I would like to start Investing in Birmingham AL

[Steven Cabrera]

Hello Everyone. I am a new investor currently residing in Houston looking to purchase my first rental property in the Birmingham AL area. I chose this area for several factors while researching places to invest and as you all know there are tons of places in this country to choose from. I know there are already several forums on investing in BHAM but wanted a recent one that was my own. So any local PM's, Agents, Investors, Contractors, (I need a team) that can assist me would be greatly appreciated. I have never been to BHAM but do plan on going there to get this started.

My current strategy is to buy, rehab, and rent out. I would like to use cash so it would have to be a sub 35k property which includes the purchase price and repair cost. ( buy for 20k and spend 15k on repairs.) I would also need to use a Property Management company to oversee.  Hopefully this is possible. I know this would probably be a rough neighborhood and from what I have been reading on these forums so far there is tons of mixed advice as to what is a decent neighborhood or not. I would like to invest smart but without risk there is no reward.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Bryan O.]

Birmingham is pretty hot right now. With those numbers you are bordering on war zone neighborhoods. You'll want to do extra due diligence on every aspect, especially your management team. Not many great managers want to worry about getting shot for 10% of low rents and you should expect higher vacancy and turnover costs. What looks great on paper does not always translate into reality, especially when you are remote and have little true influence.