Any other Monessen Investors out there?

[Greg Kimball]

When I search on Monessen, PA on this site, I don't find much and what I do find tends to be on the negative side. I am from Loudoun County VA and early this year, my wife and I were looking for a "project". I have a job in IT and, due to COVID, can now work from anywhere. After some research, we bought our "COVID" project in Monessen, PA. We have lived 50% of the time between our Monessen house and our Loudoun VA condo for the past 5 months. The demographic comparison between the locations of our two homes is as extreme as they come! Our condo is very comfortable but our Monessen house was left empty for 8 years and found it's way on to the town's blighted property list so, yes, it needs work. Though I do work in IT and have for 25 years, I have a construction background from my younger years and have kept my hands in it so I am well versed in carpentry, plumbing and electrical. We are thoroughly enjoying bringing our house in Monessen back to life and love it there! The town is unique and there are sections I would think twice about investing in but 2/3s of it is great and we will seriously consider purchasing another property or two, or three to bring back to life and hold as rental properties. The decline of areas like Monessen, like so many of the towns along the Monongahela, has been due the area's dependency on an industry that drastically declined. The world is quickly changing and people are not as bound to specific areas for specific industries as they once were! Too many people are stuck in the past. People need to open their minds, places like Monessen have more homes than needed for it's current population, the country has a housing shortage that will persist for years so the potential is there. I'll admit, to do what what we're doing isn't for everyone but I'm loving this little hobby and see the potential for it to be profitable if handled well. Anyone else out there see things this way?