What are some of the most hot spots to invest in, within the Milwaukee area?

Latesha, that's a very broad question. I have a few thoughts on that.

"Hot" depends who you ask. Fringe neighborhoods are always hot for wholesalers, Third Ward is hot for developers, Whitefish Bay for many of my residential clients (and flippers) and Menomonee Falls is hot for builders.

For buy and hold investors I always ask them about their target audience. Every marketer in consumer goods will start with the question - who is the target audience? Single mom's, males between 30 and 40, young families etc..

Most investors will start with a neighborhood, or even worse with a property. Then the product (the house) will define the costumer (tenant). So the most important top level decision is made by default, one could say by accident.

Once you know who your target audience is - young families with kids in school age - you can start looking for a neighborhood that is "hot" for that type of investment.

On the flip side I don't know what areas are not hot at the moment, we are generally very short on inventory. Normally we like to see 6 months worth of inventory for sale, in December we had 3.2 and now we are down to just over 2 months. In other words if it is a good deal, it will sell in days. In that respect everything is hot now.

As far as what is beeing discussed a lot is River West and Harambee, Walkers Point, also Washington Hights - but that is also because investors love the idea of a turn arround story - a cheap neighborhood and a (potentially) golden future.  

Hello Marcus good to here from you and thanks for responding. Also, thanks for the information. This is a great help.

@Marcus Auerbach great reply. This helped me as well

Thanks for the info Marcus! I think your marketing angle on this question is good to consider. I'd say that before an investor decides on a target audience, the investor should know or decide his or her goals. That will help narrow down the target audience. Some investors seem to chase hot neighborhoods without having answers to these kinds of questions first.

@Jeff Kelly - yes you are right on. I usually spend the first hour with new clients to discuss these questions and help them to uncover and refine their goals. Knowing where you want to go usually helps getting there quicker.

@Marcus Auerbach your insight to the local market in Milwaukee is second to none.  Keep pushing the culture forward my friend.  

I agree with the above posts and to add on what Marcus Auerbach said - what experiance do you have in managing a property or tenants? There are areas that you will place tenants and not hear from them for months who pay on time ( the dream tenants) or those who you have to chase to pay and potentially evict. Some properties due to their location are going to require you to put more time and effort. They will be less expensive, rent will be lower but the tenants may be a problem. If you are connected with a good management company that would not leave your rental empty for months and not afraid of evictions than any part of town would work for you.

Thanks Mia for that info.