Would an incredibly steep driveway scare you away from a rental?

[Andrew P.]

I'm under contract on a local house that I plan to turn into a legal duplex.  It's 3/2 up and possibly 2/2 or 3/2 down.  Deals are hard to come by in my market and this is at a good price and a good cash flow.  The problem is the crazy steep driveway.  It's probably a 20-25% grade in areas.  This is not very common in my area either.  I'm concerned even at decent rents ($900/month per unit when comps are 1000-1150) that I am going to have a hard time finding tenants who want to live on Mount Crumpit as my wife calls it.  Anyone have any experience or advice in this area?

[Alvin Sylvain]

I have no experience in this area, but from your picture, it doesn't look all that bad.

I think the most important thing here is, is there level space enough for all expected cars once you get to the top of that hill? I'm not so concerned about people getting their cars up the hill -- cars these days are fairly powerful -- but I would be worried if somebody needed to park on the hill. There is no curb to turn the wheels into, and if the parking brake fails (or they neglect to activate it), odds are good the vehicle is rolling downhill. I don't need to say, that would be very bad.

But that's nothing to worry about if every tenant, and all their guests, have plenty of level space at the top (or the bottom) to park.