You will hear about west side vs east side, while what is told is true, what is not mentioned is lower class areas are block by block. 

Some local banks are fine with 20% down but I don't think they'll go any lower.

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Quote from @Devin James: Gross Margin is an important calculation for developers/builders.Gross Margin = Gross Profit / RevenueWe shoot for a 20% gross margin on our New Construction HomesReal #’s:Home Sales Price: $374KClosing Cost: $18,700Cost of Construction: $258KLand Cost: $30KGross Profit = $67K$67K/$374K = 17.9% Gross MarginCame slightly short of our goal of 20%Homes Values and Build Costs are constantly fluctuatingI wish we had a crystal ball build larger homes. average new build in our market is 2200 square feet, 4 beds, 3 baths, 2 car garage and sells for 515k. construction costs lower if design is good and find the median or average home sale price and push that up. my guess is you built too small. 347k is cheap. we target 429-479k price range in columbus ohio for single family homes and also only purchase close to urban core where premiums are 20% higher and we build smaller like 1500 sq ft where price per square foot goes up. 

Often, it will also need work.So, that is causing investors to lower their standards and buy Class C & D rentals.Problem is, most investors apply Class A assumptions to these Class C/D properties - and then blame everyone else when they don't get their "expected" results.Check out copy & paste info below for more dtails:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

We will then, as the units turn over, get rents up a good bit further with additional design improvement renovations and hopefully reno into lower interest rates when they drop or at the very least in 5 years on our 20 year we'll have paid off enough to refi into a smaller loan.That is the only kind of smaller deal we can find in neighborhoods where we want to buy now. 

that we’ve learned in our 24 years, managing almost 700 doors across the Metro Detroit area, including almost 100 S8 leases:Class A Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% the more recent norm.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 680+ (roughly 5% probability of default), zero evictions in last 7 years.Class B Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, decent amount of relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% should be applied only if proper research done to support.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 620-680 (around 10% probability of default), some blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 5 yearsClass C Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, high cashflow and at the lower end of relative rent & value appreciation.

I'm also considering Halethorpe because it's a good commuter location.Some people really like supporting the city in which case , northeast Baltimore would seem to the best place to buy a single family, in my opinion given the taxes situation and given that none of those areas are walkable I’d rather just be in the county and pay Lower taxes, and it’s not like northeast Baltimore is much that much cheaper than Baltimore county, hathorpe is mixed, arbutus is nice, I hate the housing stock there, would rather be in Catonsville if I was considering western Baltimore county. 

(Lower interest rate, easier to qualify and lower costs.)

So, the actual increase to market rent will be much lower.