I love that these homes are in class A neighborhoods, I have seen this strategy work out for investors before but they were at least cashflow neutral. 

Since your post, I've looked into the DORA and it seems to be a great  boost for the economy right in the neighborhood I am looking at investing in. 

Can try to reposition to Class B, but neighborhood may impede these efforts.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, but 15-20% should be used to also cover tenant nonpayment, eviction costs & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores of 560-620 (approaching 22% probability of default), many blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 2 years.

On paper some of these buildings had amazing metrics, excellent cash on cash returns, cap rates, etc, but when I looked at the buildings I found the neighborhoods were rough, there was poor management in place, there was lots of deferred maintenance to address.

It was a new build in a great neighborhood.

You have full flexibility to use none, some, or all of the rehab budget.If you have any questions, I’d be happy to discuss how we structure our loans to best fit each client’s needs.

If anything, when you accept rentals in the higher-end neighborhoods, the rent rate exceeds the voucher limit, meaning the resident has to have their own income in order to qualify.

The City of Detroit is block-by-block in many Class B & C areas.In our opinion, zip codes cover too large an area.We use Detroit Neighborhoods, which are much smaller than zip codes.

And now I see it mentioned here and in newsletters as an up and coming place.I’m a huge fan of industrial neighborhoods and buildings and it has a cool little district.

Focus on identifying promising neighborhoods in the north or east bay by leveraging your husband’s contractor network, local real estate agents, and online deal-finding platforms.