in one of the rougher areas of columbus, but not a terrible area for rental cash flow. i can buy a 3BR per side double, vinyl siding and windows, haven’t done interior inspection. asking $70k, probably could get it for $65. Long term tenants who “plan to stay forever” and “pay like clockwork”. paying $565 per side. My payment would be less than $650 PITI as well as water.
Those are the good things. The bad is, as I said, the 'hood is a little on the rough side, but the houses on the street are in good shape with the exception of two. they happen to be the two on either side of the one i’m looking at. both are boarded up and vacant.
so the numbers look pretty good, but should i be scared by the neighboring houses? or should i track down the owners of those, and buy all three and do rehabs on the other two?
Are you scared to go (or better yet, to send your ‘significant other’) there to collect the rent?
My immediate thought was buy and then find out who owns the boarded up houses and look and see if they are salvageable – then buy those, too. It’s kinda nice having properties nearby one another.
I bought a duplex from a lawyer that wanted a passive situation and found out it was not. He was to scared to take is butt down there to get his rent. I bought them cheap and they rented nicely. Remember that poor people are people too. Just make sure they know you are serious about your rent, and property and that it is only business and they are fine.
yeah, i have a couple of SFH’s in a closeby (but nicer) area.
my wife is always like “it’s going to get dark soon, so you need to get out of there”, when I am working on the places in the evening.
i’ve never had even a slightly bad situation yet, but i try to avoid being down there after dark most of the time. for the most part, the people want the same things everybody else wants in a place to live, and a lot of them stay in those neighborhoods for reasons other than they have to.