Kansas City Missouri Zip Codes

[Chris Dawson]

One of the questions I get asked a lot by investors who want to invest in Kansas City is, "What zip codes are good to invest in?".  Any seasoned investor will tell you that this depends on several factors such as: amount of money to invest, type of tenants, level of risk, and investment strategy.  

In an effort to help those who are not familiar with Kansas City but are interested or looking into investing in Kansas City, I have put together a very general overview of the zip codes in and around Kansas City, MO.  These are all on the Missouri side, not the Kansas side.

Keep in mind, this is a general overview meant to help guide those who are not familiar with Kansas City.  There can be good investments in areas I have labeled bad and there could be bad investments in areas that I have labeled good.

Here is the list:

Highest risk, highest crime, highest turnover areas:

64130 – listed in 2009 as the “murder factory” of Kansas City - avoid

64129 - avoid

64128 - avoid

64127 - avoid

64126 – avoid

Historic NE areas:

64124 – both good and bad areas for renting

64123 – both good and bad areas for renting

KC Downtown:

64106 – mostly commercial & condos – great area for rentals and flips

64108 – mostly commercial & condos – great area for rentals and flips

Midtown:

64109 – both good and bad areas for rentals

64110 – both good and bad areas for rentals

Westport/Plaza/Waldo/Brookside area:

64111 – great area for rentals and flips

64112 – great area for rentals and flips

64113 – great area for rentals and flips

64114 – great area for rentals and flips

South KC/Grandview/Raytown area:

64030 – mostly good rental area

64134 – mostly good rental area

64136 – mostly good rental area

64139 – mostly good rental area

64138 – mostly good rental area

Lee’s summit Area:

64081 – great area for rentals and flips

64082 – great area for rentals and flips

Blue Springs Area:

64015 – good area for rentals and flips

64014 – good area for rentals and flips

Independence Area:

64052 – mostly bad rental area

64053 – mostly bad rental area

64055 – mostly good rental area

64050 – mostly good rental area

64056 – mostly good rental area

64057 – mostly good rental area

North of the River Areas:

64116 – mostly good rental area

64117 – mostly good rental area

64118 – good rental area

64119 – good rental area

64151 – great area for rentals and flips

64152 – great area for rentals and flips

64153 – great area for rentals and flips

64154 – great area for rentals and flips

64155 – great area for rentals and flips

64157 – great area for rentals and flips

64158 – great area for rentals and flips

64068 – great area for rentals and flips

I hope this can help some of you new investors and maybe some seasoned investors as well.

[Drew Francis]

Excellent information!

[Chris Dawson]

Thanks Drew!  I should add that this information doesn't come from some official website or some report published by a big company.  This comes from my personal experience over the past 12 years of buying and selling my own investment properties as well as helping a countless number of other investors buy and sell properties.

I would be very interested to hear about anybody else's experiences with these zip codes.

[Jim Genis]

@Chris Dawson, this is an incredible resource and very generous of you. It's a perfect example of how BP is intended to help people!

You rock!

[Billy Smith]

I will chime in, I do know a investor who bought in K.C.M.O, 20 st and   Broadway zip code 64108, took on some  huge old houses turned them into apartments   they are  all are rented getting top dollar  .They are  rebuilding and   young hipsters are  moving in it seems to be expanding  .They have loft apartments  being made out of a huge old buildings they  are sold out before  finished .

.That are rolling out street cars for downtown that helps big time!!

Total cost of the downtown streetcar project remains $102 million for a 2.2-mile route (with 4.4 miles of track running both ways) from River Market to near rebuilt  Union Station.

[Andrew Syrios]

Very good list! I would add the zip code 64131 to your list, though, which is a mix depending on whether you are west of east of Troost. Although, if you're between Troost and Paseo, in the 70's, you can make it work. I would avoid anything too close to the Presidential Gardens apartment complex though, that thing has been a mess for a long time.

[Chris Billington]

This is a great resource. Im in the denver market and have been looking into kc. I was told that indpendence is a high crime drug area (this was by someone who lives in the overland park area - friend of a friend - not a real estate person). Was also told raytown was a little rough. Not sure what that means. Anyone have a take on roeland park? I want to get some ideas before i fly out in the next month or so. Looking to do a turnkey deal to start. Id like to start with as close to an A class type property as i can until i have a better handle on the areas. How much should i expect to pay for that kc experts?! I have 5 rentals here in the denver metro and worried a bit about jumping states and making a mistake. Again thaks for the info in this post!!

[Ron Tindall]

64118 & 64119. Also north of the river. Nice area.

[Sean Tarpenning]

@Chris Billington for a B+ property and above you will be paying a minimum of 70k. Depending on your source of sales, you will probably see much higher prices as well.

[Kevin Trumbull]

Great information, thanks for sharing!

[Abigail T.]

@Chris DawsonThank you! great information 

[Gianni Laverde]

@Chris Dawsonthanks a lot for sharing this information. It's a great start point to get a grasp of the KC areas and understand what areas to focus on and which to avoid as I'm looking to visit KC soon.

@Andrew Syrios@Ron Tindall@Sean Tarpenning@Chris Dawson I'd love to hear your general opinion about multi family market in KC over Single Family? Availability, pricing, desirability and easiness to rent.

Thank you all

[Chris Dawson]

@Gianni Laverde, multi family properties are red hot in KC as they are in many markets across the US.  As a result, it is becoming a lot harder to find a good deal on multi family properties.  There are plenty of smaller multi units (4-12 unit) still available, but the majority of them are in need of major repairs and/or they are in bad areas of the city.  If you can find one of these priced right in a good neighborhood, it should make for a great investment.  It is much harder now to find a good deal on the larger multi units.  There is a lot of out of town money coming in and scooping up these larger projects.

There are pluses and minuses with multi family just like there are with SFRs.  My advise to out of town investors has always been to diversify.  There is no need to choose one over the other.  Base your decision more on the numbers and don't worry as much about what type of property it is.

Here are my random thoughts/recommendations for multi units vs SFRs:

• For multi units, stick with studios. 1bed, or 2bed units.  Most people looking to rent 3 or more bedrooms prefer a yard which means your pool of potential renters will be smaller.
• For SFRs stick with 3 or more bedrooms.  Most people who are looking to rent only 1 or 2 bedrooms prefer no maintenance places like apartments.
• In general, a 6 plex should be less maintenance and upkeep than 6 separate houses.  Your PM fees will also be less per unit for a multi unit vs single family.
• Tenants in multi unit buildings share walls so there is always the potential for noise complaints and neighbors that simply can't get along with each other.
• If you run into financial difficulties, it is much easier to sell off one or two SFRs than it is to sell one big multi unit.
• Traditional lending is much easier right now for SFRs vs multi units.  However, you can get way more creative with financing on commercial properties than you can with SFRs.
• Do not buy a multi family in the worst parts of the city!  The only time I have ever seen an investor even be remotely successful with one of these situations was when they were here locally, on the ground, doing their own maintenance, managing, and leasing.  The one exception to this could be if the property is government subsidized in some way, such as HUD housing or maybe if a TIF is involved.
• How much money do you have to invest?  If you have less than say, $500,000, I would probably recommend buying as many $80k-$10k houses as you can.  If you have more than $500k, I would start thinking about buying multi family.  If you have over $1m to invest, I would definitely be looking for a multi unit building.

I hope this helps!  Good luck investing!

[Chris Billington]

Great Info Chris! Thank you for sharing your insight! 

[Hisham K.]

This is a wonderful form post. I learned so much, thank you all for your input.

I had a question about wholesaling, based on my research it seems that I could find more motivated sellers in the areas where @Chris Dawson labeled as areas to avoid such as zip codes 64126 to 64130. Does that mean that it would be a bad idea to market for wholesale deals in that area or not?

Thanks.

[Gianni Laverde]

@Chris DawsonI want to start with 4 units (a fourflex or two duplex), using conventional bank financing staying below the commercial threshold. Definitely, i'm not in the position (yet!) to purchase a building. I'm inclined to MFH looking at it from the scalibility point, from the maintenance, mgmt point the ability to acquire more units on 1 transaction and 1 financing. I definitely want to stay away from the bad parts of the city to avoid major headaches. Your recommendations are really helpful. Thanks a lot. When you say that with more than $500K to start thinking about buying multifamily, is it if i'm looking to buy All Cash? I was doing some research and saw some alleged TK duplexes and/or 4plexes at around $50k per door on considered good locations in KC. Are those numbers realistic?

[Julie Macd]

great info. thank you

[Chris Dawson]

@Gianni Laverde I would always recommend leveraging your cash to buy more.  If you had $500k in cash, I would definitely be looking to leverage that to get something more like $1.5m to $2m worth of real estate.

$50k a door can be a really good deal if the property truly is in a good area and it is fully rented at market rents. 

[Gianni Laverde]

@Chris Dawson thank you very much for your input on this. I will contact you to discuss further what opportunities are available to invest in KC.

Regards

Gianni

[Cailyn Aune]

Chris Dawson Wish I would've had this list last week! We were our in Kansas City, MO looking at properties. We did like a lot of what we saw in KC. it's a beautiful city! Thank you Chris Dawson...! Every city needs one of these!

[Sandi Hague]

@Chris Dawson

Thanks, Chris! As you mentioned, there are exceptions, but this list is spot-on with our experiences.

[Jason Hawk]

@Chris 

@Chris Dawson 

Great List!!

[Ray Orellano]

@Chris Dawson very good list, good stuff!

@Chris Billington Roeland Park is excellent for rentals, a good rule of thumb is anything in Johnson County is a A area. Returns will be lower and its very competitive but schools are great and crime is low. 

Cheers, 

Ray  

[Jamie Carter]

This is great information. Thank you for the post!

[Jen Hoang]

Great List! Where can I find these zip codes mapped out?

[Chris Dawson]

@Jen Hoang this website has a good visual of where all of the zip codes are: http://www.zipmap.net/Missouri/Jackson_County/Kans...