Does anyone here have experience with buy & hold rental properties in higher-crime neighborhoods with depressed property values?

Is code enforcement really a huge problem in economically depressed areas?

Here are some ways you might be able to achieve that kind of return:Find a property for a fraction of what it's worth (marketing to motivated sellers, nonconventional transactions).Find a secondary market that isn't hot, or is maybe even a little depressed (not Austin or Dallas).Become a slum lord - but most of us know how that turns out, and you even say you're looking for quality renters.Finding something that's easy to sell, easy to rent with a quality renter, and has 10 - 15% cash-on-cash returns - you're going to have to be willing to do a lot of marketing/networking to find that.

Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties.

That zip includes what I call the depressing route back to DC and I did not bother looking in that area when looking for a Baltimore investment.

To wit: this isn't exactly a neglected home in flyover country you are just now buying today at a low full retail price because the local economy is so depressed that no one can afford to own (or maintain) a house...

It's sort of depressing in a way!

They generally treat some type of mental disorder, but realistically most anyone can say they are depressed and qualify.

Are these returns all depressed because everyone and their cousin is a real estate investor now?

maybe in depressed areas.