Milwaukee, WI rental market ?

[Leo Koonan]

Hi Guys, I've been told that Milwaukee, WI is  rising as far as a good buy and hold market ( rentals) goes. I've checked redfin/zillow the usual and it looks like the real estate is pretty cheap out there comparing to rental ( 30k house going for 650m). 

Anyone from that area  thats willing to share hows the market as far as buying  rentals  goes ( high turnovers, weak market, the state is anti landlord?)

[Tom Shallcross]

Hi @Leo Koonan - I'm relatively new to Milwaukee compared to others, but I'll share what I've done/know.  Milwaukee does have a disproportional amount of renters and a solid inventory of low-priced housing.  A lot of these homes are older and your on paper 2-3% rule can easily disintegrate with capital expenditure and/or eviction/turnover.  When prices are so low you need to be super diligent upfront as an unexpected capital expense can tank all your profits.  You'll see there are a ton of homes offered up by the city for less than 10k.  However, the amount of work to fix them up may not match the current market rate. 

All my investments are currently north of Capitol (190) where pricing will be slightly higher relative to some of the deals you're looking at, but still very good numbers and less risk.

@Dawn Anastasi was on a BP Podcast and has written a solid short eBook on Milwaukee. I would highly recommend downloading this to grasp a general foundation of the different areas broken down by zip code:

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/dawn-anastasi/inves...

I would then continue to talk to others who know each specific area of the city as I've only focused on my one little pocket.  Feel free to hit me up with any questions or recommendations for contractor/property management I use.   

Lastly, Milwaukee is more friendly than Chicago (my only other reference point) from a landlording-perspective.  Below is a link to basic info from the city site: https://city.milwaukee.gov/DistrictSevenCLO/Landlo...