in my mind as that's where I've been renting myself. Great school district and low crime. But all the houses are mid 70's and older. (Pretty old for modern Houston) The areas I live didn't flood either so that's a major plus. But I'm concerned as the folks that live on my street don't really keep things top notch, the houses are clearly getting older not refurbished and the HOA is rather lenient. I hate HOAs but I do see the point to some extent. So my concern is, while these houses go for cheap (less than 200k) the neighborhood doesn't really show any signs of getting better. It's a great area, how can I tell if the area will likely improve in later years? Gives me a bad feeling the more I look around haha, it's not ghetto by any means but it's not necessarily promising either....somewhat of a gamble in my eyes. My basic plan of attack: I'd like to attempt house hacking initially, get a feel for owning a house, renting things out, and working it that way. Next logical step to me would be buy another house and rent out the previous and so on...unless I learn more about flipping or wholesale or...etc. So main question for now; how do you guys analyze an area and figure out if it's going to provide a safe place to invest?