Updated over 4 years ago on . Most recent reply
Homicide house
Hello All!
I'm a new RE investor and have been lurking around BP for quite some time now. So here's my story... After some research on a neighborhood, on the internet and physically driving around the entire neighborhood and talking to some locals- I finally decided that I would like to invest in a rental property in the neighborhood. I've looked at over 5 properties with my realtor and this one property in particular caught my attention. It has been on the market for a while >1yr and 3 years ago there was a homicide in the property. An elderly lady in her late 70's early 80's was stabbed 3 times, strangled and beaten to death. The police caught the suspect and is now spending life in prison. Overall, based on city-data the neighborhood is fairly decent with low-average crime rate. I'm thinking of possibly renting the property to section 8 tenants. The reason why i'm so interested in the property is because its being offered at over 50% less than market value and other than cosmetic repairs (cleaning, new carpets and paint) this property is ready to be rented with under 2K in rehab cost.
Ok BP community, what do you guys think? Will the history of this property deter tenants from renting the property or it doesn't really matter? Thoughts please!!
-Sam
Most Popular Reply
If you think about it, pretty much every property where a violent crime was committed goes on to become someone's home. There are a few exceptions, like the house in Cleveland where 3 women were held for 10 years, which was demoed. But for the most part, the stigma goes away with time. And rationality. Even if your tenant pool is reduced by 50%, the discount is too good to pass up IMO.