Dallas is booming, you will hear that in the news all the time, this city is growing in an unprecedented rate, with families moving here on daily basis. Real estate investors also love Dallas, and Dallas has been the most popular destination for real estate investors for many years. Our team is highly focused in helping investors, more than 90% of our transactions were helping investors to purchase in Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, here is a summary of where our investors had been buying over past 2 years.

1. Plano

Plano is a popular area because lots of people already know about Plano. Rental wise, it’s probably not the best area as it has appreciated a lot, but it has many strategic advantages – consistent growth, excellent school rating, ever growing number of companies moving to Plano, increasing employment opportunities and convenience will make Plano continue to be a very popular choice for real estate. Our clients are buying in both West and East Plano areas, East Plano is a much older side, and its valuation is slower than West side of Plano. Schools in Plano are now catching up to the Westside, and many financial headquarters especially insurance and technology companies are expanding in East Plano, this is making East Plano a very popular place to invest. Most properties in East Plano were built in 1960s to 1980s, some of them require major renovations, including foundation repairs, and new HVAC systems.

2. Frisco

Frisco is another example of North Texas success, its population increased tenfolds last decade. Frisco is a major area with hundreds of headquarters, my clients are impressed by the growth everytime I drive them to see all the developments happening around and they all want to buy a property there. It is an area mostly for capital growth, as rental growth is not catching up to the appreciation. I had warned several investors this year that they would need to look elsewhere if they are looking for rental yield. Despite of the strong growth, I still like Frisco a lot, and see further potential as more companies are setting up over there, and its IT & Network infrastructure is well planned for future expansions.

3. Garland

Garland is a mixed city where you can find properties from $70,000 to $500,000. We are more focused in finding opportunities between $150,000 to $200,000 range. These homes are decent homes, some even have 4 bedrooms, and some have 3 bathrooms. Garland ISD is an interesting ISD, where it is not assigned to a particular school, residents can attend any school within the area. Several areas of Garland also attend Richardson ISD, these properties are the most popular properties in the Garland area. My clients tend to focus on properties near Firewheel Mall, which is the center of Garland with easy access to all employment centers and schools. We generally don’t like properties under $150,000 in Garland as they tend to be areas where you have more problems, and we also stay away from properties that underwent layout or structural conversions – such as converting garage into bedroom, adding 2nd story or adding extra sunroom at back of the property.

4. Mesquite

Mesquite has many choices for clients at different price range, it also has very strong rental base, which is why it is very popular for investors. We have sold at least 30 homes in Mesquite and we never had issues in finding tenant for the area. It is within short commuting distance to Dallas downtown, our tenants work in Downtown, Garland, Mesquite and even in Plano areas. City of Mesquite does have more stringent rental inspection criteria, you need to obtain Certificate of Occupancy prior to tenants move in, otherwise, the City may terminate their water.

5. Rowlett

There are 2 parts of Rowlett, we have sold homes in the “mainland” area of Rowlett which borders Garland and within very short distance to Firewheel Mall, parts of these areas attend Garland ISD, another part attend Rowlett ISD. We found this area more convenient in terms of commuting, but choices are very limited as this is a very popular area for homeowners. The peninsula side is further east, which needs to cross a bridge to reach, properties over there tend to be larger, and often newer, and with lake fronts or lakeviews, many communities also have community facilities, but the commuting time will be increased by 10 to 20 minutes each way because of the travel time on bridge. The peninsula side has different school districts, in addition to Garland ISD and Rowlett ISD, some properties are also assigned to Rockwall ISD.

6. Mansfield

Mansfield is now our top selling area for investors – Mansfield ISD is spread across several cities – Mansfield, Arlington and Grand Prairie. Mansfield ISD is a highly recognized school district and is a major magnet to attract new families. Mansfield is also centrally located to major employment centers including Arlington, Fort Worth and Irving / Airport areas, and it’s within 30 minutes commuting distance to downtown. Price range varies, we have sold homes from $145,000 to $240,000, with average price at around $200,000. At $200,000 range, you can buy a nice homes, mostly updated and often 4 bedroom homes already, and rental has been quite good in Mansfield too, rent ranges from $1600 to $1900 a month. Mansfield is divided into several areas – majority of elementary schools in Mansfield ISD are highly rated, their Great School rating is generally 8 out of 10 to 10 out of 10.

7. Arlington

We had been buying in selective Arlington areas, particularly those prestigious subdivisions attending Mansfield ISD. One area we like a lot is Southwind Subdivision, another area is just across the street called Harris Crossing. We also like Arlington ISD areas that bordering Mansfield ISD areas. Overall, you can find good valued properties in Arlington attending Mansfield ISD, we had just sold several properties in Arlington attending Morris and Davis elementary schools, these areas are very popular for investors and easy to rent out. Our focus are more in finding smaller homes instead of large mansions.

8. Grand Prairie

One of our top selling areas is a subdivision called Mira Lagos, it is assigned to Mansfield ISD attending highly rated Cora Spencer Elementary School. Our team is now top selling agent in the area, this is an area that are in high demand from families, particularly professionals. Many families live here work for medical industries, schools, aerospace companies. The other subdivision we are focusing on is further north, which is also popular as they are about 10 minutes quicker to major employers in Grand Prairie areas, which are all along Highway 360, including Lockeed Martin which is expanding its workforce. We also like Cove at Peninsula which is an up-sacle neighborhood, but they do have a HOA limitation for rental properties.

9. Northwest Fort Worth

Fort Worth is a very big area, and so far, our focus have been focusing in Fort Worth areas that is attending Northwest ISD, but not too far west as that is too far from employment centers. The area our clients are buying are near Alliance Gateway, and close to Beach St. We found these areas quite desirable, and with many corporations moving to Fort Worth, many of them are expanding their operations along Alliance Gateway areas. You can still find opportunities under $200,000, but these are often 3 bedroom properties. 4 bedroom, 1-story property is the most popular style, and this has been what our clients have been seeking.

10. Burleson

Burleson is a new area where we had been selling a lot of properties recently. Burleson is between Mansfield and South Fort Worth, it’s location is centrally situated, families can go to work in Fort Worth, Arlington or Grand Prairie for equal distance of commuting time (within 30 minutes). Price range is also reasonable, you can get a nice home for $160,000. The homes we had sold in August in Burleson ranged from $140,000 to $160,000 range, and we leased them out from $1390 to $1600 a month. It is an area a lot of investors don’t know about it yet, it’s not a big city, so choices are often limited, but it is an interesting area to invest as there is a lot of families moving to the area.