Tampa, FL · Member since 2020 · 60 posts · 43 votes
Hello BiggerPockets Community,
I'm looking to buy my first investment property in San Antonio, Texas. My fiancee is Air Force and we will be moving to San Antonio in March of 2021. I've lived in Florida my whole life and have only visited San Antonio once. I'm looking for advice from people familiar with the area on a good spot to purchase my first investment property. We'd like the property to be a single family home within a 20 minute radius of Fort Sam Houston Air Force Base. Our budget is 180k and we would like 2+ bed and bath. We will be living in the property for a year and renting after, so there can be some small portions of the property we are willing to fix along the way. We are hoping to find a family friendly area with a low crime rate and good schools nearby. Can anyone with knowledge on the area give me any pointers?
The Northeast side of San Antonio will have what you are looking for. Live Oak is a great spot that puts you in the middle of Fort Sam Houston and Randolph AFB. Other options are Converse, Selma, and Universal City. I purchased a SFH for 130k in Converse and a SFH in Live Oak for 240k. Duplexes in this area are around 200k if house-hacking fits your family's life style.
Check out Live Oak which is about 15 minutes away from Fort Sam Houston AFB. It fits your criteria. I am under contract for a property in Live Oak right now.
The Northeast side of San Antonio will have what you are looking for. Live Oak is a great spot that puts you in the middle of Fort Sam Houston and Randolph AFB. Other options are Converse, Selma, and Universal City. I purchased a SFH for 130k in Converse and a SFH in Live Oak for 240k. Duplexes in this area are around 200k if house-hacking fits your family's life style.
Converse is one of the better suited areas of San Antonio for your needs. Very competitive right now but given your priorities and the fact that you're buying for your family first and investing second, you might be able to beat the others just by paying a bit more. Live oak wouldn't be a bad fit either, very close-by.
Can anyone shed some light into MFH vs SFH in SATX? Is there a large rental market for MFH or is it generally SFH, if we are talking about the $100k-$200k range?
Matthew Kuhn and Chris Bodden, San Antonio has a much larger SFH pool of options than multi-families. The MFHs are out there but it is very competitive and often over-priced, in my opinion. If your price point is under 200k you will have a much easier time finding single families.
Hi Jack, I just moved to San Antonio from San Diego Ca in October 2019. Looking back on my experience of moving here I would suggest the following.
1. Find a GREAT Realtor- Ours helped us by sending video's of properties for us to look at while we were still in San Diego. She also was the ONLY realtor who followed-up 100% of the time... 100%!
2. You are not going to really know where you want to live until you're here for a minute. Consider focusing on buying an investment property first. Make sure you can rent it and recoup your mortgage and make a little cash flow. Once you feel like you know where you want to live, rent that puppy out and buy YOUR home.
I still consider myself to be a SA newbie, but if there is anything I can do just reach out!
@Lisa Carter - I just moved here from Sacramento June of 2019 so I agree feel like a newbie too. We went straight into a house to live in just would have been too big of a headache to move twice especially with an elementary age student.
That said I'll do it in reverse and look for an investment property now but a good agent (specialist with investors) is going to be key #1.
For that price range under 200K single family properties are a better fit. If you go into smaller multi-family, especially in rent ready condition, you will have to compete with the FHA house-hack crowd and they can afford to pay more than a regular investor. Under 150K is extremely competitive at the moment, especially in the more desirable areas of San Antonio. My personal recommendation would be to explore properties between 150-200K or so. If you can find something with a 1% or more rent rate and get some equity when you purchase that is ideal. Also happy to discuss the market and experience with anyone who would like to know more.
I would also recommend @Cassie Villela for agency and property management. We have worked together on a couple deals where I provided the property to the buyer and she took care of property management. She also has a meet up every other Tuesday which I would recommend.