Buckeye for SFR Investing

[Brad D.]

I'm curious what local investors think of Buckeye as an area to buy SFH's to rent, as opposed to Surprise, Mesa, Peoria, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler.

On the pro side, it has decent prices, growth, newer housing stock, is somewhat close to Phoenix, decent price to rent ratio, seems to have ok schools, and is next to where Bill Gates supposedly bought a lot of land to build a smart city. 

On the Con side, it is a bit a bit farther from the metro, and not as established as the other areas mentioned, and doesn't seem to get great reviews on housing sites. 

The wild card is Interstate 11. I'm inclined to think it will help it, but some locals seem very against it. 

[Darwin Crawford]

Buckeye can be a great spot. Because it's cheap, you can actually get some cash flow with SFR's, which can be tricky to do in PHX metro right now.

On the flip side, the outlying communities like Buckeye, tonpah, etc all take the biggest hits in value when RE slows down.  

the one thing I will caution you against is the presence of "rural ghettos", which are HOA/Cookie cutter neighborhoods in phoenix that look nice from the road driving by, but are a nightmare of maintenance and low quality tenant bases. They aren't as common as they were, but some do still exist.

Also - construction labor here is very tight right now, so just put a warranty on anything you buy, there are a lot of really shoddily built homes being sold right now, and they builders are out the back door as soon as you close.  

AZ has a long history of boom and bust, and we are booming right now.  Plan accordingly, inspect what you expect, and its a wonderful place to invest and call home!