Buy and Hold strategy question

[Mark Stone]

I have a question about Buy and Hold strategy that I was hoping some of you could give your input on and perhaps point out the flaws in.

I feel like I keep running into properties that have been flipped recently and look very nice/completely re-done, however they are in horrible areas still. The people doing these are probably buying them cheap and obv just flipping the property for a quick property so I can see how that would be lucrative. 

However, it go me thinking about the best way to make money on buy and holds in an area that is becoming safer and nicer. Do people ever go about buying a property in an up-and-coming area with the intentions to rent it out for cheap right away, with their main goal to wait until the area has become a little safer and nicer, and then sink money into it with rehabbing it and charge the higher rents? Because if you were to rehab it right off the bat you would have to put additional money into it and may potentially not get much higher rents due to the fact that people with incomes that can afford your property don't want to live in that area yet.

The area I am referring to is in Tampa, Fl. I am sure this happens in many markets and yes there is some speculation involved with whether or not an area will improve enough to make this worth while, but if you buy the property at a decent price, then you could potentially still be covered if the area never does in fact improve.

Thanks for any input.

[Michael Hayworth]

I do this all the time.

I'm not a long term buy & hold guy. I don't typically want more than 20 properties in my portfolio. Anything I buy, I know I will keep it at least a year, in order to get long-term capital gains taxes, but the endgame is to sell it, not keep it forever. I actively look at areas that I think have significant appreciation capability and buy there. 

Of course, you don't hit on all these, and it really depends on your market, but I scatter them out around areas I think will appreciate. It only takes a couple of home runs to make the whole portfolio look great. 

Right now, I'm about to sell one I bought for $55 and put $15 into it. It was worth ~$95 when I finished, so I could've taken a quick $20K or so profit after sales costs. Today, 3 years later, it's worth $150 and I'm about to sell it. I have two others in the same neighborhood I'll hold onto for awhile longer.

Another one I bought last year is almost done with reno. I'll have $140 in it and could sell it for $240 right away, but the neighborhood is really starting to move, so hopefully in a couple years it'll be worth an extra $100K.

I've got a couple others that I just did a light renovation on to rental standards and if the neighborhood really takes off, I'll redo them to high end "buyer" standards.

You've got a good thought. Good luck with it.