Multifamily House Hacking

[Nick Askew]

Hello, my name is Nick and I am trying to get started with my real estate journey! I feel like that I have a great idea on how to start and what to do once I do get started but, I would like to ask someone in the Philadelphia market some questions because I do not live there but I plan on moving there to start my journey.

For starters though I would just like to know why are so many multifamily houses on market for so long and why is no one wanting to buy them? 

[Bonnie Low]

I can't speak to Philly specifically, but a lot of inner cities (like Cincinatti, Cleveland, Detroit, Dayton, etc.) have very distressed neighborhoods where it's not at all uncommon for single and multi-family properties to sit on market for a long time. Even if the numbers "work" in theory, they don't draw savvy investors because there's just too much risk with crime, vandalism, high turnovers, low quality tenants and even difficulty retaining contractors to work on the properties and property managers to manage them. Before you buy into an area like that, get yourself to the area and see it with your own eyes so you know what your neighbors properties look like, too.