Rental Property Investor · Richmond, VA · Member since 2018 · 24 posts · 2 votes
We had just made an offer and it was accepted. A couple hours later we find out there was a shooting just 2 blocks down on the same street.
The neighborhood is generally pretty nice. Somewhere between a C moving towards a B class area. A lot of homes have been updated in recent years and the neighborhood looks mostly very clean and new. This is a rare occurance but being that the property is in the North side of Richmond VA, there are pockets of lingering crime.
We hope this is just an isolated incident and are trying to figure how alarmed we should be since the shooting was pretty close to the duplex. We were planning on doing renovations on both units and exterior in September and move into one of the units when they were complete. Since we have a convention loan we don't have to live there but it is unsettling nonetheless.
Any thoughts and feedback on this matter would be gratefully appreciated :)
Yes we looked at both of those. The area has seen crime go down steadily over past 15 and 5 years and the median household income is just under the average in Richmond. There are many investors coming into this neighborhood making it nicer each year.
@Alex Bayer that's a tough one! My husband and I lived in a high-crime area (by Utah standards) for a couple of years, and the worst thing we experienced was having our car window shot with a BB gun. Other than that I never felt unsafe or uncomfortable. But there were shooting incidents nearby and other kinds of crimes. It's hard to say how it'll be for the renters who eventually occupy your duplex, but I'd just research historical data and keep an eye on the news as you move forward.
Highland Park is very much an up and coming area. That said, shootings in the area do happen and hearing gunshots at night isn't that uncommon. If you had been anywhere in Highland Park on New Year's Eve, you would have heard hundreds of gunshots.
I bought my house in Highland Park for $18,000 five years ago. The neighborhood has come a long way since then, but it has a lot further to go. I still think you picked a great neighborhood to invest in.
Thank you! That's so great to hear! It's 2400 block 3rd Ave. It seems like the area is becoming a lot nicer with each new investor coming in and fixing old houses and making them look new again. We definitly are going to update it and make it look as new as possible. 60% homeownership in neighborhood and crime has decreased over last several years. Do you experience any sketchy activity where you live or invest?
I have a rental on 4th Ave, but live nearby in Battery Park.
There is no shortage of "sketchy activity." I recently had my car stolen. My house on 4th Ave has been vandalized and broken into. My enclosed trailer was broken into and tools were stolen. Also, at least half of the people I know in the Northside have had a lawnmower stolen. People will knock on your door and approach you on the street to ask for money.
You will need to have thick skin when it comes to the small things. Be sure to always lock your house and car doors, never leave anything out that you don't want stolen, and build yourself privacy fence with a locking gate.
I'm sorry to here that man. Unfortunate! But yes I totally see where you're coming from! We do plan on putting up large, tall privacy fence with locked gate. Thank you so much for your input. We will certainly make the best of this property and hopefully in the upcoming future, less and less crime will occur in all of Richmond. Seems to be slowly heading that way but there will always be incidents of crime and suspicious activity im sure. How often does ur 4th ave property get messed with?
Somebody egged it recently. Also, someone stole the electric meter last year. 5 years ago it was broken into while we were renovating it and tools were stolen.
Oh wow. Egged. That's interesting. Does that property stand out? Is it one of the nicer homes on the block? We want to try to find the happy medium of renovating it to look and feel new but also not enticing for people to mess with it and steal things .
The house is probably middle of the road. We have updated the kitchen and the main bathroom, but the rest of the house feels dated with painted paneling. Plumbing, HVAC, and electric service have all been updated.
At some point, we will gut the rest of the house and update the living areas and bedrooms, but that may not be for a while.
Right on! This one we have accepted is similar. Definitly needs interior cosmetic work but tenants clearly don't mind how it is right now, which it's not bad. This house it self is mustard colored so I wouldn't say it's "pretty" haha.
@Alex Bayer just market it as a "culturally diverse" neighborhood. Problem solved.
All kidding aside, if this is isolated, then the effects are only short term. No effect on long term value unless it becomes a pattern. Still there is an effect today, because renting a property where a shooting occurred last week is harder. What do you say when perspective tenants ask "is this a safe neighborhood". It is pretty hard to not disclose what you know.
@Alex Bayer We did a flip on the Northside and the porta-potty had a 3-4 bullet holes in it by the time the flip was done. Agree with @John Pierce in this thread. There's a reason investors are flocking to that neighborhood. It's turning around quickly. Privacy fences and thick skin will go a long way in the meantime!
Looks like your in Chestnut Hills neighborhood. Like @John Pierce mentioned, Northside is gauged street by street. The sketchiest area would be the five points intersection north of you. That is where the foot traffic will be all day/night. Alot of young couple's/people moving into the area so it should only get better. I can attest to the NYE celebration, sounded like a warzone.
My sister and her husband have a house on Montrose which is in a more desirable area of Northside closer to Bellevue. They had a drive by shooting a few weeks ago, funny think is, the newly renovated house next door just sold for shy of 500k. So you can't really escape it.
I have buddy grew up in the Northside, he says the foot traffic/drug dealers are less of an issue since the dawn of smart phone and apps. No more working the street corner type thing...
There are isolated incidents everywhere - even Class A suburban high-income neighborhoods. If the incident was random it is one thing, if there are drive-by shootings frequently it is something different entirely. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
You said both units are rented by long term tenants who want to stay, so while the crime may be new to you-- it's not new to them. There was a shooting right next to one of my properties a year or so ago, I thought I was gonna get calls with tenants nervous about the area-- nope, wasn't a big deal-- only difference is this one made the news because the guy died(RIP). If your tenants aren't freaking out, you shouldn't be.
I would strongly advise once you close, on installing 6 ft privacy fences, outside motion lights, and ask the tenants if there is anything else you can do as a landlord, to make them feel safer. Showing you care, and want them to feel safe/secure can go a long way in building a good tenant/landlord relationship.
@Alex Bayer LMAO you guys are calling this area C coming up to B and talking about hearing gun shots at night and the other guy got his car stolen. I've always said I own and rent solid C class buildings but this thread is making me think I have A class inventory.
You guys aren't from Richmond so you don't understand the Northside. This is a neighborhood that is gentrfying rapidly. $400,000 houses are very close to $50,000 houses and abandoned homes. Highland Park, Barton Heights, and Battery Park are residential neighborhoods that are quickly bettering themselves divided by a commercial corridor (Brookland Park Boulevard) that is not transforming as quickly as the residential areas. Most of the shootings are near the commercial corridor.
Highland Park is definitely a C to C+ neighborhood. I live in a B+ part of the Northside, and still have had several shootings within five blocks of my house in the past year.