What do you guys think?

Question

Found a duplex in a crime ridden area. 4br 2ba, both sides rent for 650. It looks boarded up when I came over to see and believe me, I was scared to get out of my car...is that a good thing? 
            
            On paper, it sounds good but when you get to the real world, it's a lot different. But this deal is so good! I really want to buy it.
            
            Here's the link but I'm taking it down after a couple of days. Just waiting to see some couple of advice from anyone especially Jon and MikeOH.
            
            http://146ashavenue.canbyours.com/

What do you think the maximum price for this one should be?

Alex Aronson · Answer

Every deal I have done has been zero down since September 2008.  Who says you need money down to buy real estate.

Franklin Lee · Answer

Hate to tell you, but real estate investing is not for the poor...

Very rarely, a poor person with huge debt would be able to secure a loan for a house. A working class person, maybe. A middle class person, he has some potential to get deals, but his real estate investment won't transform him to being rich(100 dollars to 3,000,000 million in three years)?

Real estate investment is for the rich who already had money from the start and are looking for money to grow 20 percent annually.

Think about the game monopoly. You start off with money you can use for a downpayment on the house. What else could you do if you didn't have money from the start? You can't buy a house!

Now, this may be an exception to some people on this forum who had done no downpayment deals but very rarely, you would see an average joe turning into a millionaire by just reading informations on this site and doing hard works to find those deals.

Timothy W. · Answer

What are you doing driving to deals in a beemer?  Son, get yourself a 10 year old pickup truck when you do that.  Makes it a lot easier to cry poor to the sellers, contractors, tenants, city, etc....

Michael Rossi · Answer

Or maybe they didn't want one of the other riff-raff to beat them to robbing the kid in the beemer!

Mike

Franklin Lee · Answer

Hey guys, I've decided to skip this deal. Thanks for the advice though!

John Andre · Answer

The fact the neighbors came out is a good thing. Their is a good neighborhood watch program in place. But, their is a good neighborhood watch program in place, because there is a reason for someone to watch, everything, even a car driving down the street. 
Walk from this one, their will be others, more than you can handle.

Alex Aronson · Answer

I think the neighbors came out to see why an 18 year kid driving a BMW was doing in the neighbor "hood" so that they could either tell you are in the wrong neighborhood or where to go to buy your recreational drugs.

If this is your first deal or one of your early deals in your investing career, and you are uncomfortable with the neighborhood, then you need to walk away and find a more comfortable settings.  Owning real estate is not for the faint of heart and having property in that type of neighborhood can just add to the stress.  The first time my tenant was late on rent, I had a hard time sleeping wondering if I was going to have to evect someone and be stuck with the mortgage bill.  However, after the tenant was late 3 months in a row and somehow managed to come up with the money each month, I sleep easier and now do not care if he is late as long as he pays.

Do you due dilligance and make sure the risk is worth the reward.

Good luck

Will Barnard · Answer

Seems to me that from your descriptions and explanations, along with the fear of stepping foot on ground, you have no business in that type of investment. Move on.

Michael Rossi · Answer

You need to see INSIDE this house.  There is no way to guess and be accurate.  It could be $10 or $100,000 to fix the place up.  You'll never know until you actually see it!

Mike