What to look for in Norfolk, Virginia?
Hello BP, in a few days I am helping my old landlord (and now best friend) drive his possessions from Colorado to Norfolk, VA. He has retired this year, and in effort to provide housing to underprivileged students is relocating to Virginia. He has done such for nearly 20 years in Colorado, although the expensive market really limits his potential to do so. A 3/2 home in his neck of the woods in CO. is around 400k, where as he just bought a 7/3 fully renovated house in Norfolk for 250k. This has opened my eyes to a market I am able to get my foot in the door on. Where I have extreme difficulty getting approved for anything at all here in Colorado, in Norfolk I can use my savings for a 20% down payment on between 2 and 4 units.
I understand Norfolk has a few quirks, such as flood zones, historic districts, and crime rates that really fluctuate from one street to the next. On our 3 day drive there, I would like to research these and any other issues that are brought up to me before arrival (if you guys have any other suggestions to consider). Then, considering my budget of 60k for down payments (split between me and my girlfriend), and another 20k cash for any immediate repairs or emergency house related costs, I could use some insight on what types of properties I should consider.
My girlfriend wants one move in ready property for us to stay in before anything else. The rental unit/building comes after that.
Currently after a week of scouting the property websites like zillow, realtor, and trulia, we have found that in the lowest crime zones we expect to find a fully renovated 2/1 or 3/1 single family home for 135k, and we also found that in the 150k range some move in ready duplexes exist. We also found a duplex with a top floor partially renovated and move in ready, that contained a downstairs unit that needs a full cosmetic touch up, but should be move in ready in maybe 2 weeks time.
I intend to visually inspect the neighborhoods and do several walkthroughs with an agent while down there next week. If the community checks out, my girlfriend and I will be relocating to Norfolk in pursuit of investing, supplemented by our full time jobs.
We are curious to know if there are any other things unique to Norfolk/Virginia beach that we should consider. We also would like to know more about specific neighborhoods, and what to expect in them. Lastly we would like any advice on how best to allocate our 80k total real estate cash budget, or confirmation that what we found (one full renovated single family for us, and a duplex with one unit move in ready) is a good idea. If not please explain.
Thankyou all!