Purchasing property in C class neighborhood

[Matthew Nieroda]

I'm looking at buying/holding my second investment property which is a Multi family, 4 unit building in a rough neighborhood(c class) for passive income. I planned to house hack unit by unit, until I arrived to the property where I was met by broken windows, squatter basement, and a shady neighborhood. Needless to say I won't be living there during rehab. I will give it a second chance and head back during the day this weekend to get a better feel for the community during the day, but originally I was there when it was pitch black around 7pm. 

The property requires much more work then originally planned, but the numbers work very well even with the new unplanned repairs. (purchase $300k / rehab $65k / tax $15k -- median rent $1300 x4 = $5200... monthly income  $2000) 

Would you pass on a deal due to the concern of future safety issues(vandalism/theft)?

C class neighborhoods come with c class tenants. What is the best way to get trustworthy and reliable tenants?

Any advice or guidance from your personal experience? 

[James Moore]

As having experience on this subject I would like to offer a few tips here. Classfiying neighborhoods into categorical listings from class A-C is somewhat helpful. But consider rather these benchmarks to follow when judging a given neighborhood.

What I like to look at are the visual tangibles and emotional apsects of what appeals or doesnt unappeal to your senses. 

1) Neighborhood Infasctructure: What are the condition of the streets and sidewalks. Numerous patch works in the roadways that crisscross the nieghborhood and the existence of potholes and fractured areas of road and curb and lack of proper sidelwalks are all big red flags. You may find a good deal on a property in such a location, but once the excitement of the deal wears off,  you will begin to have postpartum buyer's remorse and the neighborhood seems now upon later reflection only disturb your visual and emotional senses .  

2) Neighborhood lawn maintence and upkeep. This is where you look at how well are properties in the niehgborhood kept up or are they neglected in general. There is nothing more irritating than when homes along a neighborhood show an inconsistent lack of uniform appearance.  Rather than keeping yards clean and mowed and trimmed regularly, you see most yards needing mowed badly. There may be a few houses on the block that are regularly tended too but again, what is prominent is that patchwork look of unkept lawns that match the poor like conditions of the neighborhood infastruicture. Bottom line there is a readily observable sight of poor care and maintenence with lawncare to match or exceed the equaly poor conditions of the infacstructure of the neighboring streets, curbs and sidewalks. I have observed that on paper a class C neighborhood may have high rated schools and fairly low crime rates. Stats like these don't overcome the poor conditions I have noted above. If you drive a neighborhood and are detracted by nurmerous signs of blight in multiple forms, you should heed such warnings and move on. 

3) Inadequete parking space and cluttered driveways: When old, poorer neighborhoods were built many decades ago most of them didn't have a proper garage area or one to accomidate families today with multiple drivers. Even one or two properties on a given block that have three or more cars parked next to a home standout in a very negative and unappealing way and serve as a tremendous disctraction to one's attention. What I mean here is that blight of anykind, in any shape or form, serves as unwanted attention and these details can become overwhelming to one's senses. 

4) Neighborhood IQ: Let me say it bluntly that most often people follow the path or trajectory of how and where they were raised. If they grew up in a lower economic area they can become blinded and apathetic to such conditions and can lack knowing much better is out there for them. There is among them a majortiy who lack having discrimitating views, tastes and expectations in general. They settle for living in a like-in-kind-neighbohood as where they may have grown up. It is not to say that they would prefer to live in a better neighborhood, but they in some way or another know no better and to them living in a lower class neighborhood is just par for the course.  What I have found true is that poor people tend on average to make poorer decisions than those with more discriminating tastes and expectations. For instance pricetag or rent is more important to them than paying a little more for a good location which can be considered by those with more disciinating tastes as something that is priceless.  

5) Consider you longterm views and feelings over any preceivable shorterm vaule when buying: Grant Cardone is correct to say that it takes the same amount of effort in many cases, and arguably even more effort to invest in lower performing areas than to buy and rehab in areas that have none of these glaring, negative traits. However, if you have invested in such areas as I have described above, don't beat yourself up about it, because it happens to many seemingly smart investors. Consider that you are on a journey to discover what is the ultimate trajectory for you. If you find yourself in a postion where the neighborhood bothers you more than anything else, consider selling the property and getting out and onto the path of where you really want to be in the future. There is a real thing which I call seller's paralysis in such cases like this. Where you may say to yourself, "I will make the best of this bad situation" and by doing so you hold onto the property rather than to just unload it and move on. The truth is that if you bought the property, there is a likelihood that someone else will come along and take it off your hands. Whether or not you take a short-term loss here, consider the vaule of the sell position as a means to free you up to find future deals in better locations, and by doing it sooner rather than later. Consider the vaule are your longterm views and feelings here. Because like it  or not, those nagging and troubeling feelings you have about the poor location of your investments is what truly matters at the end of the day.