Looking For thoughts on Providence, RI

[Patrick Foley]

As I live in MA and nothing truly cashflows well I have looked at providence as possibility for investing in my "back yard". It is only about 45 minutes from me. However I am looking for some feedback as to where is a good place to look. Which spots to avoid. Anyone with some insight into providence would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Patrick

[Anthony Thompson]

@Patrick Foley South Providence and Olneyville are traditionally tougher areas. However prices are up even in those neighborhoods. And it's not cut and dry either - there are also C/D areas outside those neighborhoods, there are areas bordering those neighborhoods that are much better, there are no magic lines you can point to as the boundaries, etc.

Also, very often MLS listings omit anything that makes the property sound less appealing (so they'll say "Elmwood" instead of "South Providence", or "near East Side" instead of "below Camp St"). Most agents know how to massage the listing to omit or hide things that make it less attractive, and emphasize anything that makes it more attractive (or use fluff words like "DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY WHEN IT KNOCKS! WON'T LAST" etc.).

I'm just saying, be skeptical of listings and assume you'll have to dig into a property/area until you know them well off the top of your head. Real estate is unfortunately a very local business, and the only way to really learn the local area will be to spend some time on the ground.

If you don't want to drive to RI just to look at properties and learn neighborhoods, think about how much less you'll want to drive to RI when a tenant calls you about something wrong with the property or demanding that you fix something. (Having a property manager does help, but you'll still want and occasionally need to go to the property anyway.)

Another thing folks from Boston forget is that, while prices are lower in RI... so are rents. So make sure that you're looking at the return and not just the price or price/unit, before you get too excited. If you were able to get a similar return for a property much closer to you, you might want to stay more local if possible.