Investing In Portsmouth, VA?

[Kenny Rains]

I'm curious to see if people are actively investing in Portsmouth, VA or if it's on your watch list. Of the 7 cities this seems to be one of the few that still has a relatively low barrier of entry and there are still multi-family properties available. I believe the biggest arguments against Portsmouth are the high local taxes and of course the crime. With that being said are you looking at Portsmouth?

[Patti Robertson]

I'm not buying to hold in PTown anymore because of all the reasons said, and because of the bureaucracy.  It's the only city we have to get two levels of inspections in for a single tenant, for example. The accounting records are a joke.  We keep a credit on our account so we can just call down and order an inspection without having to either go there or wait til they get our payment.  They keep losing our money and only one person in the office knows what is going on. Fortunately she really knows and remembers, but the last time I had to go to straighten it out, she said "I told (whatever the account records person is) that you were supposed to have a $200 credit on your account.  I'll tell her again! How is it possible they have our funds, but they do not appear on the account?  Is the money being recorded wrong or is it missing?  This is just one example. Here's another - the city literally hired a team of 7 people who do nothing but drive around looking for long grass to mow and then bill the homeowner (usually an investor) $270ish for a single grass cut.  If you have gotten one violation notice in the last year, even if you addressed it on time, they have the right to just mow it and bill you. I tried to fight the proposed bill, but it got passed. It is also expensive to keep going through the tolls just to get there, and the tolls are going up. It's a long list of whys.  

These things all said, when we were in the beginning stages of building my portfolio we bought anything that met our criteria.  Now we are in pruning stage - trimming off the ones that are further away or cause us the most headaches, and adding those that meet our long term goals better.

A very wise person told us early on that if we wanted 50 properties, we should plan to buy 100, and sell half to pay off the remaining assets.  Two steps forward, one step back always moves you in the right direction.