new member, southwest Virginia

[Craig McNally]

Hello, I'm looking to connect with people around the NRV southwest Virginia area for advice.  My wife and I have rented out a 2 bedroom home near Radford University for the past 8 years and are looking to buy another property in the area.  Both of us work at Virginia Tech.  While there is a lot of growth happening around Blacksburg/Christiansburg, we're a bit uncertain of the areas outside that.  I'm curious what people here think about the potential for real estate in the areas of the NRV and Roanoke.

[Matt Castle]

Craig, 

As a Hokie alum from the 90s, the growth around Bburg/Cburg has been extraordinary. Last time I was there, I met several Class A & Class B 100+ unit managers and they were very positive on the market but their one concern was market saturation. 

As a small scale investor, I would argue the safest bet for the Mom & Pop investors like us is the standard single family rental property. The 3BR/2BA 1500sqft starter homes would be perfect investments b/c both young and old college educated professional families generally want to avoid apartment complexes in my experience. Nothing wrong with them, but they don't like to share their walls with others. 

I don't follow NRV & Roanoke as much as I used to, but Bburg/Cburg has an urban sprawl situation happening, so anything along the commuting corridors into VT would be a good starting point.