Flood Plain Duplex Purchase

[Ian Korpel]

Hello. I am looking for some general opinions on purchasing a duplex in a flood plain (A). The property had about 8ft of water in the basement 4 years ago and likely will again in the next decade. Each side is a 2 bd/1ba, but the basement can never be finished to turn it into a 3bd/1ba. The Cash-On-Cash ROI (including flood insurance) is about 30%. This is my first property so I am unsure about other issues such as long term water damage, tenants having damage to possessions, damage the insurance won't cover, resale, etc. It's listed at 190K but my plan is to lowball and see what happens.

I am hoping to be a buy and hold investor and will self manage. But since this is my first property I wanted to put the question out there to the community. Would you ever buy a property with this history? What should I be looking out for? What questions would you ask in a walk through? Should I not even consider this challenge as a newbie?

Thank you all!