I'm currently analyzing a property in a C grade neighborhood, where the 1st floor is a tavern and upstairs is 4 apartments.

The basement is unfinished, but is only about 3 feet below grade, and has front and rear entrances, full-size windows, and high ceilings (we would not need to dig out the basement when we finish it).  

Hey apologies for the vague title, but I am new to looking at investment grade multifamily properties, coming from 1-4 unit properties. 

The problem we are having is almost half of the finished house square footage is below grade which is a walkout basement. 

In the end we agreed to $12,000 to tear the house down, haul everything away, and grade the yard. 

However I wrote The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods to give some solid background info on the Cleveland market to help you (& others) make that decision for yourself(s). 

I recommend giving the Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods a read.

In the sense, I am planning to move in the same vicinity but down grading to a smaller size house. 

Lastly what you will see is that civilization has come out to these places when you drive by and see some desert rat in his or her Mobile home stuck in the middle of no where that 95% of the time is on one of these old platted lots.. some areas Like some of the Lake co California areas town actually grew to them sewer and water and paved streets put in and houses builtBut for instance above Lucerne there are 7 thousand platted lots and I think 3 homes.. lots are 5 to 7k sq feet.. it was uncanny how they surveyed and platted them way back when .. this terrain is quite step but the road follow correct grades although some lots even with today techniques would be near impossible to build on.. 

Yes so if I decided to sell, I’d need to find a nice apartment, I wouldn’t want to down grade to save money , so I’m thinking a similar apartment would be maybe $1600 -$1800 a month aprox.