Real Estate Investing in El Paso

[fschmidt]

gsjackson, a few things need updating. First, El Paso is no longer a great market because there are too many rentals on the market. I will continue to invest in El Paso if I keep this as a personal investment only. But the vision here is to offer an investment vehicle to anyone who wants a safe investment. This would require someone who is willing to move to wherever is best to invest at the moment.

For buying, I just worked with my real estate agent to develop a spreadsheet that he used to judge properties. I personally have no idea what any property would rent for, for example. He plugged in numbers based on his experience and the spreadsheet evaluated the property. If I scaled this up to an investment business, I would expect the person hired to do a better job on this.

It is in the property management that the stupidity of real estate people really shines through. For example, he asked me about getting insurance. I explained to him how to compare the expected costs versus insurance premiums, but he didn't really get it. It turns out that the biggest cost here is hail damage to roofs, but this can be avoided by getting a steel roof. I asked him to compare the cost of a steel roof to 30 years of insurance, but he never got back to me. And finally, all property managers look for tenants in the same idiotic way. They emphasize credit scores which I think are worthless. Rental history makes much more sense to me. And they require a year lease which doesn't make sense in a competitive rental market.

I need someone focused on this business. I am not that person because I have so much else to do. Most of my day is divided between programming for my business and homeschooling my kids. I also have zero interest in real estate. But I think someone who did this could become extremely rich. I know Americans much prefer to complain than to do anything to improve their situation, financially, dating-wise, or whatever. Someone from China with brains who is motivated could quickly learn what they need to know and make this work.

[Maker55]

Do your research on the area where you're interested in investing.

Is the population currently growing and are the jobs increasing?

If the answer to both is yes for that particular area, then you should invest there.