Best B/C areas for cashflow or BRRR in Pittsburgh?

[Kadia Lawrence]

Hi all,

Please pardon the dupe from the Local Pittsburgh forum -- wasn't sure the best place to post. I am a new investor in Pittsburgh from out of state. (I am closing on a triplex for cashflow shortly.) I'm looking to get a sense of the latest thoughts on 1) the best B or C (even C-) areas for cashflow, 2) thoughts on up and coming areas that still have cashflow opportunities and future appreciation prospects and 3) opportunities for BRRRR. I am narrowing down my list and trying to categorize neighbords into B or C and also up and coming. Have been researching areas like Homestead, Munhall, Swissvale, Braddock, Rankin, some on north side like Bellevue, Avalon, also Millvale, Etna or in the other direction, Penn Hills. Also curious about Wilkinsburg and how Lincoln-Lemington Belmar is viewed relative to areas closer to East Liberty. I really like areas such as Dormont, Mount Washington but wonder if that would be catching lightening in a bottle. It's early so am open to thoughts...

thanks in advance

[Jim K.]

@Kadia Lawrence

Hi, Kadia. This is perhaps the biggest problem for out-of-state investors to deal with in the Pittsburgh area. Everyone knows that Pittsburgh is "The City of Bridges." Few really think about what that means in a practical sense. The geography of the area is hopeless convoluted, the land is crisscrossed by ravines and gullies that separate one neighborhood from another haphazardly. By official count, there are over 90 distinct City of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Go further and it just gets more hopeless. In Allegheny County, there are over 100 separate municipalities, and the organization of these boroughs and townships defies any sort of pretzel logic.

There are four examples that I typically use: the first is the Homestead/Munhall area, where I live and invest. I live just off West Street, which does not actually go west. Across the street is West Field, which is not really west of anything. And beyond that is West Homestead, technically to the west of Homestead, but which is sandwiched between Homestead and, much further west, New Homestead. That is because the "West" in these three entities does not refer to the cardinal direction, but to the West family, which used to own much of Munhall, Homestead, and West Homestead.

If we go a bit further afield in Allegheny County for our second example, we can examine the largish municipality of West Mifflin. There is no East Mifflin. The borough of Mifflin is halfway across the Commonwealth in Juniata County. To top off the wackiness, there's also a Mifflin County, and it's also in the middle of Pennsylvania.

The third example is McKees Rocks and McKeesport, at different ends of the county. They're actually named after two different, only distantly-related McKees.

But the best example of the glorious confusion that is our grand county of Allegheny are the municipalities of Versailles, North Versailles, and South Versailles. Not only are their names not pronounced like the French palace and its famed gardens, THEY DO NOT SHARE A COMMON BORDER.

As I said before, I invest in the Homestead/Munhall area. I have literally read books on the area. I have been in the Pittsburgh area for sixteen years. I cannot give you really worthwhile advice on almost any other part of the county. Real estate agents will talk with great certainty about what they know and don't know, but that flimflam comes with the job, so take it all with a giant pinch of salt. There are many inhabitants of the municipalities of the boroughs north of Pittsburgh who will capriciously refuse to do business with anyone south of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. Down here in the Steel Valley, if you don't have ancestors who worked steel or burned coal back in the day, you're going to be out of luck with a lot of the local real estate agents and municipal building code inspectors.

Allegheny County is the Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania. There are 46 magisterial district courts in this county, each with its own elected magisterial judge, who has her/his own preferences in how they want their courts run. Show me an agent or a property manager who says they knows how to do well with all the local eviction courts in this county, it doesn't matter who, and I'll show you a damned liar.

Your best bet is to move here, really. There are much easier cities to invest in from out-of-state, however tempting the numbers might look. Nobody knows everything there is to know about what's going on in Greater Pittsburgh (which include the five counties around Allegheny County) whatever confident lies and big-talk they sling at you to get your business.