All Forum Posts by: Cindy Carriger

76148 is the Watauga zip, but also the surrounding ones as well. You can google for a zip code map of Tarrant Co. I don't invest in the southwest, just because of distance, but many deals seem to come up for the zips 76133 & 76123. I found a good zip map (can’t post a link, or maybe this will work!

http://www.completerealtydfw.com/FW_Zip_codes.php#

....but it is on CompleteRealtyDFW under the MAPS tab. {I am NOT affiliated with that website} This website has several area maps, including one for the Real Estate MLS Boundary's which might be helpful if dealing with Agents. For more details about investing in our area, see below.

Actually any of Tarrant i think is good for a typical RE Investor (not someone who might be working a certain niche, like historic homes, etc.), keeping away from the 'inner-city' of Ft Worth, and concentrating on the Loop 820 radius, just inside a couple of miles as well as outside until you reach more rural type areas where the population density is lower.

I recommend you keep your searches for houses to meet this criteria or similar:  3 bed 2 ba (mostly, sometimes 1.5 bath), 1-2 Garages if re-selling (conversion OK for rent), 1000 sf or larger (prefer 1100+), Brick on Slab best (over Frame), Market Value’s say $85k should keep you away from troubled areas. Values up to say $150 -200k for the top of the MIDDLE Class Buyer’s criteria.I Prefer NO POOL for Rental, and if selling, usually for homes in the $150k price range or more.

THAT IS OUR PERSONAL CRITERIA, and i think many others', although i could conceive that there will be other opinions which they are welcome to share with you as well.  

Hope this helps.

We invest in Tarrant County.  Rents have 'sky-rocketed' in pretty much every area that we own property, particularly in the Single Family Homes.  Less so with the 4Plex buildings that we own (which is 3), as, i assume the competition with the similar units keeps the prices suppressed a little, nobody wants to be the first one to jump up their rents...

We are also buying new rentals for which we are paying a bit more than we did a few years ago, but since the rents can be higher by a few hundred dollars, we can still make the numbers work.  It seems the greatest rent increases for us have come in Watauga, where the houses were renting in the LOW $900 range, now that same house just rented for $1095, with one next door to it just slightly larger, but it got a fresh renno, it rented for $1295 mo.  (We probably kept our price a little too low there...)  However, we just purchased one very close by (4 blocks) that measures about 500sf more since it includes a converted garage, and it rented for $1295 mo. with new flooring, paint and the same old 'gold finish' fixtures.

The same houses in Watauga only rent up about $50 in rent over the previous 10 years...so, a jump of $170 for the same house from one tenant to the next, we feel is a great upswing in rental prices.

 That is true.  I am new to what is going on here, so, not sure how all of this works...what is allowed, or not allowed.  

 I am an investor looking to purchase property to put into a rental portfolio, or to rehab and resell to a retail customer.  I am in the FORT WORTH, Tx area market.  But, i stay in the NE quadrant of Tarrant County (this is the county that Ft Worth is part of).

Hi - i live in the Fort Worth area - been doing RE investing since 2004.  Also, if you havent heard that besides this online community, there are RE Investing groups and clubs that are a great way to grow your understanding as well as your 'network' of good people to learn from and do business with, I recommend you do an online search for such clubs.  The one i recommend most is the dfw rei club in fort worth - it meets close to i-30 and E. Loop 820 at the Woodhaven Country club - im sure you can find it if you put any of those terms into the search engine. 

Good luck!  Hope to see you there sometime!

seems enticing... I like that you lead them in with the "would you consider selling"?  I also see you mention that you will offer 'fair market value'...which as an investor makes me wonder how you will do that, and still maintain a decent margin for your cash flow on the property.  Maybe the 1% rule (rents typically running about 1% of the Market Value of a property) is more like 1.3% or something where you are.  That's great to say if you can really fulfill that 'claim'...and if you can - i'd say it looks pretty good.  I use postcard marketing for finding most of my deals, and we are landlords that have 32 units to date.

got an invite to try out this 'strategy'...in finding deals that include abandoned houses from Sean Flanagan.  Anyone try their program?  Any thoughts.  I am an experienced investor, but need to get more leads coming in to keep the pipeline full, so i'm always looking for new and hopefully simple ways to find those new deals!