I'm a brand spankin, new REI from Quakertown, PA. I've put in my first offer in my hometown on a twin unit but I want to invest in a Quadraplex. The Pottstown area is very affordable but the area is very low income plus the school district isn't the best. Quadraplex's in the area sell for $139K and rent for about $600-700 month per unit. My concern is bad tenants and no value increase in the property over time.

Has anyone invested in the Pottstown, PA market or invested in a low income area and done well? 

Nathanael -

We manage a bunch of units in Pottstown.  We also have invested a ton outselves in low income neighborhoods across PA.  Let me know if you want to catch-up... we'd be happy to provide some more guidance for you.  In general -- we like to say that it's not black and white as to whether or not to invest in low income areas.  There is for sure higher variance to low income investing, but typically higher cash-flow upside if things go well.  But we'd be happy to give you some more insight into how we evaluate deals like that.

Also -- specific to Pottstown --- we help run a meetup there.  Here's the info about it, highly recommend coming to it.  We have found meetups to be incredibly beneficial to understanding local economies, as well as connecting with like-minded investors.  

https://www.meetup.com/preview/Pottstown-Real-Estate-Investing-Meetup

Awesome! Thanks Nate! I just joined the group and will be attending the event Monday night. Would you be available for a 10 minute phone call? 

Following this.  Always looking for new small towns to invest in where rates returns are great despite having little appreciation.

Nathanael - I also recently started investing in Pottstown and picked Nate's brain a couple of times. I purchased a quad in June and a duplex last month. The borough can be tricky but they haven't been impossible to deal with. Just prepare for a learning curve when it comes to their U&O process.

In regards to the tenants, the quad plex came with 2 Section 8 tenants and they alone have provided great revenue for us over the past few months.  There is also no shortage of Section 8 applicants in the area if you were to go that route. I have also found that the cost of various tradesmen is comparable to the cost of living which makes repairs reasonably priced. 

Overall, so far so good from my perspective.