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Thomas Long
  • Columbia, TN
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Effecting a neighborhood through flips?

Thomas Long
  • Columbia, TN
Posted Jul 26 2018, 12:02

Hey all,

My family and I live in an area that's not too crazy big, it's about 45 minutes outside of Nashville, but it's very established and has homes ranging from ~$25k up to ~$400k, most of which are rather old, 1950's and older. It's very much an up and coming area; a lot of young movers and shakers are coming in and setting up shop in its rustic charm, investing in the local businesses and culture, and it seems like the local government is riding that wave, investing in public areas and roads. Crime websites say it's a somewhat higher crime city, but it's nothing we've directly experienced, just part of living with other people, and we feel quite safe there.

My question is about some of the neighborhoods in our area. Ours is quite sought after, people are sucking available houses up left and right. But there are communities similar to ours that, while safe enough, just seem tired. The houses are fine, they're going for around $70k or so, but none of them are really being poured into so there are few available comps. What examples there are primarily were just repainted, maybe new gutters, and that's about it. While we're definitely new at this, I'm not sure we're interested in pouring sweat equity (why isn't it called swequity?) into an area if it's going to be a rocky, bloody uphill climb the whole way. So there is potential in those places I'm sure, but I'm curious what effect you think a single flipper could have on a community? It seems like no one is willing to pay more for these properties because the neighborhood is tired and worn down, like ours used to be, and because no one is willing to pay more, no one is willing to invest. It's a weird cycle... But I know that fortune favors the bold, so I was looking for some thoughts on this cycle. I could be foolish in looking at things this way, but I figured I'd ask. 

So my concise question- What do you do when there is an area that has potential but the ball hasn't started rolling there yet?

Thank you all!

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