Thoughts on short term rental near hospital

[Mike Smith]

Hi,

I've had this idea for a while now, just looking for feedback-advice-thoughts.

Live in a mid sized city in the Southeast.  I guess we are a "regional" destination for many services and businesses, including an area of town with 2 major hospitals, a few outpatient type of facilities (for example a prominent higher end specialized cancer clinic), and tons of doctor offices and such.  Also, about 5 miles from this area is a fairly famous sports medicine hospital that draws professional athletes from all over the US, not an expert here, but I'd say it's more than a regional draw on that one.   

People travel from the more rural surrounding areas for treatments in this area, and I'm guessing that some of them stay in the area for a few days or more.  I don't have any numbers nor do i know of a way to quantify that.  There is a "Ronald McDonald" house in the area, which is a free place to stay overnight for parents with kids in treatment, i've heard it can be tough at times to get a spot, so i'm guessing demand is there......

Besides the medical angle, there is a massive military training base in the area, and hotel space is tight 10 times a year when the families come in town for graduation.

Anyway, i have been thinking about buying a property near this medical complex and market it towards people in town for medical treatments, perhaps through a vbro type of arrangement.  Another thought would be to market it towards busy medical professionals, like doctors in Residency.  In general, i was thinking about making it a nicer, perhaps higher end type of rental.

The residential area around the medical is rough(by my cities standards), lots of old cheap houses in areas where i expect many people would not be comfortable staying.

But I found a small property very close to the hospital on a dead end street.  It's kind of private and out of the way.  The other houses in the dead end have been converted to offices( the house across the street is a nice looking law office and the house adjacent is a pretty decent looking environmental consulting company).  The other houses in the area, that are not visible from the property for sale, are rough...but i do see a few that actually look nice, new paint, decent landscaping, ok looking cars in the driveway.  I've been interested in RE investing for a while, and I pay attention when ever I'm out and about town, and i smell a little gentrification starting up in this little enclave, of course it is hard to count on that panning out, and i've been wrong on that type of thought before.

The property is a small 2 bedroom 1 bath(yea not great) house, about 900 sq feet.  Its very old, guessing the rehab price would be in the same range as the ask, which is around 30k.  A few lots in the area are going for 8 to 16 k.  Nice private lot, last lot on dead end street.  A few big nice trees, kind of has an oasis in the city feel to it back there.

Sorry, lots of rambling, what questions should i be asking myself about this ?  Any advice, criticism ?

Thanks    

   

[Andrew K.]

I really like the idea. How do you plan on marketing the property to your target market? How do you plan on a managing the place? Would you furnish the property?

I'm in Fayetteville, NC and understand some of your considerations of a military market. I'd be interested to know how you proceed.

Good luck!

-Andrew