What are the things to look out for when renting?

[Charlene Isoh]

Hi i'm looking to buy my first investment property in Philadelphia to use as a cashflow property for rentals. I am looking at cheaper houses/townhouses no more than 60k because i'm looking to start small, it being my first future property. I am slightly uncertain of what to look out for as far as numbers and the property itself...any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[Katie Heer]

19143 Kingsessing and Cobbs Creek 

19134 Port Richmond 

19140 North Philadelphia

These are the names of the zip codes you listed. 

Philadelphia is a great city, immense with opportunity and extremely proud of its various neighborhoods, all of which have their own challenges and benefits. Please do some research on these areas and figure out if these are the neighborhoods that would
A. Provide the best ROI
B. Fulfill what you are looking for as an investor.
C. (difficult to gauge sometimes) are poised for appreciation.

http://www.city-data.com/ is a great website to get a better feel for the breakdown of these neighborhoods. Ultimately I think it depends on what your goals are for real estate. 

Also, I would suggest reading articles, latest news stories that feature these neighborhoods. On the areas that I focus on, I have subscribed to Google Alerts, which sends daily updates of news stories that feature my areas. In your case, you could put a Google Alert in for "Port Richmond, Philadelphia" for example, which would provide you with updated info about the things going on in your area.

https://www.google.com/alert