All Forum Posts by: Henry Murray

Originally posted by @Daniel Palma:

@Henry Murray He Henry, I live in the Southbay and I’m also looking at my first property. Could be nerve recking, what areas are looking at?

 Hi @Daniel Palma,

I just finished aggregating a bunch of data for markets all over the us and I think I've settled on looking further into the Indianapolis and Huston metro areas. What about yourself? What areas are you looking at?

Originally posted by @Valerie Payne:

@Henry Murray. Hello! My name is Valerie. I am planning on making my first investment purchase before the end of the year so also interested in your macro market analysis.

I’ve been looking locally for multi-family or mixed use properties (local for me means a less than two hour drive from NYC) but I’m from the Midwest and want to look for properties out of state as well.

Will you ping me when you share your analysis as well?

 Hi @Valerie Payne - Yes of course! I'm catching up on this thread and have to make it a little prettier yet  but I'll tag you when I post it as well! 

Originally posted by @Sharon Tseung:

Originally posted by @Henry Murray:

Hi @Sharon Tseung, I live in Long Beach and literally have exactly the same goal of getting started before the end of the year! I've been reading/listening to a bunch of the podcasts and trying to learn as much as I can for the past couple months. I did some analysis of the macro markets around the US (as of last year bc that was the most recent data I could find for some places) that I was planning to share on here shortly so I'll tag you when I do that. I had sort of decided on the Indianapolis metro area to start looking at neighborhoods but the Houston metro area also came up pretty close. Best of luck to you and keep in touch! -Henry

Nice to meet you and let's definitely connect! Oh interesting, does Houston work for the 1% rule? My friend is from there who I study real estate stuff with, so it could be good for me to look into that market.

 Wow there's been a lot of activity on this thread, I'm just getting back from being out of town for the weekend and this is awesome! To answer your question, I had looked at the median annual price-to-rent ratio for the region (because that's the data that I could find) and the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar land area was 9.92 over the last 12 months.  Anything under 12 passes the 1% guideline so I figured it might be an area that I'd look into in a little more detail.

Hi @Sharon Tseung, I live in Long Beach and literally have exactly the same goal of getting started before the end of the year! I've been reading/listening to a bunch of the podcasts and trying to learn as much as I can for the past couple months. I did some analysis of the macro markets around the US (as of last year bc that was the most recent data I could find for some places) that I was planning to share on here shortly so I'll tag you when I do that. I had sort of decided on the Indianapolis metro area to start looking at neighborhoods but the Houston metro area also came up pretty close. Best of luck to you and keep in touch! -Henry

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your story of how you got started in Houston @Cody L.!

@Cody L. Thanks for the tip! How long have you been in the Huston market and what made you choose Huston specifically out of all the cities across the US?

@Caleb Heimsoth Sorry, I don't think I phrased that well...  What I meant was how did you decide on those markets in particular when you were looking outside the expensive area you were living in?

Oh wow awesome! That's a much better ratio than I've seen in the SoCal area! Thanks for the tip @Caleb Heimsoth!

Since it looks like you're from North Carolina, I was curious, how did you originally decide to invest in Cleveland and Memphis?  

Hi BiggerPockets! 

So I live in Southern California and I've made the decision that my best course of action is to buy out of state where I can get a better rent/price ratio than around Long Beach (or SoCal in general). I recently read David Greene's book "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" and it has a wealth of knowledge, but I've never bought property before and since I'm going to start outside of California I feel like I have too many choices of markets around the US. I'm looking for a relatively cheaper (<100k, or ideally <80k) move in ready or turnkey SFR or duplex in a market with good rent/price ratios and also where jobs are being created & people are moving to but I care more about cash flow than appreciation potential for now.

So my question is: Where are you investing right now?  What sort of rent/price ratio is typical where you're investing?  Are jobs being created and are people moving there? 

And then if you're investing outside of your home market, How did you pick your market? Word of mouth from other investors? US census data by zip code?? Zillow Research Data? 

Any information/tips you can share is much appreciated! 

Hi @Summer Brighton, Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy couple weeks with work and traveling. 

Awesome! Thanks for pointing me to the Events section on BP.  I was using the mobile app and I didn't even realize that events were listed on the website.  I'll look up some of the events and then reach out to the people you mentioned as I move forward.  Thanks again!

-Henry