A friend wants to buy a place for around $100k in Denver......what advice do I give them

[John Pruner]

Hi,

I'm a real estate broker in Denver. The parents of one of my buyers asked me to help them find an investment property in Denver. They have about $70k to spend and want to find something that they can almost pay off - so around $80k-$100k, perhaps fix it up themselves, then rent it out.

I also do some RE investment on my own. My analysis of the Denver market is that the returns aren't good enough to justify rental property investment here in terms of cash flow - it's just an appreciation play which can hit or miss. Instead I've invested in Indianapolis, Detroit suburbs, and Atlanta where I can get good cash flow.

Do I steer this novice investor into remote investing? If they don't want to do that - how can I help them search in Denver other than just MLS searching which I think won't find much that would qualify as a good investment property? Should I steer them into other areas within an hour of Denver? Brighton, Greeley, Ft Lupton, Fredrick? Any good ideas/notions about where I should be helping them focus?

Thanks

John