I live in LA and invested in South LA since 2009, in the neighborhoods that I would prefer not to enter, even if I needed to get off freeway to get gas.
Over exaggerated fears of people, like I used to be, turned out to be very profitable for people who knew better.(a friend of mine gave me the info about someone who is profitably invested there)
Once I bought my first property, I have learned that this is a mix ethnicity neighborhood of working families. Yes, there are elements that are undesirable and I don't see were I live by the beach, but such are not a majority.
What surprised me first is the ratio of property price vs. rent. This neighborhood fetches 1300 to 1450 for 2 bd apartment. in 2009 I was paying from 230 to 240k for the property that has 3 or 4 such units.
The same apartment in my "hood", if I may say s,o would cost from 1800 to 2500, but the property price would be from 500 to 900k or more... You do the math.
To make long story short between 2009 to 2012, I bought 7 of 3-5 units properties and they cash flow very well. Suffice to say that I am making more money from the investment than my Aerospace Software Engineer salary.
I often joking that I am making more money from "doing nothing", than "doing something" .. maybe I have to start doing more of "nothing" and less of "something" :-)
Unfortunately I was not aggressive enough and did not buy more.. This would make the difference between working and needing to work. In 2013 prices went so high, that it makes no sense. No cash flow is possible. I have no idea who is paying 450k for a money loosing proposition in the dinky part of town, but they do.
Since what I get used to in RE .. and learned to love, is not there anymore. I would like to ask people to share their out of state investment, and what is most important remote Property Management experience.
Were you investing?
How you identify the properties?
What are the investment metrics? a cash flow
How you identify PM company that you can trust ?
Leads, advise in the area were good safe returns can be obtained.
Thanks for sharing. I found the site and people who contribute to be invaluable source of great information, because nobody sells .. pure information sharing .. make me warm and fuzzy .. and trusting
Thanks for listening .. and thanks in advance for the feedback