Jacksonville - Agent sent me bad deals and I have questions

[Abib Ben]

Hello!

I'm looking to buy my first investment property, and I've been scanning through a bunch of markets to find a place that would be suitable.

I've been looking in Jacksonville, because I found an Springfield area to roughly hit the ~$300/mo cash flow I would like.

Reference: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

So, I reached out to some real estate agents and found one that has worked with a lot of out-of-state investors like myself. Today, she sent me a round of properties, some MFH, the others SFH.

I analyzed 2 of them, and came out with horrible results.

MFH: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

SFH: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

As I said, this is the first time I've moved past individually analyzing deals and got properties sent to me by the real estate agent... the deals she sent left a bad taste in my mouth. 

In my eyes, these are horrible deals. I don't really know how to navigate these feelings and situation, so I decided to ask BP. 

1) Why would she send these to me? Shouldn't she know that these are bad deals?

2) Are people paying this much for these properties? The nearby sales indicate no... but even the nearby sales are confusing to me. Why are people paying this much for properties that don't have anything remotely close to positive cashflow? Am I missing a strategy?

3) Is this just the price you pay for being in a good location? Are people potentially taking negative cash flows and strategizing to profit off appreciation? Or are owners just willing to pay that much for a property to live in themselves?

4) My initial excitement for Jacksonville came from analyzing the cheap neighborhoods, not the nice ones. Is this a mistake? If I do decide to go with these cheaper neighborhoods (properties around $100-150k), how do I get loans for this amount? The mortgage broker I've been working with initially says that getting loans with that low isn't optimal/feasible given the interest rates I would get charged. I've heard people refer to hard money or suggest using local banks instead? Any recommendations if I do decide to go for a cheaper neighbor for my first deal?

Thank you for reading and any help you might provide me. 

[Russell Brazil]

Quote from @Abib Ben:

Hello!

I'm looking to buy my first investment property, and I've been scanning through a bunch of markets to find a place that would be suitable.

I've been looking in Jacksonville, because I found an Springfield area to roughly hit the ~$300/mo cash flow I would like.

Reference: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

So, I reached out to some real estate agents and found one that has worked with a lot of out-of-state investors like myself. Today, she sent me a round of properties, some MFH, the others SFH.

I analyzed 2 of them, and came out with horrible results.

MFH: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

SFH: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

As I said, this is the first time I've moved past individually analyzing deals and got properties sent to me by the real estate agent... the deals she sent left a bad taste in my mouth. 

In my eyes, these are horrible deals. I don't really know how to navigate these feelings and situation, so I decided to ask BP. 

1) Why would she send these to me? Shouldn't she know that these are bad deals?

2) Are people paying this much for these properties? The nearby sales indicate no... but even the nearby sales are confusing to me. Why are people paying this much for properties that don't have anything remotely close to positive cashflow? Am I missing a strategy?

3) Is this just the price you pay for being in a good location? Are people potentially taking negative cash flows and strategizing to profit off appreciation? Or are owners just willing to pay that much for a property to live in themselves?

4) My initial excitement for Jacksonville came from analyzing the cheap neighborhoods, not the nice ones. Is this a mistake? If I do decide to go with these cheaper neighborhoods (properties around $100-150k), how do I get loans for this amount? The mortgage broker I've been working with initially says that getting loans with that low isn't optimal/feasible given the interest rates I would get charged. I've heard people refer to hard money or suggest using local banks instead? Any recommendations if I do decide to go for a cheaper neighbor for my first deal?

Thank you for reading and any help you might provide me. 

 What you think is a bad deal another investor will think is a great deal. There's thousands of investment strategies. Unless you can define exactly what you want, an agent is going to send you what they may invest in, or what their other clients may invest in. 

I suspect youd probably think every property I own is a bad deal even though Ive made millions investing in those properties.