All Forum Posts by: Kevin Chandler

@Kevin Chandler, you've gotten some great info here. After having managed in both New Britain and Hartford, I would pick a nice area of New Britain over a Nice area of Hartford - unless you are speaking specifically of the West End of Hartford. 

I would say that the West End of Hartford trumps all of New Britain. But there's some really really nice areas of NB (like the Farmington and Berlin sides) that we've been fortunate enough to manage in. Those are desirable areas where a nice 3 bed 1 bath unit can rent for 1,200 all day long.

Don't fall victim to the pro formas showing New Haven and Hartford to be these amazing places. Pro formas don't show crime rates, vacancy because of said crime, and overall quality of tenant. 

@Renita G Ezell - congrats on being under contract on your first CT property!

@Kevin Chandler, 

I agree with everyone's comments about investing in Hartford and New Britain. I was born and raised in Hartford. My favorite area in the west end, 06105. There are also a few nice areas in the south end, 06114.  I currently live in New Britain, 06051, but prefer the other end of town closer to Central CT State University, 06053. I have my first property under contract in that area.

@Kevin Chandler Hartford can vary street to street but with your price range you should be able to land something there based on what you're looking for.  In that range you should be able to find a duplex & maybe even a triplex in the West End.  It typically has pretty good rental demand with UCONN Law School, St. Francis Hospital, UHART all nearby.  Cash flow is not great since properties are priced accordingly though.  

On paper other areas of the city have much higher cashflow but they come with their fair share of hassles.   

$300-$400k will likely not get you even a 2-family in the best area of New Haven unless it needs a lot of work, but will get you a property in a top flight area of Hartford. The East Rock area of New Haven (near Yale) is a huge outlier in terms of pricing, very expensive. 

@Kevin Chandler Welcome to BP!

What kind of investing are you looking to do?

Very generally speaking the areas of Hartford and New Haven where you can hope to attract qualified tenants (assuming that is your goal) are very expensive because most of the people with something to lose that live in these cities generally live in 2 or 3 areas. What this leads to is higher purchase prices but also higher rents in these areas. 

New Britain is where you are going to get the best ROI like you mentioned and this is because as a whole there are more areas within the city where qualified tenants are looking to live and the purchase prices are lower while still maintaining competitive rents. Also, living in a better area of NB is still much cheaper than the rent in the suburban towns that surround NB which will always be an advantage of owning there. Just like investing in any city though there are a couple areas to stay away from, but they are not hard to identify and they are not large.

This all comes down to how much you are looking to spend and the class of property/class of tenants you want to deal with.

Hi I would stay away from New Britain. Focus on Hartford and New Haven. Both have crime but if you focus your search around university areas specially you should be ok. Things vary street to street. I would check out university housing websites and forums to find specific neighborhoods to target. Yale is a good starting point. University of Hartford.