STORY TIME: What happens when a small town goes downhill?

[Tim Johnson]

Have you ever invested in an area that went bad? Major employers leaving town, big layoffs, etc.

What happened to your rental properties? How did you react? Were you able to stay profitable? 

What is your advice to someone investing in a small town (pop. 35,000... okay, not THAT small) where a couple of large companies in the same industry provide the majority of middle-class jobs?

@Melanie Tribble @Sean Duncan @Deren Huang @Jeff Gonzales You might be interested...

[Bob Crane]

Central Illinois is full of communities hit hard by companies leaving the area and the state shutting down prisons and other services.

There are a lot of rental applicants out there.  But it takes up to six months to fill a vacancy because of all the people without 3x income vs rent, poor credit, or a host of other problems.

The other problem is when a person loses their job.  How long do you carry them knowing replacing them can take six months?  One landlord I know let a family ride for 4 months, the town bailed the family out (paid the back rent), the person eventually found a job, and they are current again.  That's a scary fairy tale that went well.