Its a strong and fairly safe market. if you take your time and get to know the area and focus your energy on one style of investment you can find a few good deals.

I get that these places have an old school style, but can't you recreate that with modern clean looking materials. 

I have had good results but I should point out I don't have apartment style condos, I have one townhouse and one townhouse style condo (both are in 4plex style individual buildings), which may not be quite as restrictive as attached condos.  

I have a house that I was going to have the walls redone a few years back before a new tenant came in - the walls were heavy textured in kind of a Spanish stucco style, which is not common where I am nor really desirable.

I'm renovating a 2/1 duplex; unit 1 became vacant a few months ago so I did a full renovation on that unit, went with tile flooring and granite counters. It came out nice and gets top of market rent for the size and n...

Is there a source for the following data;  I am looking for the "norm" for the expense ratio (based on either GPR or Gross Income) for individually metered garden style apartments in the south east and the mid Atlantic (Region IV) : Marketing Insurance Janitorial Service Lawn/Snow Licenses Miscellaneous Professional Fees Accounting Legal Property Management Fees Repairs and Maintenance Resident Superintendent Salaries and Wages Supplies Taxes Real Estate Personal Property Payroll Other Trash Removal Utilities Electricity Fuel Oil Gas Sewer and Water Telephone Other (whatever I missed)

In the end, however, it was decided that if users were willing to take the risks then the Series LLC should be available to them.So you wanna pay hedge fund or insurance style fees to experienced counsel? 

This holds true when comparing all styles of real estate investing. 

Agree on improving kitchens, baths, flooring and updating the "style" of the property. 

I recently put under contract a super OFF Market brick ranch style 3/1 sitting on a 1acre just minutes from Moody AFB.