Should I avoid buying properties around downtown Phoenix?

[Jin Zhang]

Hi everyone, 

I am new to Phoenix and thinking about buying a single family rental near the downtown Phoenix area, since I would like to rent it out to traveling nurses. It seems like all the hospitals are around that area. However, the crime rate seems be very high according to the crime map. My questions are the following: 

1) Is phoenix a good city to rent to traveling nurses? 

2) Should I avoid buying in the downtown area (the square circle the word Phoenix on google map) due to high crime or other factors? 

Thanks! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

3) Do you have any recommendations on where to invest in Phoenix, especially for traveling nurses? 

Thanks, 

Jin 

[Lee Hines]

This may sound goofy and perhaps too simple, but one hack I've found for checking out properties in Phoenix is to pull up the address on Google maps and then look at the satellite photos. You can usually tell pretty quickly if you're in a rough neighborhood. The yards are full of junk and the pools are green or empty. I know there are rougher neighborhoods without these things,  but it can definitely save you some time if you see the entire neighborhood is trashed.