Buying a house in the Northside ISD (San Antonio, Howe: for sale, rentals)

[maco]

I am looking to buy a 3 bedroom house in the Northside ISD, somewhere close to 78251. In the moment I would acquire it as a property investement - we are not sure yet when we move to San Antonio. Any recommendation on a accountant, lawyer and a good property management firm? Is there any local property investor who would like to share some of her/his experiences? Thanks Maco

[rd2007]

I think you're going to have fun finding someone that will support a property investor.. I can't speak for the board, but most people I know aren't fond of them and what they do to neighborhoods.. there are even builders that won't sell to them; I applaud them for that

[Paka]

You might want to check out some recent articles in the local newspaper and check with some agents about the rental situations in SA right now...seems that lots of investors last year made for a heavy rental market in certain priceranges...might want to consider that before you dive in.

[firstclassflyer]

I, for one, will not support this. Sorry.

Several Realtors I know through work (title insurance) have told me that the California specuvestor money of two years ago has now led to an inevitable balloon in the amount of single family homes for rent, and a commensurate rent decrease. SA isn't the untapped market it used to be, so getting in this late is not a high quality idea.

Also, a friend of mine just moved from a neighborhood full of investor-owned homes to one that is nearly 100% owner-occupied and he said the difference in the feel and upkeep of the community is amazing.

[Turtle_Mom]

I'm not opposed to rental properties, my husband and I were considering acquiring some. However, we live in this city, would manage the property ourselves and possibly have the rental even be in our neighborhood (which of course we'd want to keep the property up for our own property values.) Rentals are still needed, esp. the corporate level of homes in the desired school districts. There is nothing against investing, but like all things it should be done responsibly.

[rd2007]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that Turtle_Mom, but unfortunately the vast majority of them were off site, mostly California and Mexico and therefore could care less about the neighborhood they invested in.

We do indeed need more people like what you were suggesting. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a rental house and I lived in one the first year I was here.

I agree that locals who decide to get into property investing, and who carefully select their properties with an eye to increasing neighborhood value and who manage it like its their own home are always welcome. My concern is with absentee landlords.

My favorite story about this topic is about a closing I did. I had an investor, from California, who bought half a dozen homes in a three day span of time. I asked him where these homes were, and he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "don't know, don't care, the price was all that mattered." That's not really the sort of landlord I'd want owning in my community - if he has a fallow period with no tenants, is he going to maintain the property well? He's in California, so what does he care if it gets rundown while its not earning him any income?

I think the main concern about rental properties right now is the sheer glut in the SFR category. Perhaps it would be better to look into duplexes or four-unit buildings.

[rd2007]

Yes, these rentals are what is causing a lot of the problems in the financing industry too. I saw an article on Miami where people were borrowing $60K to put down on new condo's that were priced at $350K, but sold for $400K after they were built. They said there was over 40,000 of these just in Miami and more than 70% of them were from people looking to turn them, problem was people stopped buying them.. people like that deserve no sympathy and should get burned as bad as possible for their greed and stupidity. Seems most of them thought it was magic money and didn't understand there was an actual risk to it.. now a bunch of them are stuck with nearly $300K mortgages they can't afford..

[jules07]

Here's a little story for ya - house next door to us sold during the height of the whole "California specuvestor" (great term Rockin'!!) frenzy. They bought high (IMHO). They were figuring that they would move here in 2-3 years or so and would rent it out until they could move. They got it rented out pretty quickly, to a group of young Air Force guys (who, btw, turned out to be great neighbors), but even tho there were 4 guys rooming together, after a year of living there they could no longer afford to heat/cool the old thing and pay the overpriced rent. They moved out in Jan. of this year. House went on the market pretty quickly with the same agent who had represented the owner in the purchase. Apparently the owners were now realizing what the rental market in SA had become (thanx CA specuvestors! ) and weren't so sure they'd be able to move here afterall. So up for sale or for lease it went. Priced way too high and sat....and sat......and sat.....and sat. They switched agents. Again it sat. They lowered the rental price by 25 bucks, and got it rented this weekend (after nearly 10 months on the market...with no tenant/rental income).

Moral of the story - I don't really know. Just don't rush in to it, and if you do end up purchasing and being a long distance landlord, please get a good management company (we rented a house from one I would recommend, you can dm me if you'd like the contact info. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, and would get no commission if you used them. Just concerned for our neighborhoods.) I know that ShaneSA will disagree with me that any good PM companies exist but I have personal experience with this company and saw how they treated both tenants and landlords.

Oh, and 78251 is a pretty diverse zip code. I have a personal interest in it, since it's where I live, so that also explains why I hope you get a good PM company!