NEWBIE: St. Louis Multi-Family Investing

[Mitch McCray]

Hi everyone,

I'm an aspiring multi-family rental property owner living in St. Louis looking to get into the rental property investing scene. I'm currently in the process of reading as much as I can through books about investing (particularly house hacking which I'm most interested in). My biggest concern is the market itself (I'm from Florida) and where (if any) locations exist that have the potential for appreciation and cash flow. I don't want to live in a particularly sketchy area as someone who will be a tenant but I also don't want to sacrifice all appreciation potential just to live in a capped potential neighborhood. I'm looking for the next growing area in STL  - the Grove seems too expensive, Shaw seems like its on the tail end of its boom, anyone know anything about DeBaliviere Place (I know WASHU had a redevelopment program in place for this area and some other areas around delmar) or other areas with potential? Or should I just go with the safer steady high occupancy areas around TG Park? 

Any guidance is greatly appreciated!!

[Max Householder]

63109 is a steady, relatively safe area that's adjacent to some of the hotter growth areas and is finally seeing some positive pressure in catching up appreciation to Tower Grove, Shaw, etc. Southampton closer to Macklind has been a desirable area for a while although it's a tad more expensive, especially closer to Francis Park. Christy Park is a decent area with positive pressure being between Francis Park and Holly Hills. Bevo is thought of as about to come-up from time to time, but it never really seems to take off. There are some pockets either side of South Grand, but it's more block to block outside of TG South/southeast. I've seen some people mention having success on South Broadway but I haven't spent much time on the ground down that way and it is sketchy-adjacent in places.

Hope that helps spark some ideas!