Killing it by turning crack dens into safe housing

[John Hickey]

I’d like to share my strategies here to help others make money and turn the worst war zone, vacant areas into safe spots for families to live.

I’m by no means the only one doing it. It’s just hard to find people talking about it. 

I think if we talked about it more more people would take the risk and the worst crime areas could turn very quickly into homes.

Some of them aren’t going to be pretty. 

Some are pretty simple.

Welcome all to advise and share here.....

Especially those who have successfully taken stuff from war zone to secure housing.

So I’ll start it out.

Buy the worst house in whatever area your going to purchase. It might be useful to ask the cops what house they goto most often in the city.

Try to buy at least half a block. Getting a corner with 100’ in each direction is helpful.

See a bodega? Get that too.   Don’t let a single commercial or residential property within 500’ get sold to someone other then you or some one you can trust that will assist you.

[Michael Ealy]

Originally posted by @John Hickey:

I’d like to share my strategies here to help others make money and turn the worst war zone, vacant areas into safe spots for families to live.

I’m by no means the only one doing it. It’s just hard to find people talking about it. 

I think if we talked about it more more people would take the risk and the worst crime areas could turn very quickly into homes.

Some of them aren’t going to be pretty. 

Some are pretty simple.

Welcome all to advise and share here.....

Especially those who have successfully taken stuff from war zone to secure housing.

So I’ll start it out.

Buy the worst house in whatever area your going to purchase. It might be useful to ask the cops what house they goto most often in the city.

Try to buy at least half a block. Getting a corner with 100’ in each direction is helpful.

See a bodega? Get that too.   Don’t let a single commercial or residential property within 500’ get sold to someone other then you or some one you can trust that will assist you.

 Good strategy and kudos to you for having the guts to do it. Not many real estate investors, and specially newbies can do what you do.

Having said that, buying in the worst neighborhood by buying the whole block can be very profitable. One deal I did was in Avondale area of Cincinnati. If you do your research, Avondale has one of the highest crime rate in Cincinnati. I got 30 units - townhomes for only $450,000 - and only 3 were occupied. They were paying $300/month. You can research the address - 3561 Eden Ave, Cincinnati.

Got everyone out and renovated the units (it's still going on). When I did my estimate, I projected the rents can be increased to $850/month. But I made a mistake.

It was way lower than my projections. My leasing agent was able to lease it for $1,250/month. And there was a waiting list. My partner and I will make $2 MILLION by the time we sell it or if we decide NOT to sell and just refi, we'll get $1M cash on top of our initial capital and keep it for cashflow.

Here are the pictures: (I will dig up the before and post a before and after in a different post)

Here's a video: 

If you ask the folks here on BP who lives in Cincinnati if they will buy in Avondale, 99% will say "NO way!" That's why 99% will never make $2M on one deal. Again, not a strategy for a newbie BUT, doing this improves neighborhoods and the real estate developers and investors who are willing to do this, can get rewarded handsomely.