Advice for starting off in Washington DC

[Aziz Nayani]

I am looking to buy my first investment property in Washington DC. I am thinking about using it as an MTR to help address the regular flow of diplomats, students, interns, etc. that come through the nations capital. I am looking at properties in the $200k-$300k range, which will mostly be 1 bedroom / 1 ba.  Any advice or considerations to keep in mind? Any neighborhoods to focus on or to avoid? 

Thanks! 

[Jack Seiden]

Quote from @Aziz Nayani:

I am looking to buy my first investment property in Washington DC. I am thinking about using it as an MTR to help address the regular flow of diplomats, students, interns, etc. that come through the nations capital. I am looking at properties in the $200k-$300k range, which will mostly be 1 bedroom / 1 ba.  Any advice or considerations to keep in mind? Any neighborhoods to focus on or to avoid? 

Thanks! 

You will probably be looking at studios or 1bd at that price, the condo market in dc is extremely building specific,some buildings have minimum leases, often a year, a building I’m selling now is 6 months, other buildings cap the number of units in the building that can be rented, some even don’t allow rentals at all, though that’s pretty rare. Than you of course have different hoa fees, different layout/location in building of unit and building amenities/condition’s that can greatly effect desirability of the units, I think there are some fantastic condo deals in dc right now and some that i absolutely wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole, but it’s really hard to give overall advice expect to really nail down all those different intricacies of the unit your buying.