Building up the climate of a whole street

[Joseph Dykes]

I’m new hear. I am soon to be buying a set of 8 duplexes for $185k. Rents are currently at around $200-$225 per and this is the only bad spot in this side of town. Currently 13 of the 16 units are rented out.  I am a contractor and do most of the work myself or with one of my subs, so I know the costs associated and can handle completely renovating this area in order to raise the rents to $550 which is on par for even the cheapest other rent in the area with a huge demand and limited supply.  My question is where do I start? Should I begin buy raising the rents as I can before I start renovating and see if I can run out some of the lowest of the low or should I start fixing them up and trying to rent the renovated units out with some of the rif raf in place?