I'm looking to invest in Birmingham due to its cheap prices. I drove to Birmingham today and I saw a lot of vacant and abandoned houses in the east lake area. I also saw that Birmingham is shrinking in population. Are the fundamentals not there? Is there not strong economic growth in this area?
@Alex Ng I think Birmingham is a great place to invest because of the cheaper prices and low taxes. It all depends on the areas you're looking in, I would advise focusing on the median priced homes, those types of areas normally don't have a lot of vacancies in my experience.
Personally I like areas like Memphis and Little Rock better but I wouldn't shy away from Birmingham. Best of luck investing!
Birmingham can be good for investors, many of the cheaper properties are in pretty bad areas and the crime has gotten worse in the last several years, so I would take that into consideration. You can get good rents at low entry points in some of these areas, but there’s the question of finding good tenants along with the downsides of being in a high crime area. And those properties don’t tend to appreciate. For example, I got a house for about 30k in such an area and was able to get 800/mo, but it wasn’t worth it. I had a cage on the outside AC unit but someone got a truck into the backyard and was able to yank it out of the ground. The police told me there was a wanted felon living next door and to “call us if you see him” (??). So I would spend a little more and try to get into a little better than the worst areas. East Lake isn’t the very worse, but they do have some issues.
@Alex Ng I think Birmingham is a great place to invest because of the cheaper prices and low taxes. It all depends on the areas you're looking in, I would advise focusing on the median priced homes, those types of areas normally don't have a lot of vacancies in my experience.
Personally I like areas like Memphis and Little Rock better but I wouldn't shy away from Birmingham. Best of luck investing!
Hi Taz. I recently visited and decided upon L.R and B-ham as well. Curious as to
1) what you liked better about the Little Rock market
2) What type of neighborhoods are you looking to invest into in those areas (Section 8, A,B,C etc)
@Alex Ng I think Birmingham is a great place to invest because of the cheaper prices and low taxes. It all depends on the areas you're looking in, I would advise focusing on the median priced homes, those types of areas normally don't have a lot of vacancies in my experience.
Personally I like areas like Memphis and Little Rock better but I wouldn't shy away from Birmingham. Best of luck investing!
Hi Taz. I recently visited and decided upon L.R and B-ham as well. Curious as to
1) what you liked better about the Little Rock market
2) What type of neighborhoods are you looking to invest into in those areas (Section 8, A,B,C etc)
Thanks!
I like the fact the Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas and there's a couple military bases that are north of town so there's tons of government jobs. Those aren't going anywhere so there's a strong economic base but also looking at the city logistically it has all forms of transportation with a high volume of traffic coming through. Hwy 40 and 30 meet in Little Rock, 40 goes through OKC to LA and 30 goes through DFW to San Diego. Also the Arkansas river leads to the MS which leads to the Gulf so there's barge traffic as well.
I don't do any section 8 because of the clientele you work with isn't as consistent. There's a lot of people who have an appetite for it and are successful but with that clientele the risk increases. Most of my purchases, and clients I work with, are leveraged so we are looking for as much consistency and security as possible so that puts us in more owner occupied type areas. It yields a higher quality clientele reducing the risk and these areas typically appreciate better over time.
@Taz Zettergren to be honest, I too like the Little Rock suburbs more than the B-ham area. I have been more active though in Bham because I really found a great team of agent/PM/Lender in that area and I feel confident in their ability to get me a good deal. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find an agent/broker in the LR area that gives me that same vibe.
@Taz Zettergren to be honest, I too like the Little Rock suburbs more than the B-ham area. I have been more active though in Bham because I really found a great team of agent/PM/Lender in that area and I feel confident in their ability to get me a good deal. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find an agent/broker in the LR area that gives me that same vibe.