Out of Town

[Evan Thomas]

I live in New York, NY. I'm not interested in investing in NYC or White Plains (where I work) due to taxes, regulations, etc. I am interested in the Philly market. I'm from near Philadelphia originally, and I can get there pretty easily. I have two questions that I would absolutely love to learn about:

1. Does anyone have advice or forums/blogs links about how to vet a city that you don't live or work in? What kind of research can I do from afar? 

2. Should I take a $10 bus to philly one day of every weekend to get to know the market? 

Thank you so much for your help!

[Melody Bynum]

Hey Evan, here's some info that was gathered for doing due diligence in Philly from afar, hope this helps

http://www.phila.gov/li/Pages/default.aspx -Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections, One way to protect yourself is to contact the City's Department of Licenses and Inspections to determine what outstanding code violations, if any, exist in the property. (walls collapsing, unsafe, vacant property, etc)

http://www.phila.gov/revenue/realestatetax/ -Philadelphia Revenue Department, Look up real estate tax here, Office Of Property Assessment (OPA) determines the value of the property on which taxes must be paid.

http://assuranceabstract.com/ Full service title agency serving Philadelphia, specialize in REO distressed property closings in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Courts Civil Docket Access

http://courts.phila.gov/ - Philadelphia Courts Website

http://www.phila.gov/records/DocumentRecording/tipstitleinsurance.pdf

Hope this helps