Investment property in OKC (Oklahoma City, Norman: section 8, real estate, apartments)

[supersonic_528]

Hi all, I am thinking of buying a rental property or two for investment purposes. This will be my first time (if I go ahead with the plan), so I am very new to this with no experience at all. Where I live (San Jose, California), I am pretty much priced out of the market. I have about $200,000 that I can afford to invest. After doing some basic research on the internet, OKC seems like a decent option. Things I looked at are availability/growth of jobs, current market condition (avoiding markets that are going through a sharp increase), the actual median price of homes (so that it fits my budget), etc. Once I have the property, the plan is to hire a management company to look after it. I have the following questions.

1. Any comments in general on whether OKC is a good choice for rental properties and what I should look out for?
2. What is the outlook on future job growth and real estate prices?
3. I am primarily looking to buy condos/apartments. I found a few 2BD/2BA condos (on zillow.com) that are in $100K range. Will this be a good buy? Any idea how much rent I can expect for these?
4. Any particular areas of the city I should target? For tenants, I want someone/family with a professional job. Any particular neighborhoods that have greater concentration of such people?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[RozBuysHomes]

Hello,
I am an Oklahoma City real estate investor with over 10 years experience in the Oklahoma City market. If you are looking for dramatic appreciation, Oklahoma City is not the place to park your money. Our appreciation values are at about a 3% to 5% steady increase. Nothing like you would see in California or Florida.

However, if you are looking for cash flow - this place is amazing. In some areas, you can expect to receive as much as a 36% gross annual return on a rental property that is as cheap as $20,000 dollars. To give you an example, I bought a property for $15,000 dollars that rents for $400 per month. But to buy deals with the highest cash flow, you must be willing to invest in areas that have a high tenant population - which also means more crime, poverty, ect.

But for your cream of the crop areas, such as Edmond, Moore, Norman, Yukon or Mustang - you can expect to make about a 12% annual return. These are homes in owner occupied areas where you could easily sell it to a first time home buyer who wants to live there. Of course, those properties have less risky tenants, which is why the return is lower.

There are about two or three multi millionaires here who buy little houses in "war zones" then fix them up and put them on Section 8 housing. One guy I know has over 350 of these little houses, the other guy has over 500. In my opinion, that is the smartest way to make money in the OKC market.