Anyone have experience in MO?

Question

Hey all,

I'm a new investor who is looking to make a couple of purchases in the near term and have been looking rather intently in KC and St. Louis, MO. In St. Louis, there seem to be a number of "up and coming" neighborhoods with good proximity to the city center, employment etc. while also having a significant investment being made into the neighborhood themselves, including Dutchtown and Gravois park (Dutchtown revitlization site http://dt2stl.org). In KC, I'm looking at a number of properties in Northeast KC. I live in Los Angeles, and as such am largely unfamiliar with these markets and therefore would love to hear any experiences that others may have had there.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Jesse

P.S. This is my first post, so go easy on me :)

Mackal Smith · Answer

Hey there Jesse,

Great to see you reaching out with your first post. Like @Peter MacKercher responded above, I also invest in South City St Louis (primarily around the Dutchtown area) and again like Peter, I tend to look more at small multi-families. In fact I don't have a single family in my portfolio. St Louis is a great market for small multi-family units and personally i like the fact that even if I have a vacancy in one unit it is unlikely that all units will be vacant at the same time. In addition, so far I have been able to acquire these properties such that a single unit would virtually cover the entire debt service so it gives me a lot of "cushion". Although I have some in my portfolio, I prefer to try and stay away from single bedroom shotgun style 4 families. My personal preference are 2 bedrooms with better layouts (although those are harder to find in 4 family... I have more luck getting something like that in a duplex).

All said though, I like the STL area. Compared to property prices I have seen in other parts of the country, we are really lucky here. Rents are great, prices are good, deals are plenty. Although the market is heating up, I still find deals on the MLS which is more than can be said in lost of other areas around the country.

Best of luck to you. Keep reaching out. People here genuinely want to help...

Andrew Syrios · Answer

The northeast is pretty hit or miss, it's pretty rough and as an out-of-state investor, I would recommend avoiding it. Here's a good breakdown of various KC zip codes you may want to check out: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/276800-kansas-city-missouri-zip-codes

Joel Melgren · Answer

@Jesse Smith I'd love to help you with finding property in Northeast KC too. I'm a real estate agent and the company I'm with also does property management and renovation if interested. In the northeast I like the areas closer to KCUMB - Pendleton Heights and Scarrit but as others have said it's really block to block differences. Shoot me a message if you want and I will see if I can help.

Steve Ipock · Answer

@Tom Rychlewski if you are in independence you should know that the address you posted is not in the northeast area. It is in the northland. Huge difference.

Blake Brose · Answer

@Tom Rychlewski

I have quite large buyers list of investment property here in the Kansas city area. Let me know if you like help unloading that property.

William Robison · Answer

@Jesse Smith  I would add that you should play close attention to the statistics of a neighborhood. Look at city-data.com and crimereports.com for information about the neighborhoods that you are considering.  You have to be comfortable with the neighborhoods that you are buying within.

I also agree that in Northeast KC, there can be a large variance per block.   I flipped in this neighborhood during the boom of 2004-2006.  Now I help investors get out of some of these neighborhoods in some cases.

Gentrification zones of KC are closer to Westport neighborhood, like Hyde Park.

All the best with your investments.  Welcome to BP!

Peter MacKercher · Answer

@Jesse Smith If you're looking to invest in South City there are a lot of opportunities for SFH and multis, but the bread and butter investment I see and suggest to most of my clients are 4-family buildings since they're so prevalent throughout the city and offer a more resilient income stream compared to SFH. They've been my personal investing focus, and are what I started my investing with. There are a few zip codes on the south side that I favor for investing, whether that be SHF or multi, and if you're looking at south city that's been my target market for over a decade of investing.

Ultimately it's easier to talk this out rather than type up a 2 page wall of text no one will sit through. I'd be happy to help if you'd like more advice, so don't hesitate to reach out.

Cheers!

Anyone have experience in MO?

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