All Forum Posts by: Brian Nel

That's a lot of neighborhoods wrapped up in what you listed, but yes, as you stated not the best neighborhoods. I personally wouldn't want to live in any of those areas myself and I don't foresee them appreciating any time soon (personal opinion). If you buy into those less desirable areas, how long are you willing to wait for values to come up? And even then, if you've only bought a townhome on a tiny parcel of land, what have you accomplished? If you're banking on holding the land until gentrification takes hold, you're going to want more than a 1600 sqft lot. 

At the prices you mentioned, you're really not constrained to C and D areas at all. If you're looking at properties all the way into the 600s there's many neighborhoods I'd be looking in before there. In my humble opinion, I would be looking towards Independence Heights if you want to get in cheap and expect gentrification to follow soon after. Proximity to the Heights as well as Oak Forest is desirable and there's lots of variety in land such as single family, larger tracts of land etc. The developers haven't (yet) hit it too hard. 

Thanks for the stats. Does anyone have predictions about how either of these will affect the Houston housing market?

• Global market uncertainty around COVID-19
• Largest drop in oil price in decades to a level predicted to be sustained for at least 2-3 years?

The second point of even higher interest to myself because while everywhere will feel the effects of the current pandemic, oil price and company performance is especially correlated to Houston's economy. 

The upside to STR is higher income potential and yes you can block time for personal use. Check to ensure there are no regulations in your area that preclude STR. The laws are changing all the time.

Be aware as well that STR has a significantly larger "hospitality" component than long term rentals. Some guests will expect niceties as if they're staying in a four star hotel and rate you poorly when you can't or are unwilling to provide. You will also need to coordinate or automate the check in/out and turnover process.

Finding quality and reliable contractors. You only really have to go through the pain once until you have your phone book built out with your "guy" for each job but you might go through several contractors before finding them. 

Electrical, paint, plumbing, pest, lawn service, cleaning, etc, 2-3 tries for each one until you find someone that's reliable and competitively priced is not much fun. 

@James Carlson how are there so many large (entire) homes listed on the platforms when STR a non-primary residence is not allowed? Is it people blatantly ignoring the law or somehow abiding by the rules such that is can still be considered a primary residence?

There’s great information in this thread already, thanks. I’m trying to accomplish something similar. 

If the property is not a duplex but instead a house with ADU, could the ADU be owner occupied and the main property be a STR? (I know this is unorthodox but is what I currently do in Texas.)

I've enjoyed working with Richard Weaver and his fees are reasonable.
https://www.weaverlawyers.com/Attorneys/Richard-D-Weaver.shtml

 I believe you're correct. The Texas tax law is really unfortunate in that sense. You retain whatever the previous homeowner had until the next tax year. That goes both ways. If the property was the previous owner's homestead and it's not your homestead, you still get the benefit the remainder of the year. 

Does the current owner have the property with a homestead exemption? You can check on the HCAD site. 

The homestead provides about a 20% reduction in taxes which in Harris county is significant. Our tax assessor's policy is that owner occupied homes, including duplexes will be zoned multifamily so the tax office really don't care/investigate about house hacking. If the deed your name is on is your permanent address, you may homestead it. The return would definitely be impacted without the exemption but probably not enough to sway it from being a deal. 

I've sent you a PM with a contact of a law firm I've worked with that I was happy with.