Should I continue to sink money into a SFR in an attempt to get it rented or sold?

[Scott Menkes]

I think the question is rethorical but maybe I am not thinking clearly. We bought an REO SFR two years ago and only had to put in a few thousand dollars to get it rent ready. The house sat unrented for about six months until we got our first tenant, then we evicted our first tenant within about six months and fired our property manager and then we rinsed and repeated and after many months of vacancy followed by many months of unpaid rent we just evicted our second tenant and fired the second property manager. Had a meet and greet with a new property manager who we met at the property just a couple days after this last eviction. The property needs a lot more work to make it rentable or sellable but we can't get started until we kill the fleas (just the first of many things that needs fixing). I estimate about 5k in needed repairs to make it rentable. If I had to do over I would not have bought in this neighborhood but I feel like I have to continue to throw money at this property before I can collect income or sell. If nothing else I feel like I am paying for an education and I have a good feeling about working with this new property manager.

I kind of feel like one of the dumb investors headlined in today's newsletter "How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Investors". 

[Thomas Leonard]

Hi Scott,

You mentioned "this neighborhood". Location is key in my opinion. Nice tenants won't stay in bad neighborhoods. I bought a 2 family house in a bad neighborhood for 80k. Rehab'd it with an additional 40k. Spent 10 years dealing with bad tenants and finally sold it for 90k. I am happy as a clam to be done with it. Good luck.