SLC is great very pro business rentals, taxes, expenses are low rentals have fantastic cash flow and homes are not very expensive
My favorite criteria for a city: Is there a Chinatown though?
There is decent Chinese food in Salt Lake… Plus decent seafood is flown in. Airport has access to everywhere.
Costco there is the same as In the BA
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Come on, let’s not rip on the Bay Area…
My nephew just bought a house in Salt Lake for under $200k
I would not mind a price explosion (or something milder) there.
I bought 4 SFR rentals in Salt Lake between 2005 and 2007. The one in West Jordan cost $160k (2005), increased in value to $240k, dropped to $180k, now it’s worth $280k maybe. Zillow estimates are inflated.
I recently actually decided to sell all 4 as tenants move out… first one is in contract. The long distance landlording is just too inefficient. Every now and then I get a repair bill where the PM was forced to hire a licensed person (electrical or HVAC issues) and that’s… expensive.
Example: gas furnace went out and needed a new control board. Licensed plumber in Salt Lake City charged $920 for the repair. The previous winter, I had had the exact same issue in a local rental… called a friend and then looked on youtube. The control board costs $94 in an appliance parts store, loosened 4 screws, pulled off 4 wires, swapped the old board with the new board, put in 4 screws, pushed on the 4 wires, done. Next time I can do it in 20 minutes.
Had I really wanted to save money, I might have tried to un-solder a bad relay, capacitor etc from the board and spend less then $1… now, that deserves to be called “REPAIR”.
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And here I am complaining about Fab 7x7 to Fremont…
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100% this. It’s the reason why I mainly exited the sacramento market.
Hanera has been lucky in Austin. Wait till the repair bills pile up
Not really. Even if @hanera were to buy only local, he would’ve hired the same kind of PM and paid the same kind of maintenance fees. He is the only one here who’s actually FIRED. The rest of us are still pinching pennies here and there 
Buying in Austin is pinching pennies. I have been FIRED since 2001. Bought and sold in Texas, Florida Philadelphia, Utah, Tennessee, Phoenix Tucson Portland and many other places. Long distance investment is a pain unless totally hands off. In that case stick with REITS
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@Elt1 is the only one truly FIRED. Yoda’s wife is still slaving away to feed him soft rice. Poor her…
Are you alluding to @Elt1 being a sugar daddy? Ok, then in that case I’ll leave it as an exercise for the rest of forum members as to who is actually FIRED… 
A tad slow, no???
There are multiple alternatives to Austin. That’s what worries me the most when I think of investing there. I don’t think Austin has any success story like Qualtrics in spite of having a good university.
There are plenty of good exits from Austin startups. Remember Dell?
Dell was like 25 years ago, right? Not exactly Austin if I recall. Anything after that at the scale of Qualtrics?
Whole Foods.
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