Coachella Valley/Palm Springs Multi-Family

[Cort Green]

Hi Everyone. I'm new to BP and have been seriously looking at multi-family rental properties in the Coachella Valley/Palm Springs area of Southern California. Interested in buy and hold cash flow opportunities. To maximize cash flow, and for the sake of prices, I've been looking in Desert Hot Springs, Indio, 29 Palms, etc. I've lived in the Coachella Valley for 13 years and currently own 2 SFR's out here. Ready to make the move to multi-family. Any input on this area? Anyone live out here and want to get together for lunch?

Thanks everyone!

Cort

[Brent Seehusen]

@Cort Green

The military personnel are a good source of tenants, but not the only source.  Currently, I also have a pharmacist and a caregiver for the elderly.  The military base can make the tenant pool very fickle because sometimes you have a block of marines leaving the area all at once and other times lots of marines moving in.  Also, the housing allowance they receive is decided on a yearly basis (I think) and sometimes it can be lowered which increases their incentive to live on base to save money.  When the housing allowance is higher they want to live off base because they can pocket the difference between the allowance and the rent they are paying.

One of the things that appealed to me was that crime was relatively lower, mostly petty thefts, vandalism, and minor drug busts, compared to other inexpensive areas like San Bernardino that are known for violent crime.  I have looked into Desert Hot Springs as well and the numbers looked good, but the reputation is that crime is pretty high with lots of gang activity.  I don't know if that's an outdated perception due to improvements being made by the city, but I would try to talk to somebody on the ground there before investing.