Affordable Housing and Kansas City Investments

[Cody Persell]

I would like to start a discussion on investing in Affordable Housing in Kansas City, Mo, and get feedback, suggestions, insight, and etc. 

I would like to hear success, failures, advice on investing in Affordable Housing.  

HERE IS MY STORY

Only a few years back, I convinced my wife that we needed to move to the inner city / Midtown of Kansas City to invest in rental properties to follow the dream of obtaining passive income and financial freedom.  While, I had to sweeten the pot by telling her that I would hire someone to clean our house indefinitely if should would agree, we moved to the inner city - into one of the roughest parts (64127) I might add...

Since we have moved here, our heart for the inner city and inner city development has grown, and we are seeing a huge need in Kansas City and throughout the United States for investors to come together and invest in affordable housing.  In fact, I have developed the opinion that one of the branches of the success of our American economy is private investors investing in the areas that have economic crisis.  Additionally, I have developed the opinion that they burden should fall on "We the People" not just the Government.

Since we have invested in the Inner City, we have been able to develop a portfolio of nearly 100 SFR houses all in the inner city and have developed a management team that is familiar with the risks of the inner city. We have and are currently developing systems that maximize returns and minimize risk in the inner city.

We are able to and intentionally keep our rent at roughly 30% our residents income, and still averaging a 20% ROI in the inner city. We are getting a good return and MAKING THE HOOD LOOK LIKE IT SHOULD.  (I can say that because I live in the hood :-) )

Not only are we able to beautify the inner city through purchase and rehab, we have also been able to help out multiple families, providing safe affordable housing with a responsive management team.  Additionally, we have been helping other investors with their portfolios in our market.

Any thoughts, suggestions, stories...etc are welcomed.  Also, I am always looking to connect with like minded investors, companies or individuals.

[Mike D'Arrigo]

@Cody Persell Congratulations. I'll bet your wife is happy she let you talk her in to it. This is a text book case of how to make this asset class work BUT it only works when you are local, very hands on and have the management team that is experienced with this kind of asset class. This is definitely not passive investing and does not work for the out of state investor. This class of tenant is not known for treating rental properties real delicately and often leave the property in disrepair when they leave. Turn over costs will kill you if you aren't able to do a lot of work yourself. Good luck, I hope whatever you are doing continues to work for you.