Youman Kouta is an investor-agent based out of Sugarland, Texas, a community just outside of Houston that is a great area to invest. Five years ago, she and her husband moved to the United States from Lebanon after visiting for work, and they decided to start putting their savings into real estate. Now, Youman has both real estate investments and an investment business because she can use one to leverage the other and keep more of what she makes. As she builds her portfolio, she can use those funds to build her business. And since she has a business, she can borrow against it and use the money to invest in more real estate.

The Booming Houston Market

In the Houston metroplex, the average home price is only $200,000 and the market is booming, so fix-and-flip opportunities are plentiful. On top of that, 57% of residents in the Houston area are renting, which means there is plenty of business for professionals who are looking to invest in rental properties as well. The beautiful thing is, you can do both. And by choosing to work with the right investor-agent, new investors can find opportunities that best align with their goals because investor-agents are trained to thrive in these scenarios.

Niche Down and Find the Right Tenants

Youman and her husband started with a new construction, and their second investment was a resale property. But with the thriving rental/flip market, Youman and her husband are planning to invest in multi-unit buildings in the future. In the right areas close to downtown, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes will rent or flip extremely fast. So, Youman recommends leveraging your personal strengths to find tenants that are a good fit. She is dominating the middle eastern rental market because of her cultural ties and ability to communicate with prospective tenants who are staying for multiple years on-average. To learn more about how Youman built her real estate business in the Houston market, listen to the latest episode of Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women.