Am I wasting my time driving for dollars in "Bad" nieghborhoods?

Question

Hey guys, I was wondering am I wasting my time driving for dollars in "bad" neighborhoods, or neighborhoods with multiple boarded up houses on one street? If so, where should I be focusing my attention? I ask because I always find myself in these neighborhoods and I drive for about 3-4 hours every morning and I'd like to be as efficient as possible. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks!

Waylon Gates · Answer

Have you ever heard that it is hard to see the forest for the trees?  I think that people on this forum often answer questions without exploring the details.   I would love to help you determine if you are wasting your time, but I don't think there has been enough detail given.   There may be a huge opportunity that is staring you right in the face, but if you don't know how to take advantage of it, or if you aren't asking the right questions then it will never become an opportunity for you.  If you could buy the houses for say 25% of the current value would that be an opportunity? Does the area have anyone living there?  Maybe you could be the newly introduced breath of life to an area that is in a downward spiral.  I have been known to buy what no one else wants many times, and it generally means a better deal.  The difference is that you need to know how to work it, the best way is to get advice from others who have traveled the road before you.  If you want more complete advice then you need to ask more complete questions.  I know people that only buy in bad neighborhoods,  they are considered heroes by the people who move into the houses because they offer an opportunity that no one else offers.   Maybe that is a possibility, but in order for any of us to help you we would need to know more about the entire situation.  Have you tried inquiring about any of the houses that you mention?  If you haven't even looked into them than you don't know what you might be missing out on.  I understand that 95% or more of the people on here will disagree with me, but also consider that the 1 percenters are obviously not part of the majority.  If you can get more details and have an in depth understanding of that area, maybe I could help you form a winning solution.

Jennifer Lee · Answer

if u see a whole street of boarded up house. then I don't think u are in the right area.

if u are in a decent area and a street is boarded up, IF you can get the homes as a bundle... maybe section 8 landlord maybe interested.

bc sometimes it's the boarded up area causing the street to go down. if landlord can clean it up it may work.

but this takes  special kind of investor. I have seen it fail when newbie try it

Jacob Stuckey · Answer

Thanks Steve, I think that's a good way to look at it. The only way I could rationalize it was maybe a section 8 landlord would invest there but probably not..

Steve Ko · Answer

I would say yes.  The way I look at this is would I want to sit on the porch and look at boarded up houses?  I would look in better neighborhoods.  You will pay more for the property but you will get better tenants and less headaches.

Joshua Howaniec · Answer

It absolutely depends on your strategy, your grit, your resources, your creativity, your network arsenal, etc. Someone is living there now right? So someone is probably renting them out also (we hope). Maybe not so easy for a new investor but often doable.

Jeff B. · Answer

These areas WILL produce a "deal" - - but what is the bigger picture.  IMO, the drama, high repair & vacancy rates would quickly dull the sheen of the "so called good deal".

Michaela G. · Answer

I agree with @Waylon Gates . You have to be willing to look outside the box, because there are a million newbies in the same box that you are in. They all want the tried and proven 'sure thing'.

I personally don't like competing for anything, so I always do things that nobody else does ;-). I've been buying in a so-called 'bad neighborhood' since the market crashed. I have recently accumulated 4 duplexes on the same block and got another investor involved, who bought 2 more. We fenced the block and created an artist community - only renting to creatives.

Artists love the concept and are coming from all over for the community aspect. They're not so concerned about the neighborhood that it's in, because we have our own little 'island' and it's not accessible from the outside. We were able to renovate nicer than the surrounding neighborhood and get more rents than the area normally gets. Artists will bring in friends and show this off as a 'cool area', instead of the scary neighborhood, and we'll hopefully be able to change the stigma of the area.

So, if you have whole streets boarded up, see this as an opportunity and look what it takes to pick up a whole row of them.

Jacob Stuckey · Answer

OK I will do my due diligence for this area and try to figure out as much as I can about these properties and come back to you with more details and if there is a winning solution hiding in there any advice you can give would be very appreciated. Hopefully there is so that way I wouldn't have wasted all that time!

Jacob Stuckey · Answer

Ok thanks this was very helpful!

Am I wasting my time driving for dollars in "Bad" nieghborhoods?

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