Investing in multifamily homes in "potential" neighborhoods

[Ryan Kawash]

So, I guess to start out I'll give a brief background about myself.  25 year old, working full time and saving literally every penny to fund my first real estate deal.  So far, I've manged to save up $20,000.  For the past 2 or 3 years or so, I've been learning about real estate investing, little by little by watching youtube videos, bigger pockets webinars, reading on forums, etc.. I've made it a personal goal of mine, that this year (2019) will be the year I invest in my first small multi-family building in my area.  When I say my area, I'm talking about the Hudson Valley in New York.  I live in a beautiful town where most people would love to live in the Hudson Valley.  That being said, a multifamily in the town I live in, are either hardly available or wayyyy too expensive to buy.  So I've looked outside of my town but still within the Hudson Valley.  I've come across a town that I'm interested in, and there are plenty of multi-family homes for sale in this one area for a very affordable price.  These homes are pretty old, and would probably need some worth, nothing too crazy.  The thing is about this one town, is that it's "Growing" and "New businesses are popping up there" "and a lot of investors are investing in this town" so I've heard a handful of different people say, which is awesome news.  Then I spoke to someone who works for a company and that company owns a few rentals in that town.  She said her company's tenants are a bunch of drug addicts, never pay rent and all that.  They are constantly issuing eviction notices.  I ran the numbers on a duplex out in this town, which I haven't seen myself, but in the description of the listing, they state that the building does not need any rehabbing and that it's in great shape.  I ran the numbers through the bigger pockets calculator 3 times each with different variances, scenarios, different numbers and all that, and I always got between 18-20 % Cash on Cash return, which is great.  Being that the town may not bring the greatest tenants, what should I do?  Do i ignore this town completely?  Or do I take my chances and invest in an area that I've heard that is coming up?  Sorry for the long post but the last thing I want to do is buy my first duplex and have tenant issues.  Let me know your ideas/suggestions!  

Picture of the building , no other pictures were provided by listing.

[Laura Williams]

@Ryan Kawash

Unless the area is a horrible disgusting war zone I'd take what this other investor says with a grain of salt. Does she actually screen her tenants? I'm always surprised at how many mom and pop investors don't run background checks on tenants & then say real estate is a horrible business. 

I've seen investors do OK in not great areas by just doing good screening and/or using section 8 to get tenants. Unless you feel like 100% of the rental pool in this town are degenerate drug addicts?? If this area has new businesses popping up ....especially chain stores like Starbucks as they do lots of research on areas.....  or yoga, art studios, high end coffee shops etc & population increasing it could be an opportunity.  I wouldn't let one negative person talk you out of it especially if you're seeing major signs of progress in this town and close to this property. 

That being said if I were you I would definitely go to the town and sniff around to see what you think and check out the "signs of progress first hand". Personally I don't like to buy places in bad areas but if this one is on the way up then that's a different story. Also any property you buy anywhere will need to be fully inspected by a professional.   A listing that says "great shape" can mean different things to different people.