Enterprise, AL

[Amaryliss B.]

Greetings!!

I am new to this site and have been listening to the podcasts for some time.  I am a landlord by default due to a PCS so I have a little bit of experience with investment properties.  I wanted to get your thoughts on buying investment properties in Enterprise, AL.  I live about 2 hours away but visit often due to family in the area.

Here is what I have discovered about the area:

- Newer townhomes in a nice area (low crime/good schools)closer to the military base (Fort Rucker) were purchased for around 130,000 and are now selling for 115,000 or valued for way less.

- There are a large number of vacancies in the area,

- Rents are not meeting the 1% rule

- House values are trending down

- I could not identify any improvements to the area that would encourage job growth/attract new families.

Example:

123 Concord Ave, Enterprise, AL 36330

My calculations show that this would work if the seller would take around 85,000 due to the state of the market.  Max rents currently around 850.00...

OR

Is it just a bad time to buy in that area right now? 

OR

Were these homes overpriced to begin with?

Anyone in the Enterprise, AL area that can weigh in?

[Jed Danner]

Hi Amaryliss,

This is a terribly late follow up, but I just joined so I will add some additional information that you will hopefully still find helpful.

As you noted, Enterprise is located near Ft. Rucker and has become the somewhat go to city for the military personnel stationed there.   From my experience here this causes our market to behave in some peculiar ways, mainly due to the constant in-flow and out-flow of people.   You can see this in some properties being bought abnormally high (someone coming in and needing an immediate place), or someone getting re-stationed and selling abnormally low.   Really the key is to look at the areas around a particular property to see what the average should be.   I guess that would be true for most any market, but it stands double here.

This also accounts some for the number of rentals you might see available.  But depending on the time of the year, and if people are coming in for flight school or leaving you can see a large influx or exodus of people.  So, what you will generally see is over the course of a couple of months the number of houses for sale or rent will start increasing and will sit on the market for a month or two.  At which point you'll be wondering what is wrong with the neighborhood.   Then over the course of a month or two they will all be sold or rented.   It's actually really neat to watch it happen.

Anyways, my apologize for the late long winded reply.  But hopefully you or someone else will find it useful!