THinking of getting into low income rentals

[Douglas Graham]

I was looking the other day at house prices in crumier Baltimore neighborhoods (no, not ALL of them are crummy, but many are). I see houses that are selling for about $40-50K that are appear fairly decent and seem (from the photos) habitable. I also looked at Zillow, which indicated that rents are at $800 or so. So if I were to finance the purchase of one of these, i would have a monthly mortgage of about $300 (roughly) and a rent that would bring in approx $800, providing a positive cash flow of $500. That certainly sounds attractive. But I know there has to be more to it than this. Does anyone here have any experience in renting in that sort of a market. I own three houses, but those were places I lived in, and then moved away, and kept. But those are in decent neighborhoods. Any advice you have for me would be very welcome.

[Mohamad Ajaj]

Doug if you were to get into low income the only way is to do it through section 8 housing. I own 5 houses that I rent to section 8 tenants and they are averaging around $900-$1,000 a month. I love it and I would only rent out this way. 80-90% of the monthly rent is paid by section 8 and the rest the tenant pays depending in their financial situation.